We’ve experienced a lot of trials around the start of a new year. Two years ago, I discovered the youth pastor was removed. This year, my sister’s dog ran away for 3 days and my dog was injured.
To say that the new year brought a lot of stress would be an understatement. My family was stressed.
I’ll be honest with you. I have two modes: Chill and ready to break. I was ready to break this year.
How To Effectively Deal With Stress
While dealing with the stress of the new year, I realized I knew how to deal with the stress. It wasn’t easy but I began implementing these tactics that lessened the stress in my life.
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Realize there are situations that are out of your hands:
Admitting there are things that are out of your control can be difficult. Yet it is the truth.
Like I couldn’t control where my sister’s dog ran off to or how my dog got hurt, you can’t control everything either. There will be situations that are out of your hands.
You won’t be able to bring in a top performer and need to deal with a B-level player. You had a customer quit on you. Or another business emergency arose.
These things are out of your hands. Realize this truth and move on.
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Do what you can:
While the situation may be out of your hands, you do have control over what you do next.
For me, I began looking around the neighborhood for my sister’s dog. I also did my best to make sure Lok was comfortable while he wasn’t feeling well.
What can you do to help with the situations you are facing? Begin doing what you can do.
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Let God do what only He can do:
You know the situation may be out of your hand. It’s causing you stress. So you do what you can. But what do you do next?
My suggestion would be to go to the One who knows all. Get on your knees or go to your 2 Chairs.
Let God know you’re stressed (yes, He already knows but going to Him with your stress helps). Ask Him for guidance on what to do next. Then take action on what He reveals.
Dealing with stressful situations is never fun. Mostly because we think we can, and should, control everything that is happening in our world.
When we begin to realize there are certain things which are out of control, there are certain things we can do, and there are only things He can do, we can see the stress melt away.
Question: What do you do to effectively deal with stress? Share your story in the comment section below.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.