How do you deal with stress?

Solitude

Solitude

Mr. Nice Guy
Life is getting increasingly stressful. I'm sure, I'm not the only one. There's just so many responsibilities and it feels like the older one gets the more responsibilities there are.

How do you guys deal with stress?
 
Urbanol and Stressam :p

Sure I have hobbies and activities, but they don't do much for me. Stress has really messed me up physically and now I have to be on meds when things get rough. I'm well on my way for a heart attack :(

I tried meditation but can't really get into it. Thinking of trying the HeartMath stuff. https://www.heartmathsouthafrica.co.za/
 
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Eat well, sleep well and exercise regularly are the easy wins so start there.

You don't really "deal with stress". It's more a case of actively preventing situations that cause stress.

Work
  • Learn to say no beyond your obligations. They're not going to fire you for putting in "only" 8 hours of good work.
  • Actively manage long term stress. e.g. I try to alternate high pressure and lower pressure assignments in 6 monthly cycles
  • Take as much leave as possible even if you feel like you don't need it. I bought additional leave this year...cost a fortune but it's worth it
  • Make a conscious decision as to what the goal is. Workaholic? Bare minimum? Either can be valid, but make it a conscious decision
  • Learn to delegate
  • Remember that there will always be more work - it never ends so don't kill yourself trying to get through it all

Money
  • Run a continuous high cash balance. By that I don't mean "be rich", but rather keep a bit more cash in the bank rather than moving every last cent into investments
  • Avoid impulse buys - they cause cashflow crunches = mega stress
  • Don't let the credit cards get out of hand. If you can't buy it cash then you probably can't afford it. CC is just a tool.
  • Plan for retirement. It might seem a long way off, but it'll cause mega stress later if you don't have a plan
  • Buy nice stuff occasionally - no point in earning money & not enjoying it. Just make sure this doesn't cause more problems - see impulse buy above. So ideally smaller stuff that has a high happiness factor

Lifestyle
  • Declutter your life - you need less sht than you think
  • Look for small things that irritate you & eliminate them. They add up. e.g. Blunt kitchen knives
  • Recognise that +- everything is a trade-off between time, money and ability to accept inconvenience. Evaluate choices in that light - you've got a finite amount of each
 
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HavocXphere said:
Eat well, sleep well and exercise regularly are the easy wins so start there.
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This! I haven't been doing this lately, so ya, thank you for the reminder to get my butt back to healthy living.

Look for small things that irritate you & eliminate them. They add up. e.g. Blunt kitchen knives
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I remember one keyboard I had would intermittently disconnect/reconnect to my PC. One day I snapped, bashed the thing over the corner of my couch repeatedly. Took my stress out on it, and prevented it from causing me any more grief by being 100% not working.

I was still finding keys when I replaced my carpet in that room ^^
 
Im not sure theres a way to deal with stress except for eliminating that which is causing stress.
For me, I just had to get comfortable with saying NO without explanation. It's still hard because you think people will think you are an
asshat, but over subscribing yourself is even harder.......and a much kakker experience.

Accepting the things I could not change was a major turning point in my life as well. Letting go of trying to control everything is very freeing.

*edit
wonderful sound advice from Havoc above by the way!

There's also this quote that I thought was quite wise:

"you can have money or quality of life. Seldom both."

Its not to be taken literally but basically the pursuit of a big payout can severely fuck you up.
 
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i try not to stress about anything, cause at the end of the day your health gets affected, you end up with high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes etc, and everyone else still goes about their merry way.

I just take things as it comes, even at work, I always try to do my best on even the smallest little jobs and if its not good enough (for some individuals) then tough luck, see if you can get someone else that can do it better and who's gonna put the same amount of effort into the task.
 
While it is more for my raging temper, I still think it counts as stress release: A punching bag in my home gym.

Took my frustration out on it this weekend when I messed up a model kit I was working on.
 
murfle said:
While it is more for my raging temper, I still think it counts as stress release: A punching bag in my home gym.

Took my frustration out on it this weekend when I messed up a model kit I was working on.
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yes! feels so good to Hulk out on a punching bag!
 
[MENTION=2498]HavocXphere[/MENTION], now that post is the definition of a thread killing post. We can close the thread down, this is the answer.

Some sound advice that I'll have to make part of my own life, as I tend to struggle with handling stress myself.
 
Glad the post was well received. :)

DieGrootHammer said:
We can close the thread down, this is the answer.
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haha if it was I'd declare myself a guru and charge you 5k for the advice :p

murfle said:
I remember one keyboard I had would intermittently disconnect/reconnect to my PC. One day I snapped, bashed the thing over the corner of my couch repeatedly.
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Yeah. I don't buy high end peripherals, but they do need to work properly. Tech isn't that expensive anymore. Also bough a bunch of stuff for work (laptop stand, kb+ms etc) to improve posture. Worth it over a year or two of use.

murfle said:
Gotta be careful though, I sprained my wrist one time when I flipped out after borking my motherboard...
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Yeah same. Hurts like a mother when the angle is wrong and the force of the punch translates directly into twisting your wrist. :o

Jogging is more my thing lately.

Solitude said:
That's a very good post [MENTION=2498]HavocXphere[/MENTION]. Thanks!
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:) Do give meditation a try too as [MENTION=12388]Ser_Bunnylot[/MENTION] says. The headspace app has good quality guided ones for free (well the first 10 ones are).
 
I had a massive stress problem a while back that ended up as depression. Was given meds and after a month I realised I could end up not getting my gun licence.
So I told my self to harden the f up.
I used the meds and conciously identified my triggers and whilst on urbanol you really don't give a crap so I took advantage and sorted my stresses out on it. Told my colleagues to do their own work, my boss to cool down and some friends to chip in once in a while.
It ruffled some feathers, but three years down the line im super happy.
 
Great post [MENTION=2498]HavocXphere[/MENTION]

The one thing that helped me cut stress was to create a clear ‘cut’ between work and personal life. Work at work, and then stop when you leave.

Also the whole circle of family/friends thing. If something doesn’t affect my close family circle in any way, then I don’t care about it. As has been said in a few posts already, learn to not overextend yourself and not worry about things that don’t actually affect you.

Just my 2c. But great points have already been made.

Great thread. Really enjoying reading it.
 
ENT1TYZA said:
Great post [MENTION=2498]HavocXphere[/MENTION]

The one thing that helped me cut stress was to create a clear ‘cut’ between work and personal life. Work at work, and then stop when you leave.
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Until they decide everyone needs an iphone so that they can be reached 24/7...:o Was glad I postponed that as long as possible. Now it's compulsory though.
 
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