In recent years stress has emerged as the major reason behind the onset of diseases that pose a threat to human health. Stress management focuses on developing ways to control or reduce stress and its effects. Though management and stress may seem to be two disparate terms, yet it is possible to manage stress through the adoption of certain techniques. In order to devise ways to get rid of stress, it is necessary to identify the factors that lead to stress. The pressures of everyday life tend to take a toll on our well being. The increasing demands of our professional and personal life increase the stress levels. An accidental occurrence can shoot up the stress levels in a jiffy.

There are several institutions that offer stress management training. Such programs also form a part of corporate houses as they want to minimize the stress of their employees. Stress tends to hamper the productivity levels and therefore it is necessary to adopt ways to cope with it. It may apparently seem that you cannot do anything about dealing with stress but on the contrary, it is you who can keep a control on the stress levels. For that all you need to do is to balance your time in between your personal and professional lives, take stock of your emotions and try and find out ways to wriggle out of a problem.

Managing stress starts with identifying the factors that cause stress. It is not that easy as it may appear to be. It is difficult to pinpoint one reason that leads to stress. Packed schedules, tight deadlines and immense work pressure may be difficult to deal with and you may be bogged down by these. But many a times it is not the magnanimity of the task itself but its thought that weighs you down. To determine what causes you to lose you sleep, just carefully observe your habits and attitude.

You can devise your stress management techniques on your own, better than anyone else, by monitoring your regular activities. A stress journal comes in handy for this purpose. You can actually tract down what causes the maximum stress in your life or the stressors. You need to keep a tab of what made you feel stressed out, your corresponding physical and mental condition, your response and its effects. People often resort to unhealthy ways of coping up with stress like drinking, smoking and even drug abuse.

Stress management is not about ways to remove the causes of stress but about ways to handle them. It is largely dependant on the way you choose to react to a particular situation. Either you accept it, alter it, avoid it or adapt to it. Since each individual is different from the other, therefore their responses to stress vary. Some are able to steer clear out of a problem, others choose to face and overcome it. The ones who cannot find stress accompanying them throughout their lives.

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• • Association for Insight Meditation