Managing stress

5 May 2019

During this part of 2019, my goal is to manage my stress levels. But it’s not what it seems on face value. You see, I’m actually trying to increase the amount of stress I’m under.

Well, kind of. Keep reading to see what I mean.

Humans evolved to deal with short periods of high stress, followed by long periods of low/no stress. We had short periods of very intense activity where we hunted prey or fended off predators, then spent the rest of the day socializing with our friends and relatives. Today, we live in an environment that offers constant exposure to stressors. Traffic, notifications, workloads, bills, news, and other features of modern life expose our bodies to a constant barrage of stressors. We’re learning (or, rather, we have learned), that this makes us sick.

To manage my stress levels I’m trying to do two things: increase the amount of short, but intense, activities I do, and decrease the amount of constant stressors in my life. For the former, I’ve been going to the gym more often and engaging in creative activities, like writing, studying, and photography.

For the latter, I’ve eliminated some extra time commitments, as having to be somewhere at a certain time is definitely a stressor. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself how you feel when you’re running late to an appointment. I’m working on increasing my confidence. This is so that life’s challenges don’t affect me as much. Finally, I’m trying to spend less time surfing the web.

I think these changes will deliver positive benefits to my life. In the coming months I’ll see and evaluate them.