People who regularly suffer with stress know that any amount of small things can set them off. We commonly associate stress with big life events, such as moving house, bereavement, relationship breakdowns or losing a job, but stress actually thrives when lots of little things niggle away at us. We have created here, a list of some of the most common daily stressors. How many affect you?
You know the feeling. You went to bed late, slept poorly, and the alarm went off early. You feel groggy and ill-tempered and need coffee or energy drinks to get you through the day. You know that there will be payback later for all the caffeine you’ve consumed.
You have a huge list of tasks you have to achieve today. You’re running a house, looking after other people, you have pets, and yet you have to go to work too. All of the errands and chores you have to do, coupled with deadlines you have to meet, will take their toll. No wonder you feel at the end of your tether. You’ll feel better if you can rank your priorities and learn to say no to other people.
There’s nothing worse than the daily commute. It seems that everyone has to be at school, at college or in the office, at exactly the same time, and then everyone leaves for home together as well. Thirty minutes later and you could sail into work feeling calm and fresh.
Wherever you go, you have to queue. You queue to take money out of the cashpoint and queue to spend it. You queue to see a doctor and then queue to pick up your prescription. You queue for a table in the restaurant and then have to wait to be served. You fill in a form and queue up at the post office to send it off, and then it takes 6-8 weeks of waiting to get it processed. You’re always waiting and it drives you crazy.
You give way for drivers on the road and they don’t say thank you. You follow people into buildings but they let the door shut just as you get to it. This can make you stressed. You may deal with the public and find that they purposefully misconstrue what you say or are difficult. You may have a neighbour who objects to your hedge or trees. People can be extremely inconsiderate and rude. This will certainly take its toll on you.
We choose our friends and we put up with our families, but work colleagues can be a species all of their own. You may hate office politics, brown nosing or just the general office gossip. People can be ugly and cruel about each other and this can leave you feeling anxious and stressed.
You drink too much coffee or cola, you smoke, you eat processed foods and you don’t take enough exercise. Maintaining these habits is costly, both financially, and to your long term health. The cleaner your body is, the more devoid of toxins, the better able you will be to cope with stress.
The frustration of constantly misplacing your keys, purse or phone can be unbearable. Try and remember to always put things in their official ‘home’.
Most of us are happy with day to day noise, but there can be times when excessive noise can really stress you out. Lots of people talking at once, excessive traffic noise, construction site noise – all of these can cause you a general annoyance and add to your daily stress.
If you’re an easy going person you will hate conflict of any kind. Even a small run in with an impatient driver will make you feel bad, so an argument or disagreement of any kind, will leave you feeling very stressed and unhappy.
We all face problems every day, but there are certainly times when we let things build up, and stress becomes a factor in how we feel and react to situations. It is important, for our physical and mental health, that as far as possible we deal with stressful situations as they arise.
It is easy to say that you should set lower expectations for yourself, but while you are feeling stressed this is a good idea. Don’t try to achieve too much all at once. Create a checklist of what needs to be done today. You must get up, get dressed, go to work, eat and sleep. Anything else is a bonus – see it as such and celebrate what you can get done. Try and hold on to your sense of humour – that will help - and reach out for extra support if you need it.
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