How to manage stress and overcome problems in Life - 5 Tips

How to manage stress and overcome problems in Life - 5 Tips

What is the most suitable approach to overcome difficulties and manage stress, and what should we do when problems seem to attack us from all sides? 

As an individual, we will always face problems and stress in life, that is one inevitable part of our life that no matter what we can't escape from. So, what do we do? We can't just sulk about it and expect problems to vanish on their own. That only happens in the cinema. Rather, we take a stand and crush those problems and have a positive attitude while facing them. That is one fundamental which sets successful people apart from the rest, their ability and techniques to face problems. Let's just dive into it. 

1. Expect problems to happen.

If you have a job the only way you can justify the job is that you are solving the problems that are emerging. So expect problems! When parents have children, they believe that their children will grow up to be the most obedient, the most dedicated, and loyal. If that doesn't follow, they become upset. Why did you have assumed expectations? 

Always be willing to take in difficulties and have a mindset of facing and surmounting them rather than succumb to those situations. That's how you manage stress and not fall prey to them. Expect the unexpected and you shall never be broken.

 2. Anticipate problems and be ready.

In other words, if you are going uphill, you simply anticipate that the journey will be tough. Similarly, if you take up a project, anticipate there will be obstacles that will arise. One boy texted his mom from school. "Mommy, I failed in Algebra, please prepare dad." His mother reverted, "Dad is prepared, you prepare yourself." That is the anticipation of the problem. The child never saw it coming. Be ready for anything that's gonna fall onto you. Anticipate, and Prepare.

 3. Face the problem.

Don't block your eyes and say the problem does not exist. There was a very famous commercial that appeared on American television many years ago of the Elephant in the room. The TV commercial showed a typical American household with an Elephant in the home. Everybody was going regularly about their works as if the Elephants did not exist, even though it was there whole the time.

Now the problem was there but people were refusing to recognize it as such that it does not exist. It's always beneficial and courageous to face the problem rather than living in denial about it. When you face the problem, you realize that the problem wasn't that big ever. It's only big until we face it. You find ways on its own when you decide to face the problem. Facing the problem gives you the power over the problem since you analyze how big or small the problem is. Hence, you can manage stress easily when you look at it in the eye.

4. Keep a proper perspective towards it.

In other words, think of people who have bigger dilemmas and hardships in life. This one time this person I knew came up to me and said, "Listen, I am so upset, three days ago this person said something bad to me." I simply asked, is it the end of the world? Just imagine, if we were born several decades ago and were competing in the second world war, what a problem we would have had to face, wouldn't that be a bigger problem of what you're crying about right now. 

There are always people who have had a more tough life than you and are dreaming about the things that you have at the moment. Just consider how bad things could have been. So, put the problem in its proper perspective.

     

One girl left home to go to college. For the first time, she had moved into a dormitory and after three months she wrote her first letter to her mother. She said, "Mommy I need to admit one thing, right after one month I reached the dormitory I made a serious mistake. I stole $50 from my neighbor's cabinet and with that, I hired a motorcycle. Unfortunately, I happen to had an accident. I rode it to a lamp-post and fractured my thigh bone, but mommy there was nothing to worry about as a handsome doctor who lives down the lane took me into his house to medicate me. To your surprise, mommy we have fallen in love. We have decided to get married and I need to tell you that in the process of nursing me my husband-to-be has dropped his job. So, after marriage, we both are planning to come and stay with you and dad. I am sure you will appreciate his company even though he belongs to a different religious tradition, I know you would understand since its for the sake of your daughter's happiness." Now the mother reading this note, her hair started standing on end, she was frightened. Oh God! What has happened to my darling daughter? However, the daughter settled the letter saying "Really mommy none of this is true. The only thing that has happened is that I have got an "F" in calculus, I wanted you to see it with the proper perspective." 

     

So, always put the problem in its place, contemplate how big or small is the problem, with the right attitude to tackle the problem, there will be no such thing called big problems. What makes a difficulty big or small is the attitude we carry towards them and the perspective we put it into. Learn to analyze the situation. It is not the end of the world.

  5. Learn from it.

To fall in the water is not a problem, but to remain there and do nothing about it is the problem. Likewise, to face challenges and obstacles in life is all right, provided we keep learning, and we keep growing out of them. Gaining experience and lessons from the obstacles faced and employing those lessons learned in the future is how we improve and prosper in life. 

I was once walking down the street, and I saw a neighbor with his ears swollen, walking the other way. I went and asked him "What happened to you? He said, "I was ironing my clothes and the mobile rang, so, unfortunately, I happen to pick up the iron instead of the phone and put it on my ear that's how my ear got swollen." I said, "How come the other ear is also swollen?" He said, "That stupid person rang up once again." That's the moral of the story here. Even after having experienced the same lesson which he learned moments before he picked the iron again, he didn't learn from it, he didn't gain anything from the experience. Hence, he fell for the same trap again. Now that is not what should happen with us.

You made a mistake, learn, and move ahead from it. When we do that, we understand that problems are opportunities, and challenges that produce us the environment to grow from inside.