What is the best way to deal with stress?

Answer

Relaxation is a pretty personal thing and specific to the individual.

Dealing with stress is best achieved by sitting down and calmly listing the things that are causing the stress, tasks that need to be completed and so on. It is important to comit the list to paper rather than keeping it in your head.

By breaking problems down with something as simple as a list and then crossing items off when you have completed the task or arrived at a solution; you can give yourself a sense of closure and satisfaction. Also, particularily in women (not a sexist thing just a biological difference in how genders problem solve), using lists helps you stop turning a problem or number of tasks over in your head. Safe in the knowledge the tasks are not so difficult broken down into smaller tasks and that they are written down so you won't forget them - you can rest / sleep easy.

Another major cause of work related stress is poor delegation skills in the work place. Are you doing someone elses job, are you uncomfortable asking others to complete tasks for you, are you always running into deadlines? A little research on good delegation skills can also relieve stress. Driving to work is another major cause of stress, try car pooling or catching public transport and combining the trip with something you enjoy (like listening to music, reading the paper etc). Money is another big stress factor in lots of peoples lives. Setting a realistic budget and being comitted to only spending the money you have (ie. not getting into unnecessary debt) can really help. Also ask yourself if you really need to buy an item or if you are jsut buying an item to make yourself feel better (less stressed) - retail theropy as it's known is really only a short term solutiona and in the long run can result in even more stress, especially if credit cards are involved.