Your best defenses against stress

Here’s how to do it

1. Get to know your stress response

We all respond to stress in different ways, particularly that long-term festering stress associated with worry. Pay attention to how stress affects you. Maybe it’s feeling more irritable, maybe it’s a headache or stomach cramps, or maybe it’s feeling sad. 

2. As soon as you notice things heating up, hit pause

When you’re in that moment when you can feel the blood rushing to your head and your thoughts swirling toward a doom-and-gloom place, hit pause. Most of the stressors we encounter in our everyday lives (that bill, that newscast, โปรโมชั่น ufabet that argument) are not immediate threats to our safety, Seide said. Reminding yourself that you are safe can help get back to that baseline, non-alarmed state, and deal with whatever the problem is from a calmer starting point.

3. Breathe

It’s been said over and over again because it works. Taking a deep breath (or a few) is the most immediate way you can start to quiet the alarm bells stress is setting off in your head and body, Gillihan said. Slow, thoughtful breathing signals to the nervous system it can ease up on that stress response, he explained. “Keep it really simple. Breathe in. Breathe out.”

4. Stay objective

Here’s the part where you have to start thinking about whatever set off your stress alarm bell to begin with. Keep your attention on what the problem is and what you’re going to do about it. Don’t let your thoughts run off and panic about how this problem is going to create a dozen other ones

5. Make a plan

If the stressor is not a flat tire and requires a little more thinking to figure out how to address it, make a plan to figure it out. Put some time on your calendar to call the hospital about the bill that came through. Make a plan about when you’ll study for that big exam. Figure out 

When the body registers a situation as stressful, the body prepares for physical danger (the “fight or flight” response). The heart pumps faster to send more blood to your muscles, your pupils dilate so you can see better, and you become hyper-vigilant.