Seven Secrets to Stress Management

From Devel​opY​ourEn​ergy​.Net

This arti­cle is from Rick War­ren, the author of The Purpose-Driven Life. I must say that this is a bril­liant arti­cle that makes you learn from the Mas­ter Himself.

Do you ever feel like your life and sched­ule is out of control?

You can’t elim­i­nate stress, but you can man­age it. Jesus Christ expe­ri­enced enor­mous stress and pres­sure, yet it didn’t seem to dis­turb his peace of mind. In spite of oppo­si­tion, con­stant demands, and lit­tle pri­vacy, his life reflected a calm sense of balance.

“Then Jesus said, ‘Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest.’ There were so many peo­ple com­ing and going that Jesus and his apos­tles didn’t even have time to eat.”(Mark 6:31, NLT)

What was his secret? A closer look at his lifestyle reveals seven key “stressbusters”:

Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion: Know who you are (John 8:12) — Eigh­teen times Jesus pub­licly defined him­self. There was no doubt in his mind as to who he was. If you’re unsure of your iden­tity, you’ll allow oth­ers to pres­sure you into their molds. Try­ing to be some­one you’re not causes stress!

Ded­i­ca­tion: Know who you want to please (John 5:30) — You can’t please every­one. Even God can’t! Just about the time you get Crowd A happy, Crowd B will get upset with you. Jesus never let the fear of rejec­tion manip­u­late him. No one can pres­sure you with­out your permission.

Orga­ni­za­tion: Set clear goals (John 8:14) — Jesus said, “I know where I came from and where I am going.” Prepa­ra­tion pre­vents pres­sure but pro­cras­ti­na­tion pro­duces it. You work by either pri­or­i­ties or pressures.

Con­cen­tra­tion: Focus on one thing at a time (Luke 4:42–44) — You can’t chase two rab­bits at the same time! Jesus knew how to han­dle inter­rup­tions with­out being dis­tracted from his pri­mary goal.

Del­e­ga­tion: Don’t try to do every­thing your­self (Mark 3:14) — We get tense when we feel it all depends on us. Jesus enlisted 12 dis­ci­ples. Don’t allow per­fec­tion­ism, or the fear that oth­ers may do a bet­ter job, keep you from involv­ing oth­ers in the task.

Med­i­ta­tion: Make a habit of prayer (Mark 1:35) — No mat­ter how busy Jesus got, he found time to get alone to pray every­day. A daily “Quiet Time” is a great stress decom­pres­sion cham­ber. Use this time to talk to God about your pres­sures and prob­lems, eval­u­ate your pri­or­i­ties, and dis­cover the rules for suc­cess­ful liv­ing by read­ing the Bible.

Relax­ation: Take time to enjoy life (Mark 6:30–31) — Bal­ance is the key to stress man­age­ment. Work must be bal­anced with fun and worship.