Stress reducing activities, 2 axis and 3 principles

How do you cope with your stress?

There are lots of activities to relax you: sleep, bathing, sports, alcohol, and so on. Each of them has some pros and cons. You should make a genius choice when you are irritated.

First, any stress relievers are categorized with 2 axis: input vs. output, and physical vs. mental.

"Input" means that these activities give you some knowledge or energy to cause an emotion, whereas "output" is to release your thought or emotion to outside. "Physical" and "mental" axis distinguishes that which is dominant in performing the activity.

Writing a poem, or some kind of creative tasks is one of typical activity classified into output-mental activity. In contrast, eating something sweet is obviously physically inputting activity.

I recommend you to adopt your daily activities into this figure. Almost all behaviors fit into one of 4 categories.

Then, I will tell you about some principles of stress reduction with this figure. You have to remember only 3 things after tough time.

(1) You should be balanced in the 4 quadrants
It is the worst to rely on the one activity to resist stress. You will be invulnerable to stress when you have multiple ways of coping. A person who drink everyday would indulge in alcohol. If you are a man who jogs whenever you feel stressed, it will be good for you to try reading some books occasionally.

(2) Select the counter quadrant to the stressor
If you are tired with a tough negotiation, you will be relieved with a sprint. After writing a boring document for work, you may have a petit cake.

(3) Sleep is essential, but not almighty
You must sleep when you are exhausted. Good sleep can regain your energy. However, sleep itself has no power to eliminate your stress In addition, excessive sleep reduces your resistance to stress.

So, enjoy your stressful, but valuable life!