Stress sucks.

However, life is full of stress.

Stress can be a productive motivator, though. Imagine how life would be if our parents hadn’t felt particularly inclined to bring food to the table every night. Or if that cell phone call centre rep didn’t care about all they ways you were threatening to cancel your contract. How boring would Mob movies be if the people who owed them money didn’t care at all?


Positive stress is sometimes called eustress and it’s great because it wills us to improve ourselves, our world, and our situation. But what about negative stress, which actually hampers on your ability to do something successfully? Let’s take a look at the top three categories of stress that you can fix, now!

Irate Stress
I was first introduced to the word irate when I was trained as a phone rep…. no kidding! It describes people who approach a situation blasting into your ear with a foghorn, also known as their voice. You can recognize these people by their red faces and often incomprehensible speak. Or they revert to their mother tongue, with no regard as to whether you also share this lingual ability. First thing to do to these people is let them have their piece, and blow off steam. Puncturing the situation with uh-huhs and yups helps. Once they are done, paraphrase what they said back to them. It is important that the irate person knows you were listening to them. At this point, feel free to solve their problem.

Overwhelmed Stress
As Sloan attests in the song “Money City Maniacs,” underwhelmed is not a word. Most of us are overwhelmed, and have way too much to do. If you feel like life is overfilling your plate, take a breather. Take 5 minutes and go for a walk, make a healthy smoothie, or close your eyes and meditate. Just taking a mental reset will take a weight off your shoulders. To remove the rest of those weights, make a to-do list. Start with the most important items, or those that take the least amount of time. Those were probably the things stressing you most to begin with.

Frustration Stress
You can’t NOT know frustration stress. This is when someone or something is preventing you from doing something. An example is when I stop my dog before he sticks his head in the garbage and finds hidden “treats”. Freud said the best way to counter this stress was to convert it into something else (ie, dig up that ugly dead tree rather than punch an annoying person). But as this stress usually solves itself with time, I believe the best way to reduce this stress is to focus on a task that you are able to do well, where no one is a bottleneck. This will allow you to feel self competent and productive, in spite of the frustrating barrier.

Show stress who’s boss! Employ these solutions to different stresses at work and at home and experience a positive stress environment. Have any tips to deal with stress? Post them below!

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