How to handle stress?

I went to a conference last week and sat in on a presentation about how to deal with stress at work.  It was very good.  Essentially the presenter said you need to discover what exactly at work is causing you stress.  Once you identify what that item is, it is up to you to do something about it.  For instance, if you feel you are being overworked, then you are the one that needs to address this with your manager, not wait for your manager to figure it out.  I realize its not a perfect solution but maybe it will help.

My stress level is pretty high...my mom is in hospice, my Dad is her caregiver but was in the hospital over the weekend & has stage 4 small intestine cancer, she is going to 5 day respite before they make more decisions. I have ongoing injury going on over 3 years and had major surgery to improve things, yep I am not handling stress well right now.

My favorite way to destress is to train, but right now that is limited with shoulder and knee issues.

I need that successful part of dealing with stress.

My $0.02

1.  Keep training.  Tons of evidence that exercise is really important for mental health.  There is also evidence that if we are dealing with problem solving type issues (i.e. at work) that our brain continues to work on those in the background while we exercise and often when we return to the problem we will come up with the solution because of what our brain did while we were exercising.

2.  Nutrition.  You said it.  Can't use bad fuel and expect the engine to work right.  Bad food can influence your cortisol levels (your "stress" hormone) adversely.

3.  Sleep.  Got to have enough.  Most adults need 7-9 hours.  Less leads to chronic sleep deprivation and decreased ability to work efficiently a productively, as well as decreased ability to handle stress.  Interestingly too much sleep can also be detrimental.  I have no experience with that!  If you are having a tough time getting enough sleep make sure you are exercising earlier in the day.  Too close to bedtime and it can be hard to relax.

4.  Counseling.  If you can afford it this can be invaluable.  I used to think this was only for the weak.  Not so.  I know plenty of people - some of the toughest people I know - that have benefitted from a session or two.  Or more.  A good counsellor can often quickly help you identify your stress points, help give you perspective, and teach you some techniques to help relax a bit.

5.  Down time.  Make sure that you get some time to do stuff now and then just for fun - and I don't mean more training!  If everything you do is go go go, including training, than your brain and body will get more fatigued.  A tired body and a tired mind have a tough time with stress.

Don't get discouraged!  You can do it!

In general, you have to take action to counteract the strees by doing things to relax your mind and body. Exercise can help, but it can hurt too.

I remember being incredibly invigorated by my first yoga class. It was a very different experience from training and I had a good instructor. For me, that helped.

Another strategy is to do something to manage the stress- be proactive. That isn't easy in every case and is impossible in some but if you focosu on the things within your sphere of influence and work on those you can make progress to feeling less stress.

Also, there are a ton of books on the topic. Sometimes just reading those helps and the things they suggest will go on to help as well.

Best of luck... If all else fails get a nice cat to pet:

It depends what kind of stress. Do you have to deal with difficult/ crazy poeple? Do you have a bad boss? To much pressure?

pretty much agree with much that has been said already.  Other than work/family time being a limiter in training, work stress/to-do stress really saps my motivation and energy at times....I am self employed and this happens to me also....its hard when I am doing laps that my mind wanders to the list of things I need to do and maybe I should not be swimming/running/etc.......i typically get the workout in but i feel sometimes I may not give it my best if I had a clear mind....so I understand your feeling on this, but I think if you didnt train you would feel worse and be more stressed.

KAthy...wish you and your family well doing this difficult time.

The stress is related to overload in terms of obligations and deadlines. It's just like that. Not being able to be on two places at once, running and doing jobs for 2+ people (2 people were doing what I do now, and had problems) and etc.

Training gets me on the right track, but I fear of consequences in the long term. Already now, as a 30y old, I feel wiped out sometimes. 

It sometimes reflects my training, and races, and sometimes not. For instance, I've ran my best Half-Marathon race yesterday, beating my best time by 8 minutes (01:37:22). But, it could go the wrong way also, not being able to finish or something similar.

I have to say I'm some sort of insomniac, and bad weather influenced also.