We all lead busy lives so it is important that we take responsibility for our health and learn how to cope with stress when it hits. There are four pillars of health – mental, physical, financial and career – that each person needs to keep in balance. It will make a large impact on a person if two of the four pillars are in negative territory which results in a drop of productivity.

The first step in keeping balance is to build resilience by exercising, eating properly, and spending time in nature. If you are able to build resilience, you will have more psychological wellness and if you are hit by stress, you won’t be impacted as hard. Another thing you can do is check out your company’s employee assistance program to get a rating for your health. The program helps to find the aspects of a person’s life that are causing stress. Once the cause is determined, the company’s employee assistance program can provide you with the help you need, such as a councilor or financial planner.

Three steps to reduce day-to-day stress:

1. Learn tactics to reduce stress

If you find that you are stressed because of a large list of tasks you have to complete or by a large project, try breaking them into smaller chunks and tackle each task one at a time. Typically when a person is able to check off finished work at a relatively fast rate, they start to feel more productive and less stressed.

2. Deal immediately with a tough task

It’s best to tackle a tough task as soon as possible, as we tend to let our heads get the best of us. Instead of waiting until the end of the day to deal with your “to-do” project, deal with it as early as you can. By dealing with tasks right away, we save ourselves a day of stress and worrying.

3. Know when to ask for help

Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you’re feeling stressed and aren’t sure what to do. There will always be someone willing to help.

Seven steps to building resilience

1. Exercise

Exercise is always important, especially when stressed. It helps to clear your mind and get rid of stress by allowing you to calm your breathing. Exercises such as yoga and streching helpsthe body and mind relax.

Try starting off with going for a half-hour walk every day. If you feel stressed during work, take some time out of your lunch break to take a walk. If you’re able to, try to arrange walking meetings or have a friendly office competition by having all colleagues wear pedometers and see who can take the most steps in a week.

2. Eat right

Make sure you’re eating the proper amount of food and nutrients your body needs. You don’t want to be under eating or overeating as that can make an impact on stress and lead to other problems.

3. Get enough sleep

Everything is harder when we are running on little sleep, so it is important to get quality sleep every night.

4. Spend time with friends and family

Take the time to spend time with friends as family as they can help take your mind off of the every day routine and make you feel better overall.

5. Spend time in nature

Spending time in nature allows us to refocus, relax, and get away from technology and other collaborative means of staying “connected” to everything.

6. Focus on spirituality

Whether through organized religion, star-gazing, meditating or simply time spent contemplating life, give yourself a chance to stop and think about topics beyond the daily routine.

7. Be involved with your community

Helping others helps us feel better about ourselves.