Do you know how to cope with Stress? (Negative) Stress can kill silently and because it is a silent killer, you may not be aware of the consequences of allowing (negative) stress to lurk around for too long. It is therefore important that you learn to cope with stress. Sometime in 2010, I wrote an article titled coping with stress, I have chosen to write about stress again because some folks I know are not managing stress properly.

I strongly believe that God Almighty designed life in such a way that humans will face stressful situations. For instance, a woman goes through stress during pregnancy and after child birth or a man faces stress in his daily activities in order to put food on his family’s table and so on…..

So why am I writing about how to cope with stress?

The answer is simple, despite the fact that God designed life this way, what makes all the difference is how you manage your life situations and opportunities. Simply put, how you cope with Stress.

[quote float=”right”]Stress management is effective when a person uses strategies to cope with or alter stressful situations.- Wikipedia[/quote]

Here are 4 Simple Ways to cope with Stress

1. Discover your passion

If you don’t know your passion in life then it would not be easy to cope with stress. Are you present working as a banker when you passion is teaching? Are you presently in a traditional business (i.e. having an office outside your home) when you are someone who enjoys working from the house?

Personally, I enjoy marketing (by the way we all market directly or indirectly) and I have done it for many years but tell you the truth I regret not starting a blog much earlier when my long time friend Dipo Tepede started his in 2005 while we were both working for Globacom, this is because I also have passion for writing and sharing my thoughts/experiences. It took me a while to realize I needed to start writing and today, I am doing both (writing and marketing) successfully. Can you believe that writing is one of the ways I cope with stress?

Make a commitment to discover your passion because it will help you properly cope with stress and if you don’t know how, then simply take a closer look at my coaching services.

2. Stay Focused

Stop jumping from job to job or from business to business. Stay focused. Honestly, I am what you would call a serial entrepreneur because in the last decade alone I have gone into well over 15 businesses and for the most part, I have crashed out. But in 2009, I made a commitment to stay focused and the result has been much lower levels of stress.

I reached that decision because I am yet to see any top achiever in life that lacked focus. Apple Inc. remains one of the most capitalized companies in the world and that is because Steve Jobs focused on his dream and passion. A lot of times we put our self under stress which later turns out negative because we jump from the ‘next big thing’ to ‘the other next big thing’.

3. Eat Well and drink plenty of water

You’ve got to make it a point of duty to eat well and drink plenty of water. I know people who drink less than one glass of water a day, but they drink one or more bottles of soft drinks daily. Any time the opportunity arises, I tell such people that they are shortening their life span and invariably making themselves unhappy. Find out what excessive intake of refined sugar does to the body, not much good I tell you. Let me point you to two articles on the harmful effects of sugar;

1. 146 Reasons Why Sugar Is Ruining Your Health by Nancy Appleton, Ph.D.
2. How Sugar Can Ruin Your Life by Vin Miller

While I am happy that the fast food industry is employing millions of people worldwide, I am saddened because they have contributed to the deaths of many who thought that fast food is fun and enjoyment, as far as am concerned Fast Food is junk! The worst home cooked meal is better than the best fast food.

[box type=”tick”]Eating well will help you to properly cope with stress.[/box]

4. Laugh, Laugh and Laugh.

Laughter is music to the soul. Learn to laugh even when there is no need to. Incase, you didn’t know as a child you laughed over a 100 times a day but as your grew older, the number of times reduced. For some adults today, they hardly even remember to laugh, life has become a bore and some end up commiting suicide.

[button]Laughter is the best medicine.[/button]

Here are 5 questions to answer if you want to use laughter as a strategy to cope with stress;

1. What can others say about your sense of humour?
2. Can you think and act funny?
3. How do you react to ordinary situations?
4. Can you keep a tab of how many times you get to laugh a day?
5. Can you look at the mirror and laugh at yourself?

Stress kills, most especially when it is negative, so make it a point of duty to avoid it by all means. Medical practitioners often say, that diseases easily overcome our bodies when we allow negative stress get the better of us.

There are many more ways to cope with stress, find out what works best for you and take action.

Do you have better ideas on how people can cope with stress?