1.

Why stress management is important:

Stress is a natural feeling of not being able to cope or meet life demands. It
may be caused by several factors such as; sickness, poor work environment,
punishment, fines, the pressure of juggling work or meeting deadline, family
and other commitments, and so on. It may cause chronic conditions such as
mental health suffering, and even death if not managed in time.
Stress management is a way to relieve the stress and regain control over it.
This helps you to take charge of stress, thereby giving you back a happier,
healthier, balanced and more productive life. It may include setting time to
unwind from busy schedule, or exercising.

How stress affected my life

During my previous job, I worked every day. Being that I was the only person
handing the company’s digital marketing campaign and analytics for all its
seven countries of operations, I worked longer hours, often more than ten
hours a day, seven months a week, with no work leave! I tried raising the issue
to the management but they were hesitant about giving me leave nor adding
me a colleague to assist me. This denied me the social life that I really needed
and caused burnout, thereby leading to stress. I started losing interest in
eating, grew thin, and became sickness more often due to weakened immunity.

2. Stress management techniques that I am going to use, how I can

apply the strategies, and how they will help me manage stress
The first step is to identify the stressors in life, and then using the following
techniques to manage stress
A. Adopt a healthy lifestyle- Adopting a healthy lifestyle increases resistance
level towards stress, thus strengthening the physical and emotional health.
How I can apply these strategies to my life and how the strategy will help
me manage my stress
  Exercising- regular work out in order to relax the body and mind, also
improves your sleep and mood. With this, I will try to ride a bike instead
of driving to the store or my friend’s place.
 Avoiding drugs- self medicating with drugs may provide a short term
escape from stress, but when its effects goes down, more stress may be
experienced leading to a circle of drug intoxications hence addiction. To
avoid this, I will avoid drugs and deal with the problem head on.
 Eating well- regularly eat a well-balanced diet will give me a better and
healthier life, thereby boosting my moods and immunity. I will try to have
a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, vitamins, and healthy proteins instead of
eating unhealthy food such as junk and sugar.
 Getting enough sleep – Sleep enables the mind and body to have
adequate rest, thereby eliminating stress caused by tiredness and lack of
enough sleep. I will sleep well in order to rejuvenate.

B. Altering, adapting, or avoiding unnecessary stressors-

How I can apply these strategies to my life and how the strategy will help
me manage my stress

 Avoiding situations, environments and people that stress you. If

the noisy environment stresses, you can avoid it by living in more
peaceful environment.
 Be willing to compromise- When someone’s behavior is causing
giving me stress, I will try to figure out his or her motivation and
find a solution to it. In a case where I have little control over that, I
will simply ignore because being stressed over it will not be solving
the situation during that time, especially when he or she feels okay
with their actions.

C. Time management- Managing time can help in reducing stress as it allows

tasks to be performed in time, thereby eliminating the deadline pressures. I
will try to prioritize tasks by making a list of tasks that I have to do in order
of priority, with the pleasant once brought forth so that I get over it early.
This will make the rest of my day more pleasant.

How I can apply these strategies to my life and how the strategy will
help me manage my stress
I will also break larger and seemingly overwhelming project or task into
smaller, simpler, and actionable step-by step plan. This will allow me to
take manageable action, one at a time, rather than having everything
clustered together. This will allow me see achievements that I make and
thereby boost my moods and morale. This will also enable me to make time
for fun and relaxation, which are commonly known to boost moods and
reduce stress.