Family Stress: 4 Ways to Stop It Affecting Your Life
For some families, it seems effortless, while for others, it causes pain, frustration, and anxiety every time the concept of family enters their minds. Some families don’t get along, and this can be a very difficult reality to face. So, how can we deal with the concept of stress, either to keep the peace or to minimise our own anxiety?
Recognise What You Can Control
Some family members love to cause drama. If a grandparent has decided that they want custody of a child and they are hell-bent on causing havoc within the family, consulting a grandparent rights lawyer and determined to drag everybody through the mud, it’s easy for us to catastrophize. Instead of spending our energy on those things, we need to devote our energy to the tasks that we can complete. Families can cause drama, but they can also have drama follow them about, and we’ve got to have some sense of self-preservation, and it all begins with conserving our energy.
Have a Support System
It’s one of the most common approaches to dealing with family stress. Sometimes, a friend may not be very helpful because they come from a loving family background and they do not even comprehend why there are problems within your family unit. But this is where having a support system with people who fill different roles in your life can help you to put your feelings forward. Of course, we can’t just use a support network as an opportunity for us to vent; we’ve got to make sure it is mutually beneficial. This could be a hard thing to navigate, but it all begins with avoiding the toxic people in your life. There are charities that provide support services to estranged adults, such as Stand Alone, and if you can find a local support group or community counsellor, this can help you to verbalise your thoughts but also come to some logical conclusions about your family and why they are the way they are.
Don’t Skimp on the Obvious Things
Diet, exercise, and sleep are always important, and these days there’s a lot more research to support this, especially sleep. Sleep is a wonderful tool, and rather than viewing sleep as something that is for the weak, you can use sleep for its restorative properties but also as an opportunity to process those anxiety-inducing thoughts. One of the best things we can do if we have a problem that we’re mulling over is to write out the issue with pros and cons and then actually sleep on it. Your brain will come up with the right solution.
Tackle the Physical Symptoms of Stress
You might become more aware of your stress if you are having to engage with your family on a regular basis. Lots of people move away to escape their family because they recognize that their family aren’t very good for them but we can’t stay away forever. Having tools and tactics to calm your stress will make a massive impact, not just on how you deal with the situation in the moment, but also how you feel afterwards.