We all deal with some stress in our lives, and whether it stems from school, work, family or friends, it’s there. Sometimes stress is a good thing—in small amounts it can drive you to perform better or motivate you to do your best. However, large amounts of stress aren’t good for your physical or mental health. But why deal with more stress than you have to? Here are 10 stressors that you could be dealing with and ways to eliminate or minimize the stress.
1. School Stress. School is stressful, that’s just a given. But don’t make it harder on yourself. Keep yourself organized so you always know what you need to do and always know where everything you need is. Whether that means keeping your desk super organized or keeping a bullet journal to write everything down in, just make sure your organization system works for you.
2. Personal Appearance Stress. Lots of people stress over how they look, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to look nice. However, stressing over your appearance too much isn’t going to help. So, instead take a look at what about your appearance is causing you stress and think about how you can either fix it or alleviate the worry surrounding it. For example, if you’re worried about your weight, talk to your doctor about what a healthy weight is for you and some healthy strategies to obtain that weight.
3. Social Stress. In a social media-driven world, we all feel some pressure to show everyone the best side of us. But this constant worry about how many followers, likes, reblogs or retweets you’re getting is not good for your mental health. Take a break from social media every once in a while. It doesn’t have to be a long break, but just take some time to not focus on Instagram but instead focus on you and your mental health.
4. Financial Stress. Maybe money problems are causing you to stress out. In that case, look at all your accounts and figure out what you have. Set reminders to pay bills or set up automatic payments and take one more thing off your plate. Create a budget to help you manage your money so you don’t have to worry about it.
5. Relationship Stress. Whether it’s a relationship with a partner or with a friend, they can cause stress sometimes. If you feel a relationship in your life is causing you stress, take a moment to think about why. Then once you’ve figured it out, make an effort to fix it. Maybe that means having a honest conversation with the other person to let them know that the relationship between you isn’t what you want and would like to change it. Because this stressor involves another person, it can be harder to fix. We can only control our actions, not the actions of other people.
6. Stressing About the Past. If a past event is stressing you out, think about it and figure out why. Remember, you can’t change the past but you can change the future. So if something you did is stressing you out, do your best to either make amends with it or fix it in some way. But in the end, remember to keep moving forward.
7. Health Stress. Your physical and mental health can affect how you handle stress in your life. If you feel that you aren’t as healthy as you’d like to be, that could be making your stress worse. Try figuring out what the problem is and then do what you can to fix it. Maybe that comes in the form of talking to your doctor and seeing a therapist or a psychiatrist. There’s nothing wrong with putting your health first. Plus once you’re feeling your best, your body will handle stress better.
8. Work Stress. Whether it’s your job or lack of one that’s stressing you out, you need to address the stress in order to ease it. If something in your job is stressful, talk to your boss and try to make it better. If lack of a job is what’s causing you stress, update your resume or have someone look over it for you before applying for jobs so you can put your best foot forward.
9. Family Stress. Even if they don’t mean to, family members can be a large source of stress for some people. If that’s the case for you, maybe it’s time to sit down with your stress-inducing family members and have an honest conversation with them about whatever is causing you to stress out.
10. Loss Stress. Loss can be a powerful stressor. Whether you lost a relationship, family member or pet, it can cause your body to react negatively. Take a breath and distract your brain so you aren’t so focused on your loss. Always remember to keep moving forward.