For some people, acrophobia or fear of heights is a significant stress trigger. While my wife is blissfully relaxed in cable cars and driving on high mountains, I become a quivering mess. My first awareness of this was driving up to a British hill station in north-eastern India. The 6000 feet climb caused me huge stress and I had to figure how high and I could relieve the stress

Everyone has a different Stress trigger. Some people test their physical and psychological limits through bungee jumping, rock climbing and so on. For me heights are a problem so I have to think of ways of relieving the stress. In the most extreme cases, my stress relief strategy is avoidance.

What makes you stressed and worried? Spiders, snakes, people, tests, and public speaking are very common stressors. Look at what I’m going to say and work out which ones are problems for you. What is it that makes you feel terrified and stressed? Sometimes it’s people, sometimes it’s places sometimes it’s insects or spiders. Examine the list below to see which ones cause you great distress.

There are many workplace triggers that induce stress for people. These include poor role description, inadequate working environment, boring work, being asked to do things that don’t fit your skill set, inadequate or insufficient training, and poor bosses. Sometimes the work culture that creates stress, racism, sexual harassment, discriminatory treatment and so. There are many potential triggers in the workplace and the job for you is to find the best stress relief mechanisms.

I grew up on a farm so I am not particularly concerned about snakes but many people have deep fears about these creatures. Consider your own list of personal fears. Sometimes they are social fears like attending a party when you don’t feel confident or appearing dumb or uninformed. Body shape and being overweight can destroy people’s self-esteem and cause social stress.

There are of course, stressors that are family based. Worries about your children’s education and development and/or their behaviour, relationship problems, financial difficulties. Drugs are always a worry for parents and for the victims themselves. Feeling dependent is a stressor. Triggers can be unwelcome news, problems with fidelity, fears about the future. There are plenty of triggers out there.

Our job is to work out what causes stress for each of us. In therapy, I propose a model called BE CALM. I use this model to help people develop a stress relief and stress management strategy. B is for build, E for examine, C for confront, A for accept, L for let go (forgive, forget), and M for Move on with your life. We can’t let stress manager our lives; we need to learn good stress relief tips and strategies.