Coping with Stress in a Changing World

Stress is a part of an individual's physical, social, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual well-being that involves feeling helpless in trying to control ones life. The stress responses are triggered by circumstances beyond single events, for something to trigger stress response, it must first be perceived as threatening by the brain which consequently triggers the stress response. In their clinical work with patients, Ellis and Harper (1998) found that clients' illogical beliefs about life form the basis of an irrational belief system which creates a distorted perspective for appraising potentially stressful situations.

Managing stress requires one to minimize cognitive arousal and decrease repetitive self talk; this helps in one to examine his/her thoughts and illogical beliefs with more logical, rational ones. In this way, the potential stressors are defused by changing the view-point, According to (Blonna, 2005). Stress can be managed by employing the 5 R's model (Rethink, Reduce, Relax, Release, and Re-organize.).

The key to effective stress management is the ability to realize that different techniques and stressors are influenced by space and time. What works to manage stress under some circumstances is not effective in some other situations, similar stressors can be under two different time spaces can not be solved with the same technique.

A stress management plan that incorporates several kinds of strategies and levels of coping with stress in an ever changing world may prove to be a very important tool. Generally for a person to cope with stress, one should be in a position to assess the personal stressors, establish personal level of stimulation and develop a personal stress management plan in accordance to the 5R's (Rethink, Reduce, Relax, Release, and Re-organize) (Segal Et al. 2010). Incase a person is unable to personally manage stress then he/she should seek the help of the services of a professional counselor.