There is an old belief in the Zimbabwean society that small kids or children in general can’t be stressed. they say “une stress yei mwana mudiki so?” I m sure you have heard this from your elders at some point. Let me breakdown stress for you, so that we maybe on the same page.

What is Stress

Any type of change that causes physical, emotional and psychological strain. stress is your body’s response to anything that requires attention or action. verywellmind.com. medicaldictionary defined it as an organism’s total response to environmental demands or pressures.

The key note here is that its the way we respond to different forces and that, makes stress unique to each individual. As it is responsive others have high blood pressure, hypertension, poor judgements, low concentration levels, demotivation, little or too much sleep and even strokes because of stress. A lot happens, its a plethora of bad news.

Stress Management

Now because stress is universal, its impossible to hide from it that’s were stress management comes into play. living a stressful life is risky, but living life with out a stress management strategy is even more riskier. Imagine this you are stressed with some issue and it get hold of you that your behavior changes, you now sleep less, you now isolate yourself and your are even demotivated. The question is, how does all this affect your performance, at work, school and at any given hustle you are up to? it affects you negatively, it even affects your relationship with your family, friends and even your spouse. That’s something you would wish for.

So what do you do? You manage your situation like a boss. There are a lot of stress management tips out there go and check them out, learn more about the art of stress management. As I wrote before our stress experiences differ suggesting that these is no one perfect universal stress management technique out there that you can use. You have to choose based on your experiences. Mind you these don’t make you immune to stress but rather help you manage it better. l would say it makes the stressful moment bearable.

For me, the most important part of handling these stressful moments is identifying and realizing that I m stressed. I don’t have any external indicators but usually I know that I m stressed when it time for bed. When I m stressed I have sleepless nights, others may call it insomnia it still works, but I spend close to 3 or 5 hours lying in bed with out falling asleep. that’s very unusual for me as I really like to sleep a lot. I strongly believe in good sleep, so when this happens I ask myself what is it that is really stressing me this much? it is very important you know that, try and find out exactly what is stressing you.

lets go over some of my go to stress management tips. Researchers have highlighted a lot of stress management tips but these three are what makes up my stress management strategy. I believe there is room for improvement though.

🚫Avoid Stressors

My number one go to stress management tip for stress management is avoid/remove stressors. Of all the stress management tips I have leant about, this made more sense hence it is my number one. I leant this when I was doing final year at University during a NMCS conference. We had this session with Sr Chinyani a catholic nun were she shared a lot about stress management I haven’t given it much thought before till this time, I liked it and it has become the first step of managing stress.

The whole idea here is that remove your stressors. This means that any thing that leads you to stress or leaves you stressed should be avoided at any cost. A lot of things leads to stress from work, family, friends those things have to be avoided/removed.

Back track a little bit, remember I said it is very important to know what leads to stress, here is why, you can not avoid something you don’t know causes you to have stress. So you need be true to yourself when ever you try to figure out the real cause of stress in your life.

🏺Drink Water

My second go to tip for stress management is drinking water, a lot of water. on my stress management strategy I have been using this for a long time now. I leant this when I was preparing for my A Levels back in 2017. little did I now this was going to be one of the best things I do, that I pride myself of. I read about it in a magazine I believe, not sure which one, but the idea was something along drinking a lot of water boosts your brain power and eating nuts as well was on that list too, If I remember well. This hit my curiosity, I tried it and I loved it. Back then it was more of an examination preparation technique that I used, now I use it to manage stress as it is still hinged on the same principles: how can you perform at your best when your body if not operating at its full capacity. I strongly believed that for me do well in any exam I had to be prepared physically (enough rest, proper eating), mentally (no drama, all focus is on the exam) and academically (read, study and fully prepare in terms of the subject content).

There is a lot of research about why water is good for the body, why we should drink certain amounts of water, etc. Here is how I have integrated this into my stress management strategy. The idea here is that for what ever task that you are doing give it your all, do the best you can never compromise and go for a crappy end result. So, this focuses all your effort to the tasks at hand. Question! how can you give it your all when your body is not performing to it full potential.

That’s why I drink a lot of water, the general practice is that, say I want to focus\concentrate on a certain task that demands a lot brain activity like study, write and research I drink close to three glasses of water just to fill my stomach then I begin the task. Obviously, quickly my bladder will be full, I go and empty it (call of nature), as I come from the loo I drink another glass of water, then when my bladder is full again I go to empty it and take another glass of water repeating the cycle until I finish what ever I m doing. Funny fact, I have noticed that it at this rate usually it takes around 30 mins for my bladder to be full, making this a very unique Pomodoro technique. I was using the Pomodoro technique unknowingly.

I m trying to make it a habit of drinking water, so on some days I don’t take those three glasses at the start of the task but, rather I try to have them during the course of the task. I have noticed something, I could drink somewhere around 2 liters of water before 12 noon I take three glasses of water at one go this makes drinking water later in the afternoon less fun or less satisfying.

🤸‍♂️Exercise

My third go to stress management technique is exercising. Sometime in 2018 that is when I started taking this seriously. That year I was doing my attachment\internship and I would spend a greater part of my day sitting, only walking when going to the bus station and coming back the bus station. So I made it a point to do a ten minute jog everyday before going to work. It boosted my mood, I was enjoying it more, day by day. What I leant from this experience is that exercising daily wouldn’t hate so why not do it. So during my final year at university I used this more as a stress management technique after seeing recommendations and the benefits of exercising.

There is a lot of research out there that proves and recommend exercising as a stress management technique. Here is were it gets complicated, there are a lot of exercise to choose from for example riding, running yoga you name it, all you have to do is subscribe to one and get fit. Yes, some may say, incorporating an exercise program into your daily routine is tough, but take note the 24hr you have in your day 30 mins wouldn’t mean much compared to the long term benefits exercising gives you. Consider it too be an investment. Again this is where you need to be very mindful, you are not trying to win an Olympic gold medal or trying to be the next big athlete no!, the goal here is to improve your body in a way that benefits you the most and better prepare you for stress.

These days I do the ten minutes jogs plus ten push ups in the morning. it’s working for me now, though I know there is room for improvement. What I have tried to do is not to over exercise so that I don’t feel tired in the afternoons. It’s something you have to consider also, maybe you can do your exercises in the evening when you no longer have important tasks so that you don’t get tired in the afternoons, pro tip.

These are my go to techniques, but as I have highlighted there are a ton of techniques out there you can borrow to manage your stress. It’s something I highly recommend you do because strategy and tactics is what makes generals win wars, your strategy to handle stress and manage stress maybe you winning tool you might just need.