The 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Trying to Manage Stress
Mistake #1 – If I have a holiday I’ll get it under control
Taking a holiday and escaping the “real world” can certainly relieve stress and burnout temporarily. It will give your mind and body time to heal, do something different and not be lumbered with the usual worries and challenges. However, towards the end of the holiday you may get that dread. The tightening in your stomach, hips or shoulders, even the pressure in your head and your mood dropping, knowing that you’re about to dive back into the same situation you were trying to escape. If the stress of normal life is acute, you can spend your whole holiday dreading your return and the holiday recuperation time is wasted.
I highly recommend holidays (I like them too!) but you can’t necessarily take them all year round. In fact, when you need them most, it’s likely you can’t have one at all.
However, by learning how to manage stress on the job, in the middle of the chaos on a daily basis, you can leave work and head home each day with some energy left for life outside work and you’ll need your holidays less.
Mistake #2 – Pills and drugs will solve it for me
If you head to your local medical professional or drug store, chances are most of them will recommend a drug, vitamin or some other form of medication to help with stress. I myself have found for my body type that Vitamin B and Magnesium can give a little relief when I’m really stressed. (This isn’t advice, of course, just what I do personally.)
However, pills and drugs are not what I want to be reliant on every day. That’s not the way I want to live. I have no idea what side effects may hit me in the future if I take even what appears to be the most harmless of drugs or vitamins.
Once you hit heavier drugs which protect you from your lowest moods, you’re losing all the good parts in life as well. The laughing till you cry, the moments of pure bliss, love and appreciation for what you have around you. What is life without those high moments? Doesn’t sound like much fun to me.
By learning how to recognise stress as it starts to arise and manage it on a regular basis you’ll have more opportunities to experience those high moments and less likely to allow stress to drag you into the depths of despair and indecision.
Mistake #3 – It’s other people around me that cause my Stress
It’s so easy to pass the blame onto other people. Your boss, your co-workers, your spouse, your kids, your housemates, your neighbor. Every one around you seems to be fighting for power. Fighting for their rights. Fighting to stand on your head to get what THEY want at your expense. Is every one in the world treated this way though? No. Not everyone. Can you avoid being treated this way if you have money, power or prestige? Actually, no.
So what is the common factor between all these people mulling around? It’s you. It’s how you think, behave and the vibe you put out there which we now understand makes all the difference to how you are treated by people – even strangers – around you and what situations you get yourself into.
What if you could find a new way of living that bends the way people treat you? What if you could learn how to see this mistreatment in a way that doesn’t put you under stress? This course offers you a powerful way to change how others treat you and to help you cope better with their bad behavior. Past students have said this lesson in itself was worth the price of the course.
Mistake #4 – I only affect others around me if I yell at them
When you’re stressed your body gets tense as it goes into Fight or Flight mode. Your patience shortens, your temper shortens and your decisions are hasty. We all know how bursting out and yelling something rude feels like it can’t be helped. We also know it makes those around us either shrink away or yell back if they are stressed too. It plays havoc in our relationships with our workmates, our friends and family adding strain which then requires extra attention to mend.
If you don’t have the patience to mend it you can find the one’s you could really do with some support from abandoning you when you need them the most.
This isn’t the only way you affect others though. Your hasty decisions can be unwise leaving you making mistakes and causing damage. More accidents happen, possessions are not cared for, the stress can make you physically ill so you can’t keep your promises to be there when you say you will.
The implications are high and you’ll really only truly understand what a profound difference good stress and burnout management can make in your life once you start to live it .
Mistake #5 – I’m tough, I can handle it!
This, I think, was my biggest mistake. I was brought up by a hard driven, over achieving father and I wanted to be just like him. He achieved so much in his life and behaving like an autocrat had all and sundry ducking for cover, running to wherever he wanted them to go.
Only problem was after a while, these people started to feel resentment towards him. Yes, he got great things done, even to their benefit, but they didn’t like being treated that way. Don’t we live in a democracy? Aren’t all our feelings important?
If he heard that complaint he would laugh but, in truth, it affected those people till they started to push back. It affected his body and mind as well putting it under tremendous stress and strain till he didn’t want to play anymore.
I didn’t recognise that at the time. I was a teenager newly out of school and wanting to rule the world like he did. Consequently I drove myself hard. Good enough was not enough. Completed something? No time for celebration just get on with the next thing. People started to push back at me too. I couldn’t understand it. Why did they call me a bitch? I’m just trying to do my best.
So stress and adrenalin became a mainstay for me. My metabolism was high – you could count all my ribs yet I ate like a horse. I was a light sleeper. I talked so fast people accused me of being on Speed. I was tough in ignoring those who gave me a hard time, yet it ate away at me. Ate away at my very soul. This was no way to live!
Striving towards goals and being ambitious has it’s place, of course. But there has to be a balance. You can’t be tough all the time. It has long term consequences for your mind, your physical health, your relationships, your ability to cope under pressure, your enjoyment of life. Surely enjoying life has got to be a part of why we are here? Enjoyment has got to be more important than money, power, fame… There are plenty I know who have all that stuff and are not enjoying themselves!
This is why I turned my study to Stress and Burnout. Life without any stress is boring as a fart. But having enough happening in your life and being able to manage your stress is a priceless skill. One that’s not only a benefit for you but benefits every person who comes into your sphere of influence every moment of the day.
Let me help you learn how to REALLY manage stress. You can get immediate relief from these lessons and you can use them for the rest of your life.
I’d love to see you no longer reliant on a masseuse, a doctor, a naturopath, a meditation tape, anyone or anything else. I’d love to see you coping well on your own and truly enjoying every day.
Come check out the next video and then I’ll show you what’s in the Kitegirl Stress Relief course that’s going to make a difference for you.
If you’re interested in your whole office or workplace benefitting from the course, contact our office as we have bulk discounts available.