Dealing With Stress

Stress is a fact of life that affects all of us at one point or another whether you are studying for a big exam or just dealing with the everyday work load of day to day living that can become overwhelming at times.

February of 2013 was one of the most stressful points of my life. Not because everything was going wrong because it wasn’t, I was having huge amounts of fun and make the most of an incredible opportunity that had been given to me. I was chosen as 1 of 5 finalist in the www.acerteamunlimited.com.au challenge and we were into the last 2 weeks of a 5 week campaign. There was a lot on the line, there was a $25,000 prize for the winner and the other 4 got nothing additional from the initial $3,000 and a new Acer laptop that was given to us as being 1 of the 5 finalist.

$25,000! At the time I had recently graduated from University in 2011 and had huge college debt. I also had just got home from my Camp America trip in America so the opportunity to get back on my feet a little room to breathe financially.

The pressure was on and the stress levels were definitely beyond levels I had felt before. Generally speaking I have a very laid back personality. But I knew the stress levels were getting to me when I was only getting 2-4 hours of sleep a night. All I could think about was that competition. I was living and breathing it for 5 weeks straight and I didn’t want to be left wondering what if. I was going to give it absolutely everything regardless of the consequences.

Well that’s when the consequences started kicking in, the weight was dropping off me – literally, I dropped around 7kg’s in 2 weeks and I am a pretty skinny guy how it is, I was only eating breakfast some days and nothing else, I was heavily fatigued and as patient as I am, every little thing was testing my patience on a daily basis.

It’s easy from the outside to say ‘eat more’ and ‘get more sleep’ but at the time I physically felt if I ate anything I was just going to throw up. Sleeping wasn’t an option, my head was moving at a million miles an hour I didn’t want to sleep but my body knew when it was time to collapse and get that illusive sleep I needed.

The human body is amazing, I was adapting to the levels of stress but I knew it wasn’t sustainable or healthy in any way shape or form.

The difference was I could see the end of the tunnel so I was willing to push myself all the way through to that end point. I knew as soon as I reached that end point things would go back to normal, and it did.

Having been in that level of stress for a short period of time I can’t even begin to imagine what life is like for people living that that level of stress or worse on an ongoing basis where they are unable to see the end point.

PLEASE! If you have read to this point and you know you are one of these people that are struggling with huge stress levels please, please, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

If you are outside Australia then Google “Stress Help Line”

Reach out to me if you think there is any way I can help or you just want to chat.

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Now that you know my story of the most stressful period I have been through I want to give you a few tips and management strategies I used to cope and what I using on an on-going basis to deal with my smaller levels of stress.

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Make Time For Physical Activity

The biggest relief I got from my stress levels was going out and shooting hoops. Shooting hoops is my go to, it a pure relief, something I enjoy doing and something I enjoy doing. I’m not saying everyone should shoot hoops I am saying you should find a physical activity you enjoy, it could be anything. Another favourite of mine is the DDR machine at TimeZone, that machine is a killer workout.

During the competition one of the videos I filmed was with fellow finalist Mitch when we went down to the driving range and just had some fun. I think I remember that day because we went bowling as well with our brothers and I even had a dance on the DDR machine as well. It was definitely a day I needed and the best thing about it is I was still working on the competition campaign as well.

Mitch and Jimmy Sports Challenge:

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Use Your Support Of Base – Vent.

Your friends and family are always there when you need them. Organise a catch up and just have a chat about everything that is happening, vent all those frustrations. Most of the time they will help you see things from a different perspective and just being able to talk about the things that are stressing you out helps take the weight of the world off your shoulders.

When Your Body Tells You It Needs To Sleep Do It Asap!

When you are extremely stressed if you are sitting on a couch and you start to doze off, don’t fight it! Lazy of sleep is a huge factor and more often at night when you are trying to sleep your head is going through every scenario imaginable it is nearly impossible to sleep so take advantage of your limited opportunities.

This is not a strategy for a long term solution but rather a small fix for high levels of stress over a short duration of time.

Write A Check List

A lot of times we think we have so much to do to. I am guilty of this as well. Now every time I start to think that way I take some time out and write down a list on my whiteboard or in my diary. I am usually amazed once I have written everything down how manageable it looks.

Writing down a list gives you a visual and a clear goal of what needs to happen, helps you to keep on task and achieve what you want to achieve. It also helps you reduce the time wasting and back and forward of wondering what you need to get done.

Look For The Positives

When I am stressed I always think about everything that is going wrong. When I take myself back from the current situation I can always see the bigger picture. There are always positives that can be found and a better way to look at a situation. You need to train your brain to focus on the positives. It’s a great skill to have.

Take action on the negatives and eliminate them as soon as possible.

What's your favourite way to deal with stress? Mine is definitely shooting hoops.​

Mitch and Jimmy Sports Challenge Bloopers with a DDR appearance: