How to develop stress resistance: 10 simple tips

The lives of most modern people are filled with stress factors. Literally 40 years ago everything was completely different. People lived not so much carefree, but slowly and measuredly, they always knew what they would do in the evening. Their lives were often planned out years in advance. We live in a very dynamic world, every day we solve complex problems, we strive to find time for work, hobbies, entertainment, self-development and personal life.

To cope with all the tasks at hand, while maintaining physical and mental health, you need to have such an important quality as stress resistance. Today we will analyze in detail what it is, why it can decrease and how you can increase it with simple exercises.

What is stress tolerance?

Stress resistance is a person’s ability to withstand stress and cope with any stress-generating factors, while maintaining calm and the ability to continue their activities at a normal pace. Individuals who have well developed this ability are usually not very emotional and are not prone to impulsive actions. However, this does not mean that “callous” people who do not experience strong emotions are resistant to stress.

Stress resistance makes it possible to remain calm even in critical situations. Thanks to this, a person can act as adequately and effectively as possible, without being distracted by emotions, but doing only what is required to solve the problems that arise. In everyday life, stress-resistant people also have an advantage, since they maintain a stable psycho-emotional state in any circumstances, do not get tired due to continuous stress and do not waste emotional energy.

A psychologist is not scary!

Contrary to popular belief, psychologists are not trying to force you to reveal your most terrible and shameful secrets. They help you find ways to solve problems that are deeply ingrained in your subconscious and give you the right advice. Remember: no one can force you to tell what you yourself do not want to reveal. A psychologist will help you determine why your level of stress resistance does not meet the desired level. Then together you will find a solution to this problem without further traumatizing your psyche.

What does stress resistance consist of?

This is not just a character trait, but a whole complex of personality traits that make it easier for a person to cope with any shocks. Stress-resistant people have the following characteristics:

Ability to forecast. The ability to predict the consequences of one’s actions or external events is one of the most valuable skills of successful people. This skill is also useful for stress resistance. A person, knowing in advance what can happen, is ready for any outcome.

Self-confidence. High self-esteem and self-confidence help you avoid panic and despondency. If a person is not confident in himself, his ability to withstand stress is significantly reduced, and he begins to worry about every little thing.

Past stress. People who have previously faced difficult stressful situations know very well that unnecessary worries do not help cope with problems. And each new difficult situation strengthens their nervous system, making it even less susceptible to stress.

Motivation. If a person has serious motivation, and he is right now moving towards a goal that he considers extremely important for himself, no frustration can unsettle him. When there is no motivation, stress can make a person despondent and stop his progress.

Anyone thinking about how to increase stress resistance should first of all pay attention to the listed points. Having learned to predict the consequences, you can be prepared for most stressful situations. It would be a good idea to work on your self-esteem and motivation. And stressful situations should be perceived as a valuable experience that will allow you to cope with similar challenges much better and more worthily in the future.

Also, stress resistance is greatly influenced by the type of temperament. A cheerful, sanguine person copes best with stress. A calm phlegmatic person is more susceptible to failure, but still controls himself. Choleric people can become very nervous and often act impulsively. But the worst person to cope with stress is the melancholic person, who is sad about every little thing, and any real failure can drive him into depression.

Also, stress resistance depends on a person’s life principles, his ability to independently solve problems and be responsible for his own mistakes. A self-confident, positive person who firmly knows that all his life circumstances are the result of his own actions will, in any case, be much more resistant to stress than someone who believes that his entire life depends solely on luck, circumstances and other people's decisions.

How to reduce stress and take care of yourself

In order not to drive yourself into a stress trap, it is important to know your natural pace and capabilities, your hours of productivity and slump. Don’t forget about breaks in work and relieve stress in time.

Find out more about your features. How often do you need a break, what time do you finish work, what do you need for concentration, how to relieve stress. Some people need a five-minute conversation, while others need to be quiet or go for a short walk.

Set up a comfortable workplace. Create a separate work area for yourself and ask all family members not to distract you while you work. It’s good if you have a separate corner where you can close yourself if necessary.

Separate work and personal time. People working from home often think like this: “I’m at home, I don’t need to waste time on the road. I’ll spend it on business: I’ll finish an urgent task, I’ll answer my colleagues in the chat, I’ll sort out my mail.” This is also possible. But not for long.

Don't stay up late at work. This can lead to fatigue, burnout and chronic stress. Also, try not to combine household chores and work tasks during the day - most likely, you will mess up both.

Delegate. The ability to ask colleagues for help or redistribute forces is an important skill for dealing with stress. If you feel the task is too big or difficult, get support before you begin.

Plan. Make to-do lists, sort them by importance and try to complete the most relevant ones. Focus on one task at a time. Be sure to give yourself time to relax. Take short breaks every hour. Paradoxically, you get more done this way than when you work without looking up from the monitor.

Susan Wojcicki, the resilient CEO of YouTube, says, “It's important to take a break sometimes. I noticed that when you relax, great thoughts come to mind.” By the way, it was she who came up with the idea of ​​changing the word Google during the holidays with animation.

Limit your time on social networks. Endless feeds steal time that could be productive. When you go to glance at a couple of stories, you disappear for half an hour or an hour, and when you return, you rush yourself with work projects, thereby provoking anxiety. Determine how much time a day you want to devote to social networks and how much to work. And try to follow this schedule.

Monitor your body and emotional reactions. Try to figure out why you are now sitting with tense cheekbones or why you suddenly want chocolate. Perhaps you need to take a break and relax rather than build up tension.

Don't let the feeling of loneliness overwhelm you often. Social isolation and loneliness are serious problems that are becoming a threat to public health. People who work remotely suffer especially from them. It is important for a person to maintain social connections with others - for a long time his survival and well-being depended on this. Organize various informal get-togethers, create a supportive environment that will help you feel among your own.

Varvara Lyalagina, author of the Start Blog Up project, in difficult moments seeks support from a circle of like-minded people: “When I get upset, my friends help me. I have a group of colleagues and friends. A very narrow company, but I know that I can tell these people almost everything. They will support me and will not take it outside.”

Friendship for adults: how and where to look for new acquaintances // Networking

Reasons for low stress resistance

Psychologists name the following factors as the main reasons for reduced resistance to stress:

• Difficult childhood. First of all, these are violent methods of education. If a child grows up knowing that he will be severely punished for any mistake, this does not have the best effect on his psyche.
• Lack of experience. Being in unusual circumstances, a person begins to get nervous. And in such situations, resistance to stress inevitably decreases.
• Physical health. It is obvious that a completely healthy person is always more cheerful and optimistic than someone who deals with pain from chronic diseases or other health problems on a daily basis.
• Features and mental disorders. The human psyche is a very complex mechanism, with unique “settings” for each person. A person prone to neuroses or having mental disorders will always have low stress resistance.
• Character traits . If a person has low self-esteem and has a pessimistic view of the world, his resistance to stress will not be high.

Almost all of these factors can be influenced by a person to one degree or another. For example, you can seriously take up the treatment of an old chronic illness, start studying, playing sports and self-improvement in order to increase self-esteem. You can also make an appointment with a psychotherapist to work on childhood trauma and other mental problems.

Classification of types

Increasing stress resistance is not always necessary. While studying how the brain transforms the information coming to it, scientists came to the conclusion that there are several typical behavioral lines.

Depending on how a person perceives and tolerates the negative impact of stressful situations, four categories of people are distinguished:

1. Stress-resistant.
2. Stress trained.
3. Stress-inhibitory.
4. Stress-resistant.

The first group includes people who cannot adapt to any changes in external conditions. They perceive any change in life as a reason for depression. A low level of stress tolerance is the main cause of excessive emotional arousal. People from this group cannot control their emotions and make decisions quickly and clearly

It is extremely important for them to cultivate stress resistance by turning to specialists for help.

Vicious circle of stress

Representatives of the second category calmly endure gradual changes. They tend to become depressed when there are global or sudden changes. For them, gaining experience is a fairly effective way to learn to react to stressful situations more calmly.

People who are classified by psychologists as stress-inhibiting individuals differ from others in their unchanged and fundamental life positions. Changes in the external environment do not cause an acute reaction in them. These people are ready for changes that come suddenly. Acute stress can make them leaders in problem solving.

Representatives of the fourth category practically do not need to train their resistance to stress. Stress-resistant people are not susceptible to any kind of psychological destruction. They are able to maintain their performance under any force majeure. Stress for them is exclusively insurmountable adversity.

A stress-resistant person experiences problems easily

How to develop stress resistance: 10 tips

Good endurance and the ability to control yourself are useful in any situation. In particular, stress-resistant employees move up the career ladder faster, and in some types of activities it is completely impossible to do without this trait. And in everyday life, calm and balanced people are usually more attractive to others.

Stress has a destructive effect on the human psyche, and with prolonged exposure it can cause serious harm even to physical health. This effect accumulates over the years, gradually worsening well-being, reducing immunity and weakening all body systems. Therefore, stress resistance is a quality necessary for everyone who wants to maintain mental and physical health for as long as possible.

The following recommendations will help you develop stress resistance:

1. Monitor the quality and duration of your sleep. Poor quality sleep depletes the nervous system. In the modern world, many people sleep 5-6 hours a day, trying to save a couple of hours. This slowly but surely destroys the nervous system. Therefore, the first thing you need to do to increase stress resistance is to start monitoring the quality of your sleep and sleep at least 7 hours a day.

Ways to increase

Volitional personality traits - what is it in psychology, their formation

Many sources of literature write about stress resistance, how to develop it, how to increase the level of resistance to stress.

The most useful ways are:

• Listening to the body. You should be more conscious, understand what the body wants. The body is not a robot; it needs the care and participation of its owner. If you want to get enough sleep, then you shouldn’t get out of bed abruptly in the morning; if you don’t want to do this or that work, you should refuse it.
• Vitamin D and walks. The sun's rays have a positive effect on the body, helping to increase its resistance even to very serious diseases. It is advisable to allocate at least 30 minutes a day for relaxation and a walk in the fresh air.

Walking in sunny weather increases stress resistance

• To increase stress resistance, it is incredibly important to be able to forgive. This skill needs to be trained. When you feel offended and angry at another person, cortisol is released, which contributes to the production of stress.
• Sports and physical activity. This method will help tone your muscles and increase your resistance to stress.
• Yoga and meditation. They will help you get rid of negative emotions in a very short time and relax.
• Reducing sweets in the diet. With excessive consumption of fast carbohydrates, the hormone cortisol enters the bloodstream, which provokes stress.
• Put away gadgets for a while. You can practice this method for one day once a week.
• Sound therapy, for example, classical music, birdsong, the sound of the sea and surf, will help develop stress resistance.

How to develop stress resistance through training

If you want to start actively working right now to increase stress resistance, clear your mind and reboot your consciousness, I advise you to take the “Brain Detoxification” course, which will help you:

1. Reduce stress and anxiety levels
2. Get rid of toxic thoughts
3. Focus on what's important
4. Improve the quality of sleep and rest
5. Reduce distraction

The training consists of 10 lessons and practical tasks. You will receive tools and exercises, as well as video and audio materials. At the end of the course, they will give valuable recommendations for independent practice.

The author of the online training is Victor Shiryaev, an expert in the field of integral philosophy and developmental psychology.

If the course is not suitable for you, then within 7 days you can get your money back.

Psychological exercises

Effective methods for developing protection from negativity help you stay collected and calm in any situation. To protect against excess voltage surges, use a few tricks:

• Leave the aggressor when you feel that his excitement has rubbed off on you.
• Alone with yourself, take a few deep breaths.
• Try to make yourself laugh.
• Meditation will help stabilize your inner balance