9 tips to manage stress through habits

Stress is a psychological and physiological response that human beings develop naturally in situations of danger or threat, whether real or imagined.

This biological response is totally normal and at the dawn of our species it had a adaptive and survival to which we constantly resorted and that, in many cases, still helps us today; After all, the state of activation to which it induces us better prepares us to react quickly to signs of danger. Nevertheless, nowadays it is easy to internalize behavior patterns that predispose us to stress without doing it in our favor, or even causing us unnecessary discomfort.

In order to manage daily stressful situations, scientific research has allowed psychologists to establish a series of general tips for prevention and management of excess stress, although ultimately it is best to see on a case-by-case basis what works best.

• Related article: "Types of stress and their triggers"

What are the main keys that allow us to manage daily stress?

Below we present the main general tips that can help us manage excess stress properly.

1. Maintain a set of daily healthy habits

Physical health is linked to mental health; If you don't take care of your body, you will be more susceptible to stress because you will notice that everything overwhelms you, that you don't have the energy to face the challenges of everyday life. Therefore, you should incorporate healthy habits into your lifestyle based on eating what you need, getting enough sleep and exercising regularly.

These habits cover all areas of a person's day-to-day life and range from proper nutrition, optimal personal hygiene and a daily practice of exercise to restful sleep habits, that is, sleeping the necessary hours so that the body rest.

Maintaining these types of habits will ensure that both our mind and our body are well cared for and function properly.

• You may be interested: "10 psychologically healthy daily habits, and how to apply them to your life"

2. Promote weekly organization

The people who organize their day to day the most are the ones who tend to have fewer problems of anxiety or daily stress, since they know at all times what responsibilities they must attend to at all times.

Keep an agenda up to date in which we can see all the obligations that we have to Getting busy will help us be more diligent and productive, and help reduce our stress levels. stress.

• Related article: "Time management: 13 tips to take advantage of the hours of the day"

3. Set priorities

Psychology professionals recommend that in order to deal with cases of stress that may appear during the day, we must clearly establish what our priorities are.

This advice is related to the previous one, since It has to do with the way we organize our day to day and it consists of being clear about what things are urgent and must be done immediately and what tasks can wait a little longer to be done.

This will help us to be calmer, knowing at all times what is most urgent and what responsibilities have a lower degree of urgency.

• You may be interested: "The 10 types of values: principles that govern our lives"

4. Promote interpersonal relationships

People who maintain a busy social life are those who generally show lower levels of stress and worry in their daily lives.

That is why we must prioritize those interpersonal relationships with people who fill us with truth, that makes us happy and whose mere presence helps us to recharge our batteries and forget about all our worries for a few hours.

These special people can be relatives, close friends or our partner, the important thing is that is someone with whom we feel comfortable and with whom we can share all kinds of confidences.

• Related article: "What is social psychology?"

5. Dedicate time to exciting projects and hobbies that connect with you

Just as interacting with people we love or who are significant to us will help us reduce stress levels, dedicating some time to activities that generate pleasure and well-being through a system of short, medium and long-term incentives it is also one of the best ways we have to overcome daily stress.

This will help us to experience intrinsic motivation associated with a process of overcoming and constant learning, generating a context that allows us both to release tensions and to reinforce our self esteem.

The point of spending quality time with ourselves is meeting some of our needs and making those activities that make us happy and help us fulfill ourselves as human beings.

Some of these activities can be studying in a self-taught way by reading books, playing sports, dedicating ourselves to artistic activities, etc.

6. carry out new experiences

Living new enriching experiences helps us increase self-esteem, feel better about ourselves and ultimately be happier in life.

These new experiences test our abilities and offer us new knowledge, in addition to serving to divert attention from all those ideas or problems that generate stress daily.

Some of the new experiences that we can incorporate into our daily lives are learning new languages, studying knowledge or skills that may be interesting to us or participation in all kinds of sports competitions that motivate.

7. Learn emotional management techniques

Emotional management techniques are strategies that allow us to minimize the negative effect of emotions that confront us daily and adopt more adaptive ways to live in an environment that can generate stress.

These techniques can be learned and trained relatively easily., and some of the most common are: analyzing the usefulness of thoughts that generate stress, assessing whether we have a model of overly perfectionistic thinking, differentiating the possibility of something from happening and learning to say "no" to certain things.

8. Learn relaxation techniques

Similarly, relaxation techniques help us find states of stillness, tranquility and emotional balance in the day to day, which allows us to overcome those states of excessive stress.

Some of the most common relaxation techniques that we can apply in our daily lives are yoga, meditation, conscious breathing, Mindfulness and progressive muscle relaxation.

• You may be interested: "7 easy relaxation techniques to combat stress"

9. go to therapy

Going to therapy is the best way to learn to manage stress; Therefore, if you notice that this type of discomfort affects you very intensely or you have been suffering from it for months, it is the measure you should take to ensure your mental health. After all, it allows you to have personalized professional support adapted to your needs and way of life.

In addition, a psychologist will also help us treat any other psychological or emotional alteration associated with excess stress or even its cause.

Do you want to have professional psychological assistance?

If you want to go to a psychologist to learn how to manage stress or anxiety, get in touch with our team of professionals.

In Cribecca Psychology We can assist you in person at our center located in Seville, or through online therapy by video call.