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Ask HN: Tips for handling chronic stess?

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31–40 of 63 posts

Re: Ask HN: Tips for handling chronic stess?

#32
if you are eating any hard stuff such as coffee, sugar, nicotine, social networks, news - stop. than, when mind will be more clear, do no do work you are not payed. if you do not know if you will be payed, ask responsible person if you should do some part of work or not, or assume it was not explicitly asked means not needed. in free time you have do yoga, training, walks, meditations, talk to people(relatives, friends).

Re: Ask HN: Tips for handling chronic stess?

#33
Replace coffee with black tea. Replace black tea with green, oolong or white tea. Teas with l-theanine in them, such as longjing, are my new superfood that I share with people. Longjing green tea isn't cheap, but it's worth the cost. It's calming and energizing. Silk road tea is one of my trusted sources.

Zero alcohol consumption. Alcohol dehydrates and depresses.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for handling chronic stess?

#35
I have had to deal with this. Resetting expectations with health issues, family and personal challenges and growth, finance, unemployment, etc. Huge keys are honesty with self and others, kindness (the whole true Golden Rule), prioritizing and solving problems one at a time, not giving up, etc. (Edit: others here also have some ideas that can be helpful -- like maintaining good health practices, etc.)

Still, for me, and I think after a certain point for anyone, there are big some prerequisites, or the good conventional wisdom can break down and be insufficient. Prerequisites including things like like having balance and purpose in life, and a perspective and way of knowing that things will be OK in the long run, that hard things are OK for now, where to find help and solutions, and endure well through the unsolved (for now) things, how & why. I've written much more elsewhere (see profile; nothing for sale but can try answering qs). It is hard, possible for anyone one step at a time, and worth it.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for handling chronic stess?

#37

Leftfield, but I recommend a book “the rock warrior’s way”. It is about mental training for climbers... which is all about facing uncontrollably hard, unpredictable and potentially dangerous situations, and thriving in them. As well as other suggestions in this thread, some that the book might suggest would include: - embrace what you cannot control. You cannot control it any more for mentally grappling with it. Inst…

Thank you, I'll take a look. When I was younger I used to lean towards Buddhist philosophy and Stoicism. This kind of reminds me of that. As I got older and toxic masculinity became trendy, I started to think that the old way of "it is what it is" and "man up" weren't healthy, but lately I've been thinking that I was better off that way. Things were a lot simpler and instead of dwelling or brooding, I just kept moving forward. I feel sometimes people are better off not knowing the variety of mental illnesses or dysfunctions out there. It's too easy to get into the trap of "is there something wrong with me?" Even when there is something a little bit off, the time agonizing about it can be a waste of time especially if there's nothing that can be done about it.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for handling chronic stess?

#38
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The signals I get are weird. Sometimes I feel guilty for not getting enough work done so I compensate by doing chores or other low-priority things. I’m going to try my best to power through. Mostly because I think I can get through it, but also for financial reasons. I might DM you about that call if I remember tomorrow. I’ve been honest about what I’m going through when I talk to friends, but none seem to understand…

No pressure, I just want to let you know the option is there if you want it (and that counts for other HN users as well). Contact details are in my profile. I recognize the guilt feelings. Be careful of vicious cycles related to this. For me feeling guilty about not being productive or honoring commitments was a huge factor in not being able to sleep. And not being able to sleep well impacted productivity the next da…

Totally. It's a negative feedback loop. I need an efficient circuit breaker and the only thing I can really think of is Nike's "just do it." Why is it so hard? Feels like I'm hitting a wall. I've watched this video several times https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo08uS904Rg and it helped me understand what part of the problem was, but it's still been hard getting things going. It might be an inspiration problem. I'm not proud of it, but during this lull I bought Animal Crossing on a whim and logged 200 hours in a month. I was able to wake up early, be super productive in that game with no caffeine and little food. I don't understand.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for handling chronic stess?

#39
post #35

I have had to deal with this. Resetting expectations with health issues, family and personal challenges and growth, finance, unemployment, etc. Huge keys are honesty with self and others, kindness (the whole true Golden Rule), prioritizing and solving problems one at a time, not giving up, etc. (Edit: others here also have some ideas that can be helpful -- like maintaining good health practices, etc.) Still, for me,…

A friend recommended "Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It" when I came to him about this. The kindness to self part was definitely an issue for me. I was not nearly as zealous as the author, but it did teach me to cut myself some slack. I have been doing all the conventional wisdom stuff like light exercise, eating better, etc. and they are working a little, but you're right. It doesn't feel like it's enough and that's why I came here. I'm going to go take a long walk and rethink what I really want and be honest with myself about whether it's realistic. Thank you.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for handling chronic stess?

#40
post #24

Three most important things for reducing stress: 1. Sleep 2. Diet 3. Resilience You can improve them with the below: * Start monitoring your heart rate variability (HRV). You can use HRV to help you understand the triggers for your stress. There’s loads of articles on the web about it. I monitor HRV through the night with Oura ring. Low usually means you are stressed or not recovered. * Try to go to bed at the same t…

According to your list I'm on the right track. So that's reassuring.

Monitoring heart rate is new though. What do I do once I notice it rising? Try to calm down?

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