Reduce Stress Pathway

You chose this pathway because you feel you have some control over at least certain aspects of the stressor you chose to work on. Here are seven possible ways to reduce stress.

Any person might benefit from using several of these strategies. However, we ask you to pick one strategy at a time. So take a look at the choices below and click on the strategy that seems best suited to the source of stress you are thinking about. That will take you to the next step in making your action plan. You might not be sure which is the right choice. That's OK. Feel free to explore more than one strategy. If you change your mind as you go along, you can always come back here and select another.

Choose a Strategy

Solve the Problem that is Causing Stress

Sometimes stress is caused primarily by one specific problem. If you can solve that problem, that source of stress is gone.

Build Knowledge or Skills

Some stress comes from being in new or unexpected situations we don’t know much about. If so, we can reduce stress by acquiring more information or learning skills that help us manage that situation better.

Reduce Exposure Time

Sometimes when we can’t avoid a stressor completely, we can still find ways to spend less time in situations or places where the stress occurs.

Change My Behaviour

What we do or say in stressful situations can sometimes make stress worse (or better). Therefore learning to change our behaviour can often reduce stress.

Create Boundaries

Sometimes we can reduce stress by creating healthy boundaries such as learning how to say no more often, deciding what our priorities are, or learning to accept “good enough” instead of perfect.

Get Organized

Some stress comes from lack of organization. If that’s the case, becoming more organized will reduce stress.

Explore cope with stress strategies