President of the Barbados Society of Psychology, Dr. June Caddle (left, front row), in attendance with other members of the Society at the church service to mark Psychology Week 2017 at the St. Thomas Parish Church on Sunday.
ONE of the things that persons can do to prevent stress is to set realistic goals.
This is coming from President of the Barbados Society of Psychology, Dr. June Caddle, who spoke with The Barbados Advocate on Sunday after the church service to mark Psychology Week 2017 at the St. Thomas Parish Church.
“You need to be realistic in your goal setting and in your commitments to your lives and to the lives of others, because sometimes you commit to the lives more than you are capable of giving and that is another source of stress.”
She said that one of the ways that they can do this is to look at what they were able to achieve before and then set incremental goals where they can work their way up to attaining what they want to achieve in the end.
“The first thing that you need to do is to look at what you were able to achieve before and then base your goals and what was possible before and then incrementally, set your targets higher. In a lot of cases, people set their targets at impossible levels and then they get frustrated and go into stress-related situations because of their inability to reach those impossible goals and sometimes that is a form of self-sabotaging because that is always a fallback excuse.”
Dr. Caddle said that another way that persons can prevent stress is to talk to someone that they trust before things get out of hand and psychologists can help in this regard.
“In other cases, it is just a need for someone to be a sounding board; someone in a confidential situation who is willing to listen. Sometimes we know the answers, but we cannot place ourselves in the situation where we can access and explore those answers and responses. So sometimes it is just for a listening ear and psychologists are trained to do that.”
The President stated that planning also helps in this regard and she suggested that persons make a chart where they can prioritise their schedule.
She stated that this is important because there are times when persons already have too many things to do and then in some cases, they may also have a difficult time saying no to others, which only leads to them taking on too much on their schedules and this can lead them down the path of a stressful life.
Therefore, she noted it is best to plan ahead so that you can avoid getting in too deep before it is too late.
“In most cases, you can examine your life and you can make some charts to determine what can be left out and what is a commitment and what is essential and what is desirable. Make your decisions, prioritise things and if you prioritise things and deal with things over which you have control and just being able to do that or asking the assistance of psychologists to be able to go that process, sometimes that helps a whole lot.”