How Well Do You Know Stress?
April is not only for national internship awareness but stress awareness. A month the Stress Management Society has highlighted every year, since 1992, to increase public awareness about both the causes and cures of the modern stress epidemic. And that got us thinking, how much do most of us really know about stress?
We got so curious in 2020 that we decided we’d be your stress awareness hub in April. A safe space where you could safely learn about the four major types of stress, ways to manage each of them, and give you the support system a lot of us were missing during the pandemic. Because, let’s face it, we’ve all felt stress whether it’s been at work, with our finances, with our family, school, or possibly even going after our biggest dreams.
Why would we not take all that information from our Instagram and compose it into one major guide? I mean, we would. In fact, we are. Just keep on reading.
The Four Major Types of Stress & How to Handle Them
Situational Stress
MindTools defines this as “the stress you experience when you’re in a scary situation you have no control.” And we thought, “Oh! Like maybe living in, witnessing, and a lot of us working in a global pandemic that we’ve never experienced before and simultaneously having to come to terms with the fact that we have no idea of what will happen next. Got it, cool.” Yet, situational stress doesn’t choose to show up in emergencies.
Think about making a mistake in front of your entire class or team. Think about moving to a new city, going to a new school, and starting a new grade. It shows up in those moments, too, and can even resemble symptoms close to clinical depression.
But, we’re not trying to give you a case of Sunday Scaries. We want you to be informed and understand your options. You’re allowed to be self-aware and healing and still be loved and resilient. You’re allowed to have duality in who you are and complexity in your emotions. So when it comes to situation stress, the tips we usually give are to let yourself feel whatever you need to, take a few deep breaths, and list the things you’re grateful for in that moment.
Photo courtesy of Prophsee Journals.
Time Stress
We may not even need to explain this to you because you can likely guess. Time stress is feeling like you don’t have enough time. You’re too busy. You need another day in the week. You, in fact, do not have as many hours in a day as Beyoncé as everyone else says; there’s just no way. You may even feel like, at your age, you haven’t achieved anything, and it’s too late for you.
We challenge this thinking and raise this counterpoint: it’s not about time. It’s about priorities and mindset.
You have a neverending to-do list, with age-defined goals at the top, and you sleep most of your day away. You keep scrolling through Reddit, social media, watching YouTube videos, and wondering when it will be your turn or telling yourself that you’re a failure before you’ve even given yourself a true chance. It’s, as cliché as it sounds, time for you to revamp your to-dos by only choosing 3 urgent and important things you want to get done that day. Anything else is a bonus.
If you want more responsibility than that, start using the SMART goals method and let go of the age factor. Deadlines are great, but we know you’ve seen the quote about all the different celebrities and their failures. Oprah Winfrey. Michael Jordan. Steve Jobs. You know, to name a few who failed, who likely felt stress, and still had their own success stories their way.
Photo courtesy of Alex Nemo Hanse.
Anticipatory Stress
This stress may be the most common when you have a long list of things to do, and you’re busy self-caring, vacationing, relaxing, or resting. You realize your thoughts sound a lot like criticisms of how you should be ashamed of yourself for not being on Team #NoSleep or a part of hustle culture that tells you to “rise and grind.” You realize when you’re actually doing something society may deem as productive, anxiety comes creeping in about how there was probably something more important you should be doing or how once you’re done, there’s this other big task.
With this stress of anticipation, you have to challenge it by slowing down. Focus on one thing at a time. If you can’t fathom that, do a big brain dump in a journal or the notes app of your phone, then turn it on airplane mode. Go outside, open a window, give yourself 15 uninterrupted minutes before you tackle anything else. The work will still be there, so permit yourself to unwind.
Photo courtesy of Jeremy Thomas.
Encounter Stress
This is also precisely what it sounds like. The type of stress that shows up when you have to interact with strangers and unpredictable people. This one may be the most common in the last year thanks to the pandemic, but it still happened before that. Think about the party when someone’s parents went out of town or going on your first blind date and having your friends at the ready with an excuse. Or, seeing post after post on Instagram that makes you feel angry, alone, or miserable.
Nowadays, it likely looks more like trying to go to the store and not knowing if people will stand too close or argue with the employees about wearing a mask. This is why we advise when you can try to get certain things delivered instead of going out. With the vaccine rollout process being slow and steady, it’s still best to stay as safe as possible and socially distant. Plus, if it can help keep your stress levels down, that’s great!
Another tip? There’s a lot of joy in missing out sometimes.
For example, not listening to the news or at least not being fixated on it first thing in the morning by giving yourself an hour completely unplugged. Still, go about your regular routine and see if you don’t feel a sense of clarity, peace, and joy. You can also try calling or chatting with friends and family over video instead of scrolling endlessly on social media and binge-watching that show you’ve seen six times.
Photo courtesy of Dusan Jovic.
Again, this blog post isn’t to shame you or scare you. When we know better, we do better.