Now that my life is less busy, it's easier to monitor stress. When I am overly stressed, I turn to a number of specific activities to mitigate that stress. Some of those activities are more positive than others. As I thought about this today, I realized that it's important to monitor stress in order to react to stress with the best possible responses.
What are some of the positive responses to stress?
Figure out what positive activities relax you and help you to destress
It may sound strange, but playing a game of online Scrabble totally relaxes me. I can feel my brain straighten out as I play. Scrabble for me is a de-stressing activity. A loved one who was stressed recently completely relaxed as soon as we took a walk--getting outdoors in nature to walk, bike, or engage in other low stress exercise is also a great way to destress. Listening to music, engaging in artistic activities, cooking, and more all can be de-stressing activities for you. What's important is to identify those activities that work for you when it comes to mitigating stress.
Know what stresses you out
It's important to anticipate big stress. For example, when it comes to creative endeavor, I almost always push myself to a stressful point. I love creative activity and I enjoy trying out the many ways to make a project better or different--I push until I'm at the total exhaustion and stressed point. Knowing this helps me to anticipate the stress that results, and knowing this helps me to plan activities after these stressful, but enjoyable, creative endeavors.
Anticipating stress can help you to plan activities after the stress to calm you down in positive ways.
Knowing and monitoring your stress can help you to live a good life. Onward.