Approaches to Stress Management

Individual level planning to manage stress focuses on developing individual behaviour that helps in the elimination of sources of stress. It helps in developing a perspective to view things that enables the person to cope with stress in a more effective manner.

Above all ‘can’ and ‘positive’ attitude matter the most in managing stress. It has been rightly said ‘They can because they think they can’.

Developing a Positive Attitude towards Life:

Adopting a positive attitude towards life goes a long way in dealing with stress. It helps the individual to deal better with the problems of daily life. Positive orientation and attitude towards life bring optimism in responding to the situations and help in overcoming worry and anxiety.

Having a positive attitude helps us in seeing the bright side of life and expecting the best to happen. It is basically a state of mind worth developing as it prepares and enables us to handle, cope with, and manage stress. An individual should learn to enjoy life and recollect happy memories. One should understand that obsession with difficulties or indulging in self-pity does not help.

Physical and Psychological Withdrawal:

Scheduling of activities has another advantage. The worker is able to keep some time away from the workplace to relax and be with oneself. This time may be spent in relaxation, with family and friends, recreational activities, hobbies, travelling, or simply introspecting.

Employees who keep some time aside to physically and psychologically withdraw from work- related responsibilities are able to tackle work with renewed vigour the next day. Annual vacations and weekly offs are ways in which organizations aid the worker in withdrawing from work. Apart from that, many companies organize vacations and picnics exclusively for their staff; not only to reward them for their year round hard work but also to entertain and rejuvenate them.

Developing a Psychological Support System:

It helps in effectively managing stress. Similarly, expanding social support network and finding an emphatic listener to hear and suggest an objective and broader perspective about the problem situation is beneficial. If the issue is work related, then an organizational solution is required to help the individual.

Some of the strategies that the management may consider are scientific and involves improving personnel selection and placement process, training, realistic goal setting, redesigning jobs, increasing employee involvement, improving organizational communication, offering employees vacation allowances, extending sabbaticals, and setting up corporate employee welfare programme departments.

Maintaining Good Physical Health:

Regular physical exercises, such as aerobics, walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, etc., help in dealing with excessive stress. Regular sleep, and timely and healthy eating habits also help the individual to tackle stress better.

Today, yoga is fast gaining popularity not only as a stress reliever, but also as an exercise that can balance the individual’s physical, psychological, and emotional being. These physical exercises help in building heart capacity, lowering the at-rest heart rate, providing mental diversion from work pressure, and offering a means to ‘let off steam’. While exercising, the body releases a hormone known as end morphine that makes one feel good about the self.

Accepting Your Mistakes:

Mistakes are a part of human life and work. In fact an individual’s mistakes are stepping stones to success. An individual can avoid considerable amount of stress by avoiding egoistic behaviour and owning up to errors in actions and decisions, as and when applicable. The world need not be always as the individual expects it to be.

In an organization, employees may clash over technology, skills, methods, and knowledge. Excessive worry or adamant behaviour not only causes stress, but is also viewed by others as immature behaviour. An intelligent employee not only accepts mistakes but is also open and receptive to change.

This attitude is relevant to the top-level management as it is their openness to change that directs the organization towards new avenues. Hopeless cases are rare. One should never lose faith in the possibility of change.

Time Management:

It contributes a great deal in handling stress. The individual should firstly avoid the superhuman urge to do more than what he/she is capable of. They should learn to say ‘no’ to tasks that are beyond their capacities of time and energy.

Scheduling meetings and prioritizing tasks leads to the completion of tasks, both simple and complex, within a given time frame. However, the individual has to be disciplined and needs to stick to the daily, weekly, or monthly agenda so as to achieve the target goals. This not only reduces stress but also ensures that targets are met on time.

Practising Relaxation:

Techniques such as meditation, hypnosis, and bio-feedback reduce tension. As per Forbes and Pekala (1993), the objective of practising relaxation techniques is to feel physically relaxed, somewhat detached from the immediate environment and from body sensation.

Practising transcendental meditation, yoga, ego-void activity an activity without the sense of doership such as voluntary work in an NGO or religious place, having faith in a higher power, reading, and practising spirituality can also reduce stress to considerable levels.