How to Cope with Stress: 9 Practical Tips

Feeling stressed is a universal human experience. Chances are, you’re experiencing stress in your life right now. It’s so common that it would be surprising if you don’t have any sources of stress. The Cleveland Clinic defines stress as “the body’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response. The body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses.” Since a baseline amount of stress is normal, sometimes we don’t recognize whether our response to stress is helping or hurting us until we’re feeling overwhelmed. In this article, we’ll discuss some practical tips for how to cope with stress.

Is Stress a Bad Thing?

What about stress makes it bad for you? All of us need a baseline of stress as we’re growing up, to develop coping skills. A little stress stretches us and increases our capacity to deal with difficulty and hardship but there is a tipping point when it starts to have harmful effects on our health, or when we’re struggling to manage it effectively.

A child who grows up completely insulated from outside stressors will not develop the skills to cope with negative emotions and stressful experiences. Because change and challenges are a natural part of life, we all can benefit from developing a greater capacity for stress management.

But stress can become pervasive in our lives whether from overwhelming circumstances or a lack of coping skills. When that happens, our health can be affected. When too many stressors present themselves in our lives, and we lack the resources to cope, that’s when stress can begin to take a toll on our physical, mental, and emotional health.

Types of Stress and Responses

According to the Developing Child Center at Harvard, there are three types of stress responses:

• A positive stress response is a normal and healthy part of development. It entails “brief increases in heart rate and mild elevations in hormone levels.”
• A tolerable stress response is a higher response from the body’s alert systems. If it doesn’t go on too long and a child has a healthy support system, they can still adapt.
• “Toxic stress response” is related to “strong, frequent, and/or prolonged adversity… without adequate adult support.”

Toxic stress also affects adults. Whether because the adult experienced an aftereffect from childhood stress or prolonged toxic stress in their current situation, chronic stress can lead to heart problems, inflammation, gastrointestinal problems, and mental and emotional problems.

Different people have different capacities for managing stress. People who have more resilience, and can control their emotions during stress, tend to be less impacted by stress overall. This is known as a stress differential. External support, personal physiology, and a person’s way of looking at the world (i.e. how they find meaning) can all change how one individual copes with stress differently than another.

The great news is that our brains are neuroplastic, which means they can change. You can develop a greater capacity to handle stress, through internal work and increasing your available resources for handling what life throws at you.

Common Stressors

What are the main reasons and sources of stress? According to the Cleveland Clinic, common causes include:

• Money problems,
• Job security issues,
• Health problems,
• And relationship issues.

Women in particular tend to experience stress related to their roles in the family and caregiving. Teens and young adults experience stress in some of the same areas as adults, along with school and social pressures.

How to Cope with Stress: Practical Techniques

What are some of the best evidence-based practices for stress management? According to the American Psychological Association, some of the most adaptive coping methods include:

Eliminating stressors whenever possible or reducing their presence in your life (e.g. asking for help, delegating responsibilities, lowering your standards, etc.).

Cultivating a support system. This means encouraging friendships in your life where the friend is a source of support for you and you are also able to provide support when needed. “Strong social support can improve resilience to stress.”

Eating well. Healthy nutrients and eating lots of fruits and vegetables can help you cultivate good health and reduce your risk of depression and other mental health issues.

Relaxing your muscles. Use progressive or passive muscle relaxation, warm baths, massages, stretching, etc.

Setting the stage for healthy sleep. It’s not always possible to control how much we sleep, but you can avoid caffeine and other stimulants late in the day and try to be physically active, which can improve your sleep quality.

Moving briskly. “Physical activity may also cancel out some of the negative effects of stress, including the impact of stress on the immune system.” Just walk, dance, or do anything else you enjoy.

Refreshing yourself with green space. Just go outside, even if it’s in your backyard. Being in nature is connected to improvements in mood.

Taking time for leisure. Do your favorite hobbies. Don’t cut out your leisure time when you’re overwhelmed.

Reframing your thinking. Individual counseling for stress management may include Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which can help you identify negative thought patterns and replace them with healthier ones.

Sometimes when you’re struggling and feeling overwhelmed, adding in healthy lifestyle practices like eating healthy, exercising, and going to bed on time can feel impossible.

Strive to shift your mindset from deprivation to adding in good habits. For example, rather than feeling limited at meal or snack time, add in two fruits and/or vegetables at every meal, and one at every snack. Instead of feeling like you need to hit the gym or do HIIT workouts, do low-stress workouts like walking, Pilates, or yoga.

If you’re struggling to turn off screens before bed, at least commit to only one screen! Choose a calming show to watch instead of scrolling social media, or read a book using an app or e-reader.

Mindset is a key factor in stress management. Switching from overwhelm to perfectionism will just stress you out even more. Identify the small things you can do and build from there. Or, if you’re too perfectionist already, try lowering your standards just a little. Give yourself productive days interspersed with “bare minimum” days where you can truly unplug and relax.

People with high levels of optimism and resilience of course tend to manage stress better. The good news is that you can improve your optimism and resilience yourself, by identifying negative thinking patterns non-judgmentally and offering yourself alternative solutions and ideas.

You can journal, write down a few things you’re grateful for each day, visualize best-case scenarios, and take other small steps that can improve your mindset. Ask your doctor to check your vitamin D levels if you think that may be a contributing factor.

Counseling for stress management can help you:

1. Identify the thought patterns leading to having a more difficult time managing stress.
2. Offer helpful techniques and coping mechanisms.
3. Understand how to practically implement changes in your life without increasing your stress levels even more.

Benefits of Stress Management

Sometimes we don’t cope with stress well because we’ve developed a sense of learned helplessness when it comes to difficult circumstances. We tend to resign ourselves to our fate or expect the worst – perhaps even subconsciously.

It doesn’t have to be that way! There is hope in Christ for finding meaning and joy throughout the hardships of life. Jesus promised, “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). This verse doesn’t mean that trauma, loss, or other difficulties won’t affect us, but it does mean that we can cling to hope and meaning amid tragedy, loss, uncertainty, and even stress.

There are a variety of positive ways (known as “adaptive” ways) to cope with the various emotional and circumstantial stressors of life, and what’s helpful for one person might not be helpful for another. Individual counseling can help you cope by taking your personality and situation into account while forming a treatment plan and goals that work for you.

If you’re having difficulty coping, please don’t blame yourself! Your body expends energy to deal with change, even positive change. If you experience too much change at one time, your body may have trouble dealing with a chronically elevated stress response:

“Changes are stressful because changes require us to adjust and to adapt. Experiencing too many changes within a brief time period often creates a perception that we are not in control of important events. This perception contributes to low self-esteem and may even contribute to the development of anxiety or depression. In some cases, physical illnesses may develop or be exacerbated when a person’s capacity to adapt to change is overwhelmed by too much change.” (Cleveland Clinic)

It should be encouraging to know that there’s not just one way to cope in a given period of time. You can use the strategies that work best for you and change your approach as you see fit. Most importantly:

“Perhaps the most important strategy is to maintain emotionally supportive relationships with others. A vast field of research demonstrates that emotional support buffers individuals against the negative impact of stress.” (Cleveland Clinic)

Cultivating your personal support system is crucial. Contact our office today to discuss Christian counseling for stress management, individual counseling for mental health issues, or any other type of counseling you’re interested in.

We offer both in-person and virtual sessions. Call us today or reach out via our contact form to schedule your risk-free initial session.