I made a poll on the facebook page Stress No More, asking what causes the most stress for facebook followers. There were 27 votes, and the results are as follows:
Relationship – 10 votes
Study – 4 votes
Work – 5 votes
Family – 5 votes
Finance – 3 votes
Therefore this post mainly focuses on decreasing relationship stress strain. Relationship problems are another type of “stress” we all experience from time to time. Conflicts can arise with our spouse, parents, children, friends, co-workers, employees, bosses, or even with total strangers.
Jonathan has introduced 11 ways to decrease relationship stress, including: Avoid making negative assumptions, don’t be critical or assign blame, acknowledge your partner’s concerns, respond rather than react, honor each other’s feelings, identify the real source of the stress, treat your mate with respect, seek opportunities to encourage each other, differentiate between the relationship and the problem, reaffirm your partnership often, get help if you need it.
Among all his suggestions, I believe the most important is to avoid making negative assumptions. It is common for people to focus on negative possibilities during a fight, trying to justify themselves so they can win in a conflict or an argument. What should be done is, first, give each other sometimes to calm down, so they won’t say things that they might regret afterwards. And then approach each other gently, sit down and discuss possible solutions. Working together and clarify things, they might come out with creative solutions that solves the problems.
Have you experienced an increase in relationship stress? If that’s what happening to you, please breath, relax, and then try to talk openly with the person that have offended you, so a successful and happy relationships can be established.
Stress no more! 