Stress management is absolutely necessary for leading a happy and healthy life, but many stress management guides take a rather lackluster approach. Yes, you must relax and get away from your problems to reduce your stress level. However, many people are overly stressed, not because they cannot effectively manage stress, but because they have too many stress-causing factors in their life.
In the modern world, the quest for money and possessions has taken precedent over being happy. Our consumer culture and its endless ad campaigns have brainwashed us into believing that having money and nice things is happiness. This is obviously a ploy to push a population into buying status symbols to keep up with the Joneses, an imaginary super-cool family that exists in our collective consciousness.
This mindset has caused people to place image on a pedestal and replace substance with style. This ultra-consumer mindset we have taken on is causing many people to work high-stress jobs in hopes of making tons of money and buying tons of stuff that will make them seem cool. However, many of the highest wage earners are not happy and complain constantly about being broke despite have huge salaries and tons of ‘cool stuff.’
Figuring out what’s really important, what would make you happier, and when enough is enough is important to truly managing stress. You may be trying to keep up with society’s standards by continuing to struggle to make payments on that big SUV, but maybe you’d be happier with a smaller, more affordable car or even an old pick up truck.
You might even find that not only do you prefer the feeling of a truck, you may not even really enjoy your office job in the city and would like to live out in the country doing something completely different for employment. Relationships factor into happiness too – how many arguments with your spouse are you going to have before enough is enough and you sit down together to figure out a plan that works for you both?
If some area of your life isn’t satisfying you, then it’s not the right situation for you to be in and you should look for a better fit, be that where your home is, what you do for income, and who you choose to live with.
While stress management is important for everyone, more people should consider stress elimination. Most stress management techniques are designed to help you relax by taking your mind off your problems. They are a temporary fix to help you stay balanced.
However, you are in control of your life, and although some people are more limited than others, your stress level is your responsibility. At some point, you must decide if something in your life is more trouble than what it is worth.
The key to eliminating stress factors is awareness and self-examination; you must decide if factors in your life are worthwhile or if they are draining the joy from your life.