Techniques for Coping with Stress

Last week we conducted a virtual stress management training for one of our clients. They wanted us to share some stress management techniques with the participants so that they could manage the current situation better. And trust me, just creating the session added a lot to my understanding!

For all those who know me, you would also know that stress management training is one of my favourites.  Why? Because I’ve probably been an extremely stressed out person all my life and even now tend to go a little crazy at times!!! Phew!!! But its also because of that, that I’ve had the inclination to experiment with different types of stress management techniques and use them in our various stress management workshops.

So, coming back to this workshop. I was making the session around the awareness-acceptance-action model that we use for change. And I was mapping various stress management techniques to each of the three steps. I wanted to be very clear on the awareness and acceptance steps, as to what you have to be aware about and what you have to accept. As that’s where most people get confused. And before I knew it, I had literally opened up pandora’s box and had taken a deep dive to ensure I had completely understood what I was going to explain. Which, by the way, lasted for 5 days with various experiments on myself!

Getting Aware

I realised that there were so many things that one needs to be aware of. Firstly, just the fact that you are stressed! Which is probably the most elusive foe. That’s also the part that most of us never realise and instead continue feeling anxious or worried.

Yet the best part is, if you can’t directly realise it, there are so many ways to do so otherwise. For example, start observing your body. It will give you signs of being stressed. Pay close attention to your self-talk, emotions and how you behave with those around you. They are all laden with clues. And if you want to generally increase your awareness levels, then I recommend mindfulness or any other form of meditation that brings you to the present moment. Mindfulness is my all-time favourite stress management tool and one that I make it a point to include in almost all my other soft and behavioural skills training sessions too!

Accepting what is

And then came my other favourite part acceptance. The one that most people don’t know exists because their emotions land up getting the better of them! This is basically the subconscious resistance we all face to creating any change in our lives. And since it’s at the subconscious level, it stays hidden from our direct view. It’s one big mess of various emotions. Some that resist change, some that let us know how we are no good as we can’t even change and others that are attached to our stress causing beliefs; all rolled into one. Which makes separating and releasing each one extremely difficult.

But thankfully, there are some popular tools that can help. One being mindfulness again, which talks about accepting what we get aware off with compassion. And the other, another powerful stress management technique called the Emotional Freedom Technique. This also helps stay focussed on and accepting emerging emotions. And is also another one of my stress management training favourites!

Taking Action

And last but not the least is the step we all love to jump to first, action. Here we take the required action and also change our perspective and the beliefs that cause us stress. And this we can do successfully by using Positive Affirmations.