A System To Manage Stress
If you have lived any amount of life then you have certainly met its unavoidable companion: stress. While stress is certainly an undesirable response to life’s many obstacles, in some situations, it can actually be beneficial. Stress can enable short-term enhanced cognitive function, help us build resiliency, and allow us to appreciate the calmer moments of life.
However, chronic stress, especially when prolonged, can wreak havoc with numerous negative effects on our body and mind. In the short term, chronic stress can weaken our immune system, which leaves us more vulnerable to illness. In the long term, chronic stress can directly cause or exacerbate several health issues such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction, mental health disorders, weight gain, and sleep disorders, among others.
Preparation
Grab your favorite notebook, piece of paper, or digital document. I personally use a tool called Obsidian to manage much of my life.
System Steps
1. Self-assessment
Before attempting to better manage stress, it is important to recognize its presence and understand its root causes. Spend 15 minutes thinking about what is causing you stress. Write down the list of causes in your document. It’s important to identify any bad habits that may be contributing to your stress such as drinking, smoking, or regularly eating junk food.
2. Prioritize Sleep
Of all the things that you could possibly do to manage stress, getting adequate sleep is at the very top of the list. If you struggle to prioritize sleep, I found Why We Sleep: Unlocking The Power Of Sleep And Dreams by Dr. Matthew Walker to be a major wake-up call as it shows, with science, that sleep is not just a major pillar of good health, but the bedrock that the other pillars sit on. Without proper sleep, every tactic to manage stress will be practically pointless.
In general, more is better, but most people need 7-9 hours of sleep as a minimum requirement to function optimally. Even better, go to sleep and wake up at roughly the same time every day for the best sleep result.
3. Master Time Management
All too often stress can stem from being overwhelmed with a seemingly endless and infinitely growing to-do list. The strategy that I recommend is implementing a productivity system that uses deep work time blocks. You can read more about this here.
4. Avoid Alcohol
While alcohol might offer some temporary relief from stress, it’s certainly not an effective long-term strategy. Turning to alcohol to manage stress is a quick way to develop dependence or alcohol use disorder. Over the long term, this will be detrimental to your health and ability to manage stress. If you need more convincing, this video by Dr. Andrew Huberman illustrates that even low-to-moderate alcohol consumption negatively impacts the brain and body.
5. Embrace Physical Activity
Rather than escaping into a bottle, escape into the gym, on a road bike, on a run, or while playing your favorite sport. Exercise has the ability to literally reduce your stress response by decreasing cortisol and adrenaline levels while releasing endorphins, which are natural mood elevators. What alcohol can provide you for escape and distraction you can get from exercise with none of the negative consequences along with an enormous list of additional health benefits.
6. Regularly Socialize
Frequently spending time connecting with friends and family is an incredibly powerful and non-obvious way to help manage stress. When we spend time socializing, serotonin is released in the brain and the response is not only that we feel good but that we also feel less stressed. Serotonin is also important for neural repair and reinforcing connections in the brain so it’s fitting that it is released when we connect with each other. If you are interested in learning more about how social connection can help manage stress, this video by Dr. Andrew Huberman goes deeper into the science.
7. Enforce Boundaries
Perhaps the bulk of your stress is caused by demands from your work, either self-imposed or imposed by others. In either case, it is crucial to set boundaries to ensure that you don’t let it consume your every waking hour. It is important to have plenty of time to unplug, pursue hobbies, exercise, and spend time with friends and family. This can be approached by mastering time management, engaging in more self-introspection, or having some candid conversations with whoever is monopolizing your time, depending on your situation.
Final Thoughts
I firmly believe that the path to fulfillment is a long road rife with challenges, but it doesn’t have to come at the cost of our health and well-being. Although it may be difficult, it’s entirely possible to make lifestyle changes that will have a positive impact on your stress levels. Even small steps in the right direction will generally have a big impact.
If managing your stress on your own feels too overwhelming, bring it up with your doctor or a mental health provider as soon as possible. Left unmanaged, stress is a slow and silent killer that can directly cause health problems and make any existing health issues significantly worse.
P.S. I’m currently looking for 2 more businesses to participate in our Slipstream beta program. We will help you identify, document, and systemize your core processes in Slipstream and give you an extended free trial (6 months!). Drop me a message on LinkedIn if you are interested!