How can you deal with stress in disagreements?

Answer 1

Manage Your Reaction to Stress

Ø Don't stress about being stressed

Ø Change your self-talk

Avoid over-reacting

Don't stress abut being stressed remember there will always be stress in your life. Work to manage the stress and take care of yourself in the process.

Self-talk is the set of thoughts that you have about events that happen to you. You may or may not be aware of your self-talk about stressful events or situations. But events DO NOT cause your feelings and behavior. It is your self-talk or thoughts that cause/influence your feelings and behavior.

Changing self-talk is a very important way of managing your reaction to stress. If you consistently tell yourself that your are stressed out, there is no way to get everything done, everything is going to fall apart unless you work harder faster, and more efficiently, that you are the only who can take care of certain problems or people, etc., you are setting yourself up for high stress and eventual burnout.

Changing your self talk to more realistic statements like "I will get done today what I can get done" or "I am doing the best that I can" can change the way you see the situation and how you deal with it. Anther example: If you tell yourself "this is a disaster, I will never be able to deal with it" your feelings and behavior will likely be much different than if you tell yourself "this is a problem but I have dealt with things like this in the past and I will get through it." Remember that self-talk takes practice and time.

If your first reaction is to blow up or overreact, step back and check your self talk.