Communicating Your Stress: A Positive And Effective Method
Communicating your stress to others in a positive way is helpful in helping reduce stress. In our society the idea of letting your feelings out or “venting” means you just blast your feelings to everyone in range. That isn’t the most productive way of handling stress. Feelings of anger and frustration may lead to more problems if they are bottled up inside. They can lead to feelings of depression, hostility, and a sense of helplessness. Those feelings may lead to thoughts of suicide or harming others.
Discussing your feelings in a positive way is not venting. Telling co-workers, friends, and family the little details of your personal life is not productive. Therapists are recommending people “talk out” their stress. Venting can turn into boring monologues and drowning in self-pity. The goal is to talk and explain your needs to a trusted person in a one-on-one environment. If you don’t feel you have someone you can talk to in confidence, talk to yourself. No, I don’t mean literally, I’m recommending writing in a journal. You may find yourself writing a story, a poem, and composing a letter to someone you love. You may not mail it, no one else may ever see your journal, and your poetry or stories may not be published, but it will help you look at your stress in a new light. Writing careers have started with the author’s thoughts being written in a journal.
Expressing your stress is only half of the story. You also must learn to listene, empathize, and be able to respond to other’s problems. You need to be a good listener too because some of the answers to your problems may come from anyone in your world. It could be your own still voice that gives you answers in the still of the night. Listening to other people will also help you find answers of your own. Developing strong relationships are important. A good friend is one who can listen to your problems and know you will listen to theirs.
Try to communicate in a positive way. Turn the negatives in your life around and see if you can make something positive from them. Focus on the positive issues in your life. Use visualization to picture the positive results reducing stress. Try to remember another bad situation in your life that seemed negative but ended in a positive way. Most of the time, the event that looks so stressful turns out to be less stressful than expected.
Communicate with people and find humor in stressful situations. The Bible says that laughter is good medicine and it is a great way of coping with stress. Stress management experts say laughter releases the tension of pent-up emotions and helps us keep our perspective. Laughter also seems to have physical effects that bring down stress hormone levels. Many find laughter lightens up a tragic situation and you may hear sounds of laughter at funerals and wakes. Laughter often helps you deal with emotional pain.
