Stress Relief Tip: How to Be Proactive and Reactive to Stress!

What’s more useful in responding to stress-a proactive or a reactive response?

Actually, it’s both! What’s important is to find healthy proactive responses and healthy reactive responses.

First, is the proactive approach. Proactive approaches involve modifying your behavior or mindset before the stressful situation has occurred.

To illustrate, let’s imagine you are moving-typically a pretty stressful event!

Healthy Proactive Responses Would Include:

• Making a plan for moving day
• Gathering all packing supplies in one area
• Asking friends and family for help with packing, moving or unpacking
• Carefully labeling boxes with their contents
• Hiring a cleaner to prepare your new home or clean your old home
• Arranging child care for moving day
• And of course, buying snacks for any friends who come to help!

The other approach to managing stress is reactive. Reactive approaches involve changing your behavior or mindset during or after the initial stress has occurred.

Healthy Reactive Responses Would Include:

• Taking rest breaks when you need to
• Remind yourself that you won’t feel unsettled for long
• Focus on the positives about the move: what do you love about your new place?

Ideally, you want to practice healthy proactive AND reactive approaches. Regardless of the stressful event, be it a move, a job transition, or a health crisis, you can think through your proactive and reactive responses and prepare yourself ahead of time with proactive strategies, and then use your healthy reactive strategies in the moment.

In my soon to be published book, “The Stress Relief ToolBox: For Women Who Take Care of Everyone but Themselves,” I have tools for quick stress relief (reactive) and tools for changing for good (proactive).

Keep an eye out for its launch date! I know you will find the many tools in the toolbox a resource for you to use for a long time.

Would love to hear about your approach to being proactive and reactive in your stress responses! Comment below!