Distancing yourself from stressful situations

By Ximonic, Simo Räsänen (Own work) [GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

I know the saying goes that the best way to solve your problems is to face them head on, but there is also the saying that prevention is better than cure. What I’m trying to say is that there times where you have to face the music, there is probably no other choice; but there are times when you should just keep away.

I know that it is impossible to live a completely stress free life, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t limit the stress somewhat. If we’re smart and make use of our noggins then I’m sure we can keep stress to a minimum, and one good way to do that is to distance ourselves from stressful situations.

We’re smart people, smarter than we give ourselves credit for. When we are faced with a certain situation our brain is able to compare it other situations we have experienced and heard of, and we can then assess the situation and decide what we should do. It goes back to the caveman days when we needed to fight to survive. We still have this instinct/ability and we still use it every day, so we know a stressful situation when we see one, and we can judge whether we can distance ourselves from it or not.

An argument between your friends over something petty? Just stay out of it.

Continuous political debates between people at a party? Sorry guys, I thought this was the way to the bathroom.

The boss is asking someone to volunteer to work over the weekend? Why don’t you try asking Steve? Sounds right up his alley.

You see? These are the type of situations where you know if you take part, you are going to regret it, but thankfully you can just stay away from them altogether.  Now I’m not saying you can distance yourself from every stressful situation. That is impossible and quite frankly irresponsible; there are some stressful situations you cannot run away from and have to face. But you don’t have to face each and every stressful situation that comes your way. Be smart, use your head and pick your battles, avoid unnecessary strife if you can avoid it, we need all the energy we have to live this life and we shouldn’t have to waste it on unnecessary stress.

Distance yourself from stress as much as you need to, use your head and decide whether a situation is really worth the trouble, we’re smart people we can figure it out. Definitely.