Responding to life stress

One of the first steps to coping with stress is learning to recognise your personal signs and symptoms. The way you function on a daily basis may change, or you may notice a difference in your body (such as tense shoulders), thinking, or general sense of wellbeing. Is the cause for your stress a real threat? Or is something causing needless worry in your life?

Approaching stress constructively

By removing yourself from the situation, it's possible to find immediate relief - but these sources of stress will never go away unless we confront them. Being haunted by these stress situations means that we can't relax in case the sources of stress return, which it usually does.

If avoiding stress triggers isn't such a good technique of dealing with stress, what is? Life experience teaches us that whenever we need to master a new skill - learning to swim, giving a public presentation, taking risks in front of others - it pays to take a deep breath, perhaps grit our teeth, and get on with things. Most of the time, it all works out.

Positive confrontation is a good coping skill when faced with stress. Instead of avoiding a difficult boss, why not take every opportunity to work in his or her presence? Throwing ourselves in the deep end until we master it is one way to desensitise ourselves to the people, places and work we find stressful. Taking action is good for our self-esteem too.

Another approach to tackling stress head-on is to keep tabs on our stress while we're working. Logging the time of day, situation, how strong the feelings of stress were, how you coped, and how stressed you felt afterwards can be a useful tool for some people. This can give us an accurate idea of when and where we get anxious, and what coping skills work for us in certain situations.

Enduring, mastering (and surviving!) what life throws at us and converting stress into a positive force, is a lifelong challenge. Everyone needs a certain amount of stress to live well, sometimes it's what gets us out of bed in the morning. Remember to be gentle with yourself.

A few types of therapy

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese treatment that takes a holistic approach to a wide range of emotional and physical problems. Very fine needles are used to puncture the skin and restore the balance of energy. Acupuncture is increasingly used for drug and alcohol dependency.

Alexander technique - this teaches that improved posture restores harmony between mind and body and promotes well-being.

Art therapy, dance therapy, drama therapy and music therapy encourage you to express your emotions, understand your feelings, build self-confidence and explore ways of dealing with situations and relationships.

Assertiveness training helps people learn to express emotions, say no to others and set clear boundaries in relationships. It's useful for improving self-esteem.

Crystal Healing uses the intensely structured energy of crystals and minerals to re-establish or amplify healthy energetic frequencies in the body. This is done primarily by the principle of resonance.

Hypnotherapy is used to tackle addictions and a range of physical and emotional problems. You're guided into a deep but still conscious state of relaxation, in which the mind becomes more open to suggestion and memories may be clearer.

Massage helps to relieve stress and tension by stimulating the flow of blood and helping muscles to relax. It can increase wellbeing and self-esteem and help release blocked emotions. Combined with aromatherapy, useful for resolving emotional problems, carefully chosen essential oils from plants and trees are diluted and massaged into the skin.                                                                    

Reflexology is a system of foot massage used to relieve tension and treat illness.

T'ai chi - described as meditation on the move, this uses constant, flowing body movements to promote the health of mind and body. It helps to deepen breathing and improve concentration, and is useful for stress-related problems.

Yoga and Meditation - this focuses on postures, movements, relaxation, breathing exercises and focusing the mind. The more in-depth types have a more spiritual emphasis, which in itself can provide effective stress relief methods, but perhaps more importantly, can give one a higher perspective. You can learn yoga from books but it's best to practise with a qualified teacher. Bhagavad-Gita is one of the oldest and most widely read spiritual yoga books. Bhagavad-Gita As It Is by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, is accepted by both scholastic and spiritual circles as the most faithful English translation.