101 Ways to Cope with Stress - Rated by Efficiency and Difficulty

With the world the way it is today there seems to be more stress than ever before. Luckily, a psychology teacher has come to the aid of the students by giving them a list of 101 ways to cope with stress.

Brilliant, so let’s rate them with difficulty and efficiency. Let’s see which ones give you the greatest return depending on the effort involved.

How did I work out the most efficient ways out of the teacher’s list of 101 ways to cope with stress?

Difficulty – I rated the difficulty based on being able to do it in the current moment. If it is really easy to do it would be rated higher with a maximum score of 100.

Effectiveness – is based on how much it would help reduce stress at that moment. The more instant and more effective it is the higher the score with a maximum of 100.

Overall – I then come to the conclusion based on adding the difficulty and effectiveness together and dividing by 2.

It is very unscientific, purely opinion-based and on my own experiences of helping clients That suffer from panic attacks, anxiety and PTSD. Although there are a few things on the list that I had to guess, most are calculated with some element of the experience.

It is important to remember that stress is not a problem. It is not your enemy. Coping with stress does not mean pushing it away, and getting rid of it and living a life of no stress or fear. Learning to cope with stress, and learning to destress is more about learning to become friends with your body and the mechanism that we call the fight, flight, and freeze. It has evolved to keep us alive, and it does a very efficient job. You don’t want to remove this mechanism.

When you recognise that stress is actually your friend, just like a friend protecting you it is giving you the information you need in order to do or prepare for something that may happen. Unfortunately, we have over-exaggerated the threat we are under nowadays. The anxiety and stress we might have with the kids screaming, or a job interview is not what the system was designed to react in such a severe way every time.

So if we recognise when we feel anxious, stressed, and that panic attack feeling arising we can well commit like an old wise friend. Someone that loves us deeply, doesn’t want to see us get into any harm and is pointing out what might happen.

Then we can use our skilful wisdom to respond rather than panic.

Here is a TED talk that explains this way better than I can. How to make stress your friend

This list is simply a starting point, and the rating is a little bit of fun. I did a Facebook live on it which you can see at the bottom of the page. And although most of these will help you to feel better in those stressful moments, it is always best to work on the deeper causes and become friends with this wonderful mechanism that you’ve been gifted with.

101 ways to cope with stress rated with difficulty and effectiveness.

		Dif	Eff	Overall
1	Smile	99	89	94
2	Practice breathing slowly	89	97	93
3	Be responsible for your feelings	85	100	92.5
4	Read a story curled up in bed	90	87	88.5
5	Do it today	80	95	87.5
6	Take time to smell the flowers	85	89	87
7	Look up at the stars	95	78	86.5
8	Take a bubble bath	80	90	85
9	Strand up and stretch	85	85	85
10	Ask a friend for a hug	75	91	83
11	Unclutter your life	70	95	82.5
12	Read a poem	90	75	82.5
13	Be prepared for rain	85	75	80
14	Schedule play time into everyday	70	90	80
15	Watch a move and eat popcorn	80	80	80
16	Recognize the importance of unconditional love	60	96	78
17	Say something nice to someone	75	79	77
18	Say “hello” to a stranger	85	69	77
19	Listen to a symphony	70	83	76.5
20	Visualize yourself winning	60	92	76
21	on’t know all the answers	60	91	75.5
22	Do a brand new thing	75	75	75
23	Put air freshener in your car	85	65	75
24	Learn to meet your own needs	50	99	74.5
25	Break large tasks into bite-size portions	50	96	73
26	Take a different route to work	60	85	72.5
27	Dance a jig	60	83	71.5
28	Go on a picnic	50	92	71
29	Learn to whistle a tune	65	76	70.5
30	void tight-fitting clothes	70	70	70
31	Set appointments ahead	60	80	70
32	Stop thinking tomorrow will be a better day	50	90	70
33	Buy yourself a flower	75	65	70
34	Learn a new doodle	75	65	70
35	Clean out one closet	60	80	70
36	Remember you always have options	55	85	70
37	Look for a silver lining	50	89	69.5
38	Pet a friendly dog/cat	50	88	69
39	Get enough sleep	40	98	69
40	Quit trying to fix other people	42	94	68
41	Always make copies of important papers	60	75	67.5
42	Walk in the rain	50	85	67.5
43	Be aware of the decisions you make	50	85	67.5
44	Write a note to a faraway friend	60	75	67.5
45	Hum a jingle	58	75	66.5
46	Have goals for yourself	40	92	66
47	Watch a ballet	60	70	65
48	Remember that stress is an attitude	40	90	65
49	Work at being cheerful and optimistic	40	88	64
50	Don’t rely on your memory… write it down	35	92	63.5
51	Strive for excellence NOT perfection	35	92	63.5
52	Find support from others	35	91	63
53	Cook a meal and eat it by candlelight	50	76	63
54	Do everything in moderation	30	95	62.5
55	Plant a tree	40	85	62.5
56	Freely praise other people	60	65	62.5
57	Stop saying negative things to yourself	25	98	61.5
58	Keep a journal	25	98	61.5
59	Believe in yourself	25	97	61
60	Put safety first	50	70	60
61	Stretch your limits a little each day	35	85	60
62	Memorize a joke	60	60	60
63	Talk less and listen more	30	89	59.5
64	Exercise every day	25	93	59
65	Set priorities in your life	30	87	58.5
66	Always have a plan “B”	20	96	58
67	Leave work early (with permission)	30	86	58
68	Have a support network of people, places and things	20	96	58
69	Prepare for the morning the night before	30	85	57.5
70	Look at problems as challenges	25	90	57.5
71	Look at a work of art	45	70	57.5
72	Ask someone to be your “vent-partner”	45	68	56.5
73	Become a better listener	15	98	56.5
74	Get to work early	25	88	56.5
75	Anticipate your needs	20	92	56
76	Stop a bad habit	15	96	55.5
77	Look at challenges differently	50	60	55
78	Teach a kid to fly a kite	25	85	55
79	Feed the birds	60	50	55
80	Practice preventative maintenance	25	80	52.5
81	Tickle a baby	20	85	52.5
82	Practice grace under pressure	15	90	52.5
83	Ask for help with the jobs you dislike	10	94	52
84	Say “no” more often	10	92	51
85	Play patty cake with a toddler	30	72	51
86	Get up 15 minutes earlier	50	50	50
87	Repair anything that doesn’t work properly	20	80	50
88	Develop your sense of humor	50	50	50
89	Pay attention to your appearance	50	50	50
90	Maintain your weight	10	90	50
91	Know our own limitations and let others know them, too	50	50	50
92	Learn the words to a new song	50	50	50
93	Practice a monster smile	15	85	50
94	Use time wisely	20	75	47.5
95	Throw a paper airplane	50	45	47.5
96	Simplify meal times	10	82	46
97	Make duplicate keys	50	40	45
98	Avoid relying on chemical aids	30	50	40
99	Go to a ball game and scream	25	40	32.5
100	Avoid negative people	10	45	27.5
101	Tell someone to have a good day in pig Latin	10	10	10

Here’s a good article about dealing with your live during really tough times. Although it does not deal with coping with stress it does have a different take on times in your life when the stress is mixed.

My Facebook life going through the 101 ways to cope with stress

https://www.facebook.com/TheInnerPeaceMentor/videos/1359060617607028/

Twitter Post – 101 Ways to Cope with Stress

If this helped you, it will help somebody else!

You've just read an article by Steven Webb — Guiding you through the most difficult times. Here is a link to my podcast Stillness in the Storms and Inner Peace Meditations.

I write to arm you with resilience and inner wisdom, helping you find calm in life’s chaos. Follow me Medium or on substack.

101 Ways to Cope with Stress – Rated by Efficiency and Difficulty

How did I work out the most efficient ways out of the teacher’s list of 101 ways to cope with stress?

101 ways to cope with stress rated with difficulty and effectiveness.

My Facebook life going through the 101 ways to cope with stress

Steven Webb