Stress Management: What It Is And How To Do It?

Just like stress itself, there are a few different types of managing, or minimising stress, known as ‘coping’ or ‘coping strategies’. One form of coping, which is probably the most commonly known to people, is passive coping, which consists of using external cues or tasks as a distraction from the stressor without dealing with the stressor directly, i.e. scrolling on Facebook, eating ‘comfort foods’, visiting friends or even using recreational drugs (which includes alcohol by the way). Active coping entails tackling the stressor head on and trying to deal with it directly

Don’t confuse active coping as being somewhat superior to passive. Both forms of coping have been show to work. However, active coping strategy is what we’ll provide some guidance and examples on in this article, mainly because passive coping is both the usual ‘go-to’ form of coping for most people, and because passive coping is usually easier to do and generally requires no information about how to do it.

So, how does someone ‘do’ active stress management or coping?

Firstly, there are two main ways to carry out active coping; Problem-focused coping, which deals with the stressor itself by trying to reduce, eliminate or even substitute it, and emotional-based coping, which deals with how you react to the stressor, i.e. do you scream and load up a machine gun, or take a deep breath and count to ten? So, is there a superior form of stress management? Not really.

For example, if the stressor is able to be eliminated, like a project due for college or a meeting with your boss, then active emotional strategies, such as recognising your feeling of discomfort and using it as motivation for engaging with the stressful event, are most useful. However, if the stressor is not able to be eliminated, such as people being let go in your job, then passive strategies, such as using ‘procrastination’ or the above form of passive coping, might lead to better results. 

One study showed that problem based coping, such as tackling that college project, was more effective in long-term health outcomes than emotion based coping, though factors such as duration, stressor type and individual response varied considerably.

Gender is also a factor, with avoidance emotional-based coping like procrastination seeming to work better in the long term for women than for men, who seemed to experience exacerbated stress later on. Men were also more likely to use recreational drugs like alcohol, whereas women were more likely to use social support.

So, below are a few examples of active stress management, both emotional and problem-focused:

Emotion Focused:

1. Meditation

2. Deep breathing

3. Cognitive Reappraisal or Re-framing — Focusing on the positive aspects of the problem and the emotions you’re feeling, concentrating on what you can learn.

4. Disruption of negative thoughts — Saying the word ‘stop’ in your head when negative thoughts accumulate.

Problem Focused:

1. Deconstruction of the problem — Breaking the problem down into manageable steps and tasks.

2. Allocating a certain time-slot and period in the day for addressing the problem.

3. Brainstorming potential solutions to the problem amongst yourself or with a group.

4. Writing down potential plans or back-up plans for dealing with the problem.

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Notice that above, all the methods involve directly dealing with the stressor, or your response to it, and all contain a method of recognising the problem and developing a systematic response to it that could then be used to tackle another stressor in a similar way.

These methods should now help arm you to minimise your stress levels and help you get the most out of your workouts, or, if you’re an athlete, your performance in competition.