Understanding The Top 3 Types and Causes of Stress

When we struggle with something like stress, anxiety and fear, the process of healing from it opens up possibilities of discovery about ourselves that we might never otherwise have recognized. That excites me. That is why I am sharing this with you today.

Today is the first post in a series about being free from stress. My intention is to post weekly to start, so be sure to stop back to read more on this topic.

Today, I’ll be sharing the top 3 types and common causes of stress. Just being aware of these is the first step in taking action to reduce your level of stress.

Once you begin to recognize where your stress is coming from, you can determine which things are beyond your control and which are things you have the power to change. Additionally, changing your relationship to stress allows you to no longer to be at effect of life’s situations and events, and enables you to recognize and experience the opportunities that life brings your way!

Grab a pen and piece of paper to list your stressors as you read on.

The different types and causes of stress

First lets talk about external stressors. This means these are events that happen from outside yourself.

Environmental

Environmental stressors are stress factors that happen externally. Examples of environmental stressors:

loud noises
yelling
arguments
dogs barking
traffic
a crying baby
children fighting
a crazy co-worker or client
an abusive family member

Now – take a moment to write down things you recognize as your environmental stresses….

Physical Stressors

These are any conditions within your body that can cause you discomfort, or actually interfere with your daily routine. These can also include activities you may engage in that harm your body.

injury
illness, or disease
abusing alcohol,
abusing drugs – either recreational or prescription
smoking cigarettes
too much exercise
not enough exercise
poor posture,
lack of sleep

Now – take a moment to write down things you recognize as your physical stresses….

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Internal Stressors

Internal stress, or emotional stress comes from your perception about your experiences and life.

If you find yourself worrying about a situation (especially ones you have no control over), you are likely to experience internal stress.

Here are some examples of internal stress:

Fears

phobias
public speaking
calling customers
fear of flying
fear of heights
fear of closed, small spaces

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Other examples of internal stressors have to do with our beliefs and attitude about ourselves.

Beliefs and attitudes:

negative self talk
pessimistic attitude,
self criticism and judgement of yourself and others
having unrealistic expectations
the need to be perfect
being overly competitive

Now – take a moment to write down things you recognize as your internal stressors for fears and inner beliefs.

Great. Now you should have a starter list of things that cause stress in your life and in your body. This is a list you can revisit and add to as things become obvious to you.

Next Steps

The First Steps to managing these are recognizing them. With this list you can consider which of these you have some control over and which you can most easily avoid.

Step #1

Take a look at your list, and put a star next to any of the things that you feel you can change, avoid, minimize or adjust tomorrow on your own.

Step #2

Now, circle some of the items that you don’t recognize how you can change or that you feel are out of your control.

Step #3

Take another look at your list. Copy the items that you put a star next to on a fresh piece of paper. Next to each of those items, write down what you can do differently to minimize, dissolve or avoid that cause of stress. Starting tomorrow (or today if possible) commit to making adjustments for at least three things on your list.

Once you begin to recognize what is causing you stress, you can make some changes to minimize or eliminate that stress trigger.

An example

In my case, one area that caused me stress was getting my daughter off to school in the morning and then back home to start my calls with clients. I found myself growing impatient and stressed as she would change her mind (over and over) about her wardrobe. This caused me stress and made me sad that I wasn’t having a loving morning with her, or myself.

I saw this as an area of opportunity to minimize stress. We decided that she would choose her outfit the night before, and we started waking up 15 minutes earlier. Additionally, I started scheduling my first calls of the day a little later, so I could take several minutes for myself before client sessions. Just these small adjustments have made a huge impact on how we enjoy our mornings and lowered the level of stress for me and my daughter.

Be curious over the next few days about how those adjustments (big and small) have impacted your experience. As you make adjustments, keep plugging away at your list.

For the items that you circled – the ones that you feel are beyond your control (at least for now), concentrate on releasing the stress you experience from them. My next post will be all about “3 action steps to relieve stress” I will include a link here once that article is written. If you’d like help dealing with stress in the interim, click here to read more about how I may be able to support you or sign up for my BeFREE from Stress Quick-start Guide at the top of the page

Please comment below and share what is working for you to minimize or avoid what causes you the most stress. If you found this article helpful, please like it and share!

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photos licensed through creative commons license.