The first tip to cope with stress is understanding it. Stress can often feel like a heavy weight or burden that you must carry around with you. You might feel a deep pain in your chest or head, as well as tense muscles throughout your body. People even become physically ill when they get really stressed. In addition to the physical feelings that stress can bring, it often zaps your energy level and leaves you feeling defeated. When you get stressed out about a situation, you often feel overwhelmed and that you can’t face the situation. While these are the most common ways that stress impacts people, you might be impacted differently. Talk to your medical provider about how stress could be hurting your physical, mental, or emotional health.

Once you learn to identify how stress feels in your life, it’s time to identify the source of that stress. While most people have to deal with stressful situations throughout their entire life, the source of their stress will often change with age. For instance, you might retire from a stressful job only to feel stressed about having to live on a smaller fixed income during retirement. Here are the most common stressful situations that people face in life:

• Bad Work Environment
• Unhealthy Relationships
• Fighting with Friends and Family
• Losing Your Job
• Getting Bad News About Loved Ones
• Receiving a Serious Medical Diagnosis
• Money and Finances
• Grief and Loss

While these are common sources of stress for many people, you might feel stressed for an entirely different reason. Therefore, it’s important that you identify whatever is causing stress in your life.

Finally, while it’s easy to let negative feelings and emotions get the best of you, you don’t have to let it. Once you identify the source of your stress, you must work on reducing it. For instance, if you have a highly stressful job, consider finding a different job that’s less stressful. Even if you have to take a slight pay cut, it could be worth it for your health and well-being. If you are in a toxic relationship, it might be time to call it quits – or at least take a break from each other. Unfortunately, there are stressful situations in life that are completely out of your control. Whenever they arise, it’s important not to let them ruin your happiness. Here are some techniques that can help relieve stress in your life:

• Taking Walks
• Exercising
• Hobbies
• Talking (Venting) to a Friend
• Squeezing a Stress Ball
• Getting a Massage
• Treating Yourself to a Fun Activity
• Yoga
• Meditation

If stress in your life is causing serious mental or physical health problems, then you should seek professional help. Your doctor will be able to recommend more in-depth treatment options. You can also search the Internet for resources on dealing with stress. In short, stress doesn’t have to ruin your quality of life if you understand how to cope with it. Your body will often let you know when you are feeling stressed out about something. For example, migraines, chest pain, and body aches can all be symptoms of stress. Once you recognize those symptoms, it’s time to find out what’s causing stress in your life. Most people can figure that out pretty easily. Lastly, you need to learn to to make stressful situations less stressful, so they don’t hurt your health and well-being.