Stress Management for Entrepreneurs

Symptoms & signs of extreme stress

• Inability to think about anything but the stressor
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Obsessing over ways to relieve yourself of the stressor
• Insomnia, or inability to fall back asleep after waking up at night
• Lack of ambition
• Headaches
• Fatigue

When is it time to get help?

If you are experiencing the symptoms of extreme stress, then stress is clearly interfering with your life. Sometimes the stress we experience is so routine and we become so accustomed to living with the symptoms that we don’t even realize that feeling like that is not normal! There is a myth form the 19^th century about a frog in boiling water. According to the myth, if you put a frog in boiling water, it will try to hope out of it immediately in order to save its life. However, if you put a frog in cold water, then gradually increase the temperature of the water, it will become comfortable with its surroundings (the water temperature) and eventually be boiled alive. Sometimes, this metaphor can be applied to living with stress.

Stress management treatment methods

• Mindfulness Therapy is an approach to treatment that focuses on how people’s thoughts, emotions, and beliefs influence their behaviour and how they perceive themselves, others, and the world. The ability to be in the moment, to acknowledge and regulate your emotions helps you to break free from negative thought patterns.
• Reality Therapy generally believes that individuals choose their behaviour and as a result, are responsible for not only what they are doing, but also how they think and feel. Clients develop the psychological strength to evaluate their own behaviour and acquire more effective behaviour with the support of a warm and accepting counselling environment.
• Solution Focused Therapy views people as inherently strong and resilient, and capable of creating change and discovering solutions to their everyday problems.