Stress Relief Tip: Avoid confrontation and write a letter to yourself

Sometimes you will find yourself in a very frustrating situation where you know that telling someone what you REALLY think will just cause more problems. I find that this happens typically when in a disagreement with a family member or a co-worker. Let’s face it, we all have to deal with people that are just plain stubborn and it is not worth the time to argue with them. Essentially, the best way to deal with this, is to avoid the confrontation completely. However, by holding your frustrations within you is just going to stress yourself out; which is not a good thing either.

A trick to help you triumph over this frustration is to sit down and write a letter to yourself. This might sound unusual, but address the letter to you. Write down everything you feel. Do not hold anything back. Go into great detail and explain the situation as you see it. Write about how unfair the situation is and how you truly think the other persons viewpoint is completely wrong. Make a very big deal about it.

Then after you are finished writing, tear it up and throw it out.

The letter has functioned properly by giving you an outlet. After writing this letter to yourself you will experience a feeling of immense relief. More importantly, you will have prevented a confrontation with a co-worker or a family member that could have turned out to be a bigger headache. The letter will drain out your emotions and you won’t feel compelled to tell someone. Sometimes, it will be necessary to write the letter again or maybe even a third time. After this you will realize that you don’t want to think about it anymore, much less talk about it.

An important thing to remember is to actually write the letter down with a pen and paper. In today’s tech savvy world it might be easier to type it up on your computer, in turn, it will also be easier to just click the delete button. By writing it down with a pen and paper, it will give you a more tangible experience and makes the act of tearing the letter up a more effective release.