8 most common stressful life events (and how to bounce back)
Explore 8 of the most common stressful life events, from grief to job loss, plus 5 simple, practical ways to bounce back and support your well-being.
We all experience stress sometimes. While some of it can be helpful, too much stress can wreak havoc on the body and mind.
Your body is designed to handle a certain amount of stress. However, if our bodies aren’t able to metabolize stress efficiently over time, chronic stress can take root. This can bring more serious health consequences.
Fortunately, you can support your body in recovering from daily stressors with simple actions and habits.
8 of the most common stressful life events
The eight events below are some of the most common major life changes people face. How hard each one hits depends a lot on the person, so this isn't a ranking, and it isn't the only kind of stress that cuts deep. Experiences like trauma, abuse, violence, or discrimination are often even harder, and they usually call for additional care or professional support.
When you understand these common events and how they tend to affect us, it's easier to cope and to support the people around you going through something similar.
1. The loss of a loved one: Losing someone close to you, like a family member or a friend, can lead to profound grief. This can result in a range of emotions, including sadness, anger, and confusion. It can disrupt your daily life and lead to depression or anxiety.
2. The birth of a child: While the arrival of a new baby is often joyful, it can also be stressful. Adjusting to the demands of parenting can create anxiety for new parents.
3. A divorce or breakup: Ending a marriage or a long-term relationship can be one of the hardest things to go through. Along with the emotional turmoil of separation, there can also be legal, financial, and child custody issues that compound matters.
4. Work-related issues: Job loss, heavy workloads, or conflicts with colleagues can lead to stress. This can affect your self-esteem, mental health, and overall well-being.
5. Major health condition: Being diagnosed with or undergoing treatment for a major health condition, such as cancer, heart disease, or chronic pain, can be very stressful. It can bring about fear, changes in lifestyle, and financial strain.
6. Moving: Relocating involves emotional stress. Leaving behind familiar surroundings, dealing with the logistics of moving, and adjusting to a new environment can be overwhelming.
7. Financial difficulties: Facing significant financial problems, such as debt, bankruptcy, or the loss of income, can lead to intense stress. This can affect your mental health, relationships, and quality of life.
8. Retirement: Leaving the workplace can be a significant life change that brings stress along with it. Concerns about finances, loss of identity, and finding new ways to fill time can lead to anxiety and depression.
5 ways to bounce back from stressful life events
It’s natural to be overwhelmed at times. Here are techniques to help you manage stress and find relief:
1. Sleep
Sleep can be one of the best ways to support your body and mind when you’re navigating stress. It's when your brain and body can process and release the events in your waking life, and it's important for controlling levels of stress hormones. Prioritize sleep to help your body recover and rebalance from a stressful day.
💙 Wind down by listening to Letting Go Into Sleep, a meditation to help you release anxiety and drift off peacefully.
2. Breathe
Use deep belly breathing and other types of breathwork to trigger the relaxation response in your body, which can counteract the effects of stress by slowing breath rate, relaxing muscles, and reducing blood pressure. These can help restore balance after a stressful event.
💙 Jay Shetty’s Reset With the Breath is a 3-minute meditation to help you find balance after a stressful event.
3. Get moving
Physical activity can help to reduce elevated stress hormones and minimize damage to the body and mind. Take a brisk walk, join an exercise class, or do your favorite type of movement after a stressful moment to help release the build-up of excess energy and tension. Being active during the day can also help you fall asleep more easily at bedtime.
💙 Build Compassion is a Daily Move session helping you to get out of your mind and into your body — and teach you about self-love.
4. Meditate or practice mindfulness
Practicing meditation, or moments of mindfulness, can help you move from the “fight or flight” stress response and into the “rest and digest” relaxation response. Whether you do a guided meditation or simply schedule a few minutes to check in with yourself, take intentional time to slow down your body and mind.
💙 U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murray shared his secrets in Mindfulness Tools With the U.S. Surgeon General.
5. Connect with people you care about
Make connections with loved ones, friends, and even co-workers. These relationships can be an important part of a balanced life. The emotional support can help sustain you in times of stress, and spending time caring for others can make us more resilient to stress.
💙 Learn to cultivate healthier and happier relationships with our Relationships With Others series.
Address common stressors with Calm
In navigating life's stressful events, finding effective coping mechanisms can help maintain our mental health and well-being. The Calm app can offer tools and practices to help you deal with—and bounce back from—stress.
Build a daily meditation practice: Regular meditation has been shown to reduce stress and improve emotional health. Calm offers a variety of guided meditations, including the "Overcoming Stress and Anxiety" series, which is tailored to help you understand and manage your stress response. Starting or ending your day with these meditations can help calm your mind, bring clarity, and foster a sense of peace.
💙 Build a practice with The Daily Calm or The Daily Trip, featuring a new 10-minute meditation each day.
Explore mindful movement: Physical activity can be a powerful stress reliever. Calm has mindful movement sessions that combine gentle exercises with mindfulness practices. These daily sessions can help you stay present while releasing tension, promoting relaxation.
💙 Releasing Stress from the Daily Move with Mel Mah can help you use mindful movement to feel more centered.
Get better sleep: Stress can significantly impact your sleep quality, creating a cycle that's hard to break. Calm offers Sleep Stories and meditations designed to help you unwind and fall asleep more easily. Whether you're struggling to quiet your mind after a stressful day or looking for a way to improve your sleep hygiene, these can guide you toward a restful night's sleep.
💙 Try winding down with a Sleep Story like Journey to the Stars, narrated by LeVar Burton.
Try the 7 Days of Managing Stress series: This series provides daily guidance and practices aimed at helping you understand stress better and learn practical ways to manage it. Over the course of a week, it can help you explore different strategies to reduce stress, including breathing techniques, mindfulness practices, and tips for adjusting your mindset.
💙 Dive into the 7 Days of Managing Stress to build your toolkit for mastering stress.
Meditate for work stress: Many people experience work-related stress. If you need to find moments of peace, during a busy workday, Calm has meditations designed to help you improve focus and handle work challenges with a more relaxed and clear mind.
💙 Alleviate Work Stress in this short meditation from the Mindfulness at Work series.
Bringing the Calm app into your daily routine can help you manage stress more effectively. Whether you're dealing with a major life event or everyday stressors, Calm has accessible and supportive tools to help you navigate through them with greater ease and resilience.
By dedicating a few minutes a day to your mental health through meditation, mindful movement, and improving your sleep, you can support your well-being through life's ups and downs.
Stressful events FAQs
What are a few examples of stressful events?
Stressful events are situations that challenge your sense of balance, security, or well-being and set off a stress response in the body. A few common examples include:
Losing a job: This can affect your financial security and your sense of identity.
Death of a loved one: A profound loss that weighs on your emotional and mental health.
A divorce or a breakup: A major change to a close relationship that can be deeply distressing.
Moving to a new home: A move often means adjusting to a new environment and leaving a support network behind.
Major health issues: A personal or family health crisis can bring pain, worry, and changes to daily life.
How to get rid of stress?
You can't fully get rid of stress, and you wouldn't want to, since a little of it helps you rise to a challenge. What you can do is keep it from piling up. The five techniques above, from prioritizing sleep to a few minutes of breathwork or meditation, give your body and mind a reliable way to reset after a hard day. For more, our guide tomanaging stress covers simple habits that fit a busy schedule.
What are the 5 scenarios that stress you out?
Causes of stress are personal, so this isn't a strict ranking. These ten are the ones that come up most often, spanning big life changes and everyday pressures:
Work deadlines: The pressure to meet tight deadlines can feel overwhelming.
Public speaking: Fear of judgment or of making a mistake in front of others can be paralyzing.
Financial problems: Worry about paying bills or managing debt can cause real anxiety.
Family conflicts: Tension or disagreements at home can be a constant source of stress.
Balancing work and personal life: Meeting responsibilities in both places can feel like a never-ending juggle.
What are the symptoms of chronic stress?
Chronic stress tends to show up in both the body and the mind. Common signs include trouble sleeping, ongoing fatigue, headaches or muscle tension, digestive issues, irritability, and trouble concentrating. Because they build slowly, they're easy to miss. Our full guide to thesymptoms of chronic stress covers what to watch for and when it's worth getting support.
What are the top 10 causes of stress?
If you feel stressed all the time, the cause is usually a mix rather than one single thing. Stress is personal, so this isn't a strict ranking, but these ten come up most often, spanning big life changes and everyday pressures:
Job stress: Job security, workload, and the work environment.
Financial issues: Debt, savings, and worries about the future.
Health concerns: Your own health and the health of people you love.
Relationship difficulties: Strain with partners, family, and friends.
Lack of time: Feeling stretched thin with too little time to manage it all.
Major life changes: Like marriages, births, deaths, or a new job.
Children and family: The demands of parenting and running a household.
Being too busy: Overcommitting until you tip into burnout.
Personal safety concerns: Worry about your own safety or that of loved ones.
Social isolation: Feeling disconnected from other people.
How to handle extremely stressful situations?
In a moment of intense stress, the goal is to steady your body first. Slow, deep breathing can calm your nervous system within a few minutes, and anchoring your attention on what you can see, hear, and feel around you can pull you out of a spiral. Once the first wave passes, it's easier to think through your next step. Some situations, like trauma, abuse, or a mental health crisis, are more than any single technique can hold. When stress feels unmanageable or drags on, it's worth reaching out to a therapist or doctor for support.
What are stressful situations in everyday life?
Stressful situations in everyday life tend to be the smaller, recurring pressures that build up over time:
Traffic jams: The daily commute, or any time you're stuck behind the wheel or on transit.
Balancing responsibilities: Juggling work, family, and personal time.
Managing technology: Keeping up with emails, social media, and constant messages.
Meeting expectations: Pressure to perform at work, school, or in social settings.
Decision-making: The steady stream of choices about money, career, and personal life.
The first step toward managing everyday stress is noticing what sets it off. Once you can name your triggers, you can take small, practical steps to ease them, like a short mindfulness practice, a prioritized to-do list, or a conversation with someone you trust.
Mental health is hard. Getting support doesn't have to be. The Calm app puts the tools to feel better in your back pocket, with personalized content to manage stress and anxiety, get better sleep, and feel more present in your life. Calm your mind. Change the world.
