Entrepreneurial Stress: What can you do about it?

Are you going to let stress make you fatter and dumber? That's exactly what it will do if you don’t manage stress effectively. Being an entrepreneur is stressful, but we can give you some tips to reduce the negative health effects, and boost the positive ones. Managed effectively, stress can actually boost your energy, increase memory recall and make you a better problem solver.
Poorly managed stress can become a crisis for several different reasons. Are you sleeping well? Mismanaged stress can cause sleep deprivation, which left unchecked affects insulin regulation and causes weight gain. Having large amounts of stress can drastically reduce your memory, and compromises your immune system.
Managing a team when you are stressed out,m stresses out your team. We have what are called mirror neurons in our brain which detect when our bosses are upset, and mirror the emotion. What does that mean? If the boss isn’t happy, no one is. Everyone on the team will be more anxious, resulting in poor collaboration, loss of respect and it ultimately affects the decision making on the team. No employee wants to part of an unhappy team; say goodbye to your best employees.
Four nights in a row of only four to six hours of sleep gives you the same mental prowess of someone who just drank a six pack, but decidedly less fun. Would you go to an important sales meeting drunk? Most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep. When you don’t get that, negative emotional events are magnified, and recalled with ease, while positive event recall is decreased.
The key to stress reduction is to not think about it. There are a few other things that will help make sure that you can use your stress to your benefit instead of your detriment.
Think Positive. Have you ever noticed that everyone gets mad at different things? That’s because we all have a different perspective, if something is driving you crazy, try to look at it from another point of view. Acknowledge the stress it is causing, but turn the stressful event into something positive. The thing is, the impending deadline for a product rollout isn’t causing your stress, it’s your thoughts about the rollout that is. If you choose to interpret the situation differently, you can actively reduce the how much stress your body perceives you have. Reminding yourself how prepared you are, and that you have made sure every detail is in order is a good way to change the amount of stress it’s causing you. It will also allow you to look into the future and see solutions that may not be problems yet.

Ever heard the term, laughter is the best medicine? Turns out, they were right. It actively reduces the amount of cortisol that your brain produces, and gives your brain the ability to think about new things. Being too serious probably means you are being too protective, thinking of solutions to old problems, and not creating a new future. See a comedian, read some jokes, or watch funny youtube videos. Just laugh.
As hard as we work as entrepreneurs, stress is inevitable. Get some sleep, strive to keep an open mind, and download with laughter or exercise in order to be the best problem solver, creative thinker and collaborator. Taking care of yourself allows you to take care of your business.