What are your best practices on handling the stresses of everyday life?

I have 2 things I remember that I developed a long time ago when I was in high school. One, I remind myself that I should worry only about those things that are going to appear on my tombstone. Two, concern mobilizes, worry paralyzes.

(Join to see), I used to do what improved my stress levels in the short term, usually poor habits: drinking, partying, binge watching movies or TV, toxic relationships, etc. I would initially feel better, but it would wear off as the cause of the stressors was not addressed.

Then I switched habits to stuff more constructive along with reframing techniques. I started working out, participating in team sports, self-development (reading more, education), mentoring, and focusing on improving my most important relationships and my career development.

Much of this can be learned and the Army has invested a lot of resources in equipping Soldiers with the tools to manage stress in everyday life, not just in combat. Resilience techniques are very researched and can help manage and mitigate stressors.

The tools you can use to handle stress vary based on what the stressor is. Sometimes simple reframing can help for workplace irritants others it takes counseling and peer assistance for traumatic events that have lingering stress attributes.

I’m stressed out every day. It’s probably one of the reasons I don’t sleep. I handle it by simply accepting it because there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve attended counseling sessions that turned out to be worthless. One session was with several Vietnam veterans. All they did was complain about the VA. At the last session I attended I told them if they didn’t like the VA, they were free to wherever they wanted to. Ins another counseling group, the social worker heading up the group told us that if we wanted to overcome depression, watch John Wayne movies. I think this guy was full of sh*t.