Stresses and continuous emotional tension are a big problem of modern people, and developing good stress management skills is very important for everyone. Today’s psychologists, psychiatric therapists and other experts recommend a great variety of special techniques and methods, which can assist in coping with stresses.

In particular, such tactics as positive thinking, eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of rest and sleep, exercising, talking to a friend or someone else, can be very effective when coping with low and moderate stresses. These techniques can be very effective and helpful almost to everyone.

At the same time, there are also certain strategies for those people who suffer from high levels of stresses. Such methods include special mind and body relaxation programs (with the elements of tai shi, yoga and other oriental relaxation techniques), meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, therapeutic massage, cognitive and behavioral therapy, learning to focus on something else or something positive, learning to avoid stressors and control the situation, learning to adapt to the situation and accept the stressors, and so on.

In my opinion, trying not to focus on stressors and getting involved in some other activities are the most effective techniques of coping with moderate and long term stresses. The truth is: we can hardly eliminate or avoid the majority of stressors affecting us and our life (such as hard study, problems at work, illnesses and ailments, etc.). That is why focusing on something else, which is really interesting for me (i.e. playing guitar), can divert my attention and thoughts from thinking about stressors and always works well for me.

Finally, some specialists offer self-talking as one of possible ways to cope with stresses. I tried to use this technique for combating moderate stresses and I found it the least effective strategy of stress management. Unfortunately, self-talking makes me think about the problem over and over again and does not help in looking for ways to suppress my negative emotions as a reaction on stressors. I think that talking to someone else can be much more effective for getting a new perspective on the situation and finding the ways out.