stress management for men

WHY MANAGE STRESS?

Stress management is essential for building mental fitness and improving our well-being.

Experiencing long-term stress impacts our physical and mental health with links to heart disease, high blood pressure, migraines, depression and, in recent years, dementia. To understand how stress affects we need to consider how we feel physically and emotionally and how our behaviour and thinking are changed.

Often, we avoid those things that seem to stress us. Ignoring or avoiding stressful situations may help in the short run, but think about how these approaches can harm our health and our relationships (if we avoid going out answering the telephone) or our finances (if we avoid opening letters from the bank).

WHAT CAUSES STRESS?

Everyone is different, but some situations are likely to increase our experience of long-term stress, sometimes caused by one or two items. Still, it often comes about due to a series of small things that gradually build up. A list of those situations that create stress include:

• Death of family members, friends, colleagues or pets
• Chronic health problems (either our one or looking after a family member)
• Getting married or divorced
• Pregnancy/childbirth
• Work issues: redundancy, promotion, productivity expectations, workplace bullying…
• Financial worries
• Home-related issues: moving home, problems with neighbours and family gatherings such as Christmas, birthdays, etc.
• Performance issues, whether at work or home.

why we should get better at managing stress

Long-term stress impacts our physical and mental health. Stress has been linked to issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure, migraines, depression and, in recent years, dementia.

Often, we will try to avoid those things that seem to stress us. Ignoring or avoiding stressful situations may help in the short run but think about how these approaches can harm our health and our relationships (if we avoid going out or answering the telephone) or our finances (if we avoid opening letters from the bank).

We cannot, nor should; we try to avoid all stress. We need some pressure to help us perform. We should aim to control our stress instead of the stress being in control of us; like most things in life, it is a question of finding the right balance. Understanding our response to stress and finding ways to manage that stress through breathing exercises and mindfulness practices can help us.

Stress management behaviours help us avoid the temptations to distract ourselves.