How To Manage Stress

As the global economic downturn continues, worries about finances are sending stress levels into orbit for millions of people. Increased expenditure, difficulties paying the rent, mortgage and household bills, job loss, losing the family home, changes to your standard of living, all of these unpleasant, stress-triggering events arise when the economy struggles and it is so important to know how to manage stress effectively so you can deal with these difficult issues and avoid entering into harrowing episodes of stress and anxiety.

Just as turmoil in the world's markets weakens the entire global economy, stress and anxiety - mental turmoil - weaken your entire body. The costs of stress and anxiety are high. When you're under stress, harmful chemicals are released in to your system - adrenaline and cortisol - and if you remain in a stressed state for prolonged periods, the damage these chemicals inflict on your body is great. Adrenaline and cortisol destroy healthy body cells, causing accelerated aging and reduced life expectancy. The damage also weakens the immune system leaving you at greater risk of other infections and diseases you are normally able to comfortably fight off.

So not only will an economic downturn hit your finances, stress and anxiety will also have an impact on them because you'll need medical care. This will just increase the stress because you'll need to pay for medications or appointments and consultations with health care professionals. And the more stressed about the economy you are, the more you will need medical care, the more it impacts your finances, the more your health suffers and you're now caught in a traumatic, destructive loop. This is why it is so important to know how to manage stress.

One of the very best ways to manage stress during an economic downturn is the ability to avoid assigning single, absolute, and catastrophic meanings. For example, you constantly worry about what's going to happen, that you're going to lose your job, that you'll not be able to pay bills or service your debts and this will cause you to then lose everything else you have - home, relationship, savings, pension etc. When I endured 5 years of anxiety, this is exactly how I assigned a meaning to my situation. And that's another cost because I look at those years as lost years that I can never have back. Stress and anxiety rob you of precious, non-renewable life-time which is far more precious than money can ever be.

Here’s how to manage stress effectively by using a simple, effective way to avoid assigning absolute, worst-outcome meanings: reduce your exposure to the media. The media love to sensationalise and alarm, and they'll use highly-emotive, catastrophic phrases like "Mother of All Depressions", "Global Economic Meltdown Worsening", "No End To Economic Disaster", loaded phrases exploiting the normal concerns most people have. If you're reading these everyday it's no wonder that your stress-levels are going to soar!

What's happening with the global economy will happen without you reading these sensationalised media stories. You'll keep stress in check if you avoid worrying about or blaming yourself for things beyond your control. Many things in life happen that you simply cannot do anything about, things you didn't cause and things that you cannot solve. Accept that what is going on right now is not of your doing and that you cannot put it right. Those who are responsible for the current global economic situation (see what I mean about assigning less emotive meanings?) are the only ones who can put it right, indeed who can implement solutions to it.

Not worrying about things beyond your control, reducing exposure to the media and not assigning single and absolute meanings to events means you will know how to manage stress at any time but they will be very helpful during the current economic situation for sure.