April is Stress Awareness Month, which is designed to heighten awareness of the causes of stress as well as effective stress management techniques.
Stress is unavoidable, and a little pressure can be helpful. But sometimes tension can become crushing and unbearable. Stress affects the mind and the body at the cellular level, triggering maladies such as headaches and depression. It can also increase the risk of stroke and heart disease.
The best way to combat stress is to avoid tense situations. But for all of your carefully designed plans, stress triggers sometimes crop up anyway. When this happens, your best option is to alter your approach. You can combat stressors by recognizing that you have no control over them. You will be less affected when you accept the fact that there are things in life that you simply cannot change. Rather than focusing on altering the situation, change your response—the one thing that you can control.
A disaster is one of the most stressful situations that you can encounter in life. Disasters often occur without warning, leaving you addled and frantic. Catastrophes such as floods, fires, and storms can wreak major havoc, stealing away many of the things that you hold dear.
Even though you can’t predict when a disaster will occur, you can take measures to prepare for eventualities. You can assemble 72-hour kits, store plenty of fresh water and spare batteries, and have an emergency home evacuation plan in place. These measures can go a long way in reducing pressure in times of calamity.
After a disaster occurs, the cleanup can be difficult and dangerous. If your nerves are already frazzled after a traumatic event, the last thing you’ll want to be doing is navigating the overwhelming and treacherous cleanup process. To minimize stress, call in the professionals to complete the job in a fast and systematic manner. They have the equipment and training to do the job thoroughly and safely.
