Definition
Stress resistance is the individual’s resistance to stressful situations. Such situations can look quite different: Stress can be caused by lack of time, lack of money or illness. Stress at work or when bringing up children can also be perceived as very stressful. If stress resistance is well developed, the burden is perceived as less severe, if it is poorly developed, it is perceived as worse.
How can stress resistance be improved?
There are several ways to improve your personal stress resistance. However, the focus should be on minimizing or even avoiding stressful situations as far as possible. For example, you should consciously pay attention to breaks when working.
In addition, tasks should be processed in order of importance. This means that non-urgent tasks can be postponed to the next working day to relieve the workload. A healthy and conscious lifestyle is also important to increase stress resistance.
This begins, for example, with nutrition. A low-fat and low-sugar diet promotes physical health and reduces the occurrence of diseases, which are an important stress factor. Physical exercise is also essential to reduce stress.
This is especially true for jobs that involve long periods of sitting and working in front of the computer. Sport also contributes to physical health. An intact social environment also noticeably improves stress resistance.
The possibility of being able to discuss one’s own stress with other people and possibly even receive enriching suggestions for solutions is relieving for many and contributes positively to stress resistance. Although it is possible to work on the basic conditions for stress resistance, stressful situations cannot always be avoided. For this problem there are different approaches to deal with acute stress.
On the one hand, it is particularly important to be able to consciously recognize when one feels stressed. This may sound banal, but it is not self-evident. This is due to the fact that in stressful situations people tend to think in tunnels and thus hide a lot of things.
On the other hand, one should react adequately to stress. There are numerous strategies for this, from which everyone can choose the ones that help him or her best. However, it is essential to know and have applied different strategies.
One method of dealing with acute stress is conscious breathing. The goal of this strategy is to gain mental distance from the stressful situation through focused breathing and to relax physically. The principle of progressive muscle relaxation or autogenic training has a similar effect. Stretching or light strength exercises can also contribute to relaxation. If possible, it helps to create physical distance from the stress that is causing it and, for example, to have a quick coffee or go outside into the fresh air.
