5 ways in which you may be creating stress for yourself

Liz Makin Author

Jan 26, 2026 |

A look at ways in which you may be creating your own stress and what you could do differently.

Stress is the state that you experience when you perceive that you cannot adequately cope with the demands being made on you. You feel under pressure and don't have the physical and mental reserves to cope. There are many causes of stress ranging from a series of minor irritations to major upheavals. To feel less stressed you need to acknowledge that you are stressed, identify the causes of your stress and take action to address the causes.

When identifying the cause of your stress, you may find that you are actually creating your own stress. Here are 5 ways in which you may be creating your own stress, with suggestions as to what you can do differently to reduce stress:

1. Things outside of your control. You can easily get stressed by things that are not within your control e.g. late running public transport, politics, the weather. To reduce stress, understand what is within and outside your control and stay focused on the things that you can control. 

2. Other people and their behaviour. You can feel stressed because of your reactions to what other people are doing, saying or how they are behaving. Accept that you cannot control the behaviour of other people and what they say and do, but you can change your reaction to them. This will reduce your stress.

3. What might or might not happen. You can get stressed by your mind creating scenarios of what might or might not happen in the future. Usually what actually happens is quite different to what you imagined imagine. To feel less stressed, stop thinking through what might or might not happen and focus on now and what you want to achieve, plan how to achieve it and take action to get there.

4. Self created pressures. Stress can arise because you create pressure on yourself such as by setting unrealistic deadlines, taking on too much, being a perfectionist or being unrealistic about what you can actually achieve. Consider what pressures you are putting on yourself and reassess and change things to reduce the stress.

5. Unhelpful thinking. Stress can arise because of how you think about things, because the way you think influences how you feel and behave. For less stress, step back and understand the way you are thinking and where your thinking is unhelpful, look at thinking in a different way.

These are just five of the many ways that you may be creating your own stress. What stress are you creating for yourself?

Do you want to explore more about stress and how to reduce and manage stress?

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Take a look at our stress management online courses by clicking on the links below:

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You can take a look at our range of online personal development courses and bundles, including current special offers, at https://onlinecourses.makinithappen.co.uk

Categories: : Business, Life, Online courses, Personal development, Stress management, Work