Stress is often described as a feeling of being overwhelmed, overloaded, agitated, tense, and worried. It impacts each and everyone of us. It impact on our daily functioning to the point where it can even impact your mood and the long term impact of stress can be harmful on our overall wellbeing. To help manage stress we have put together some tips that you may find helpful.
Identify Warning Signs
How do you know you’re stressed? Some signs include clenching your jaw, experiencing frequent headaches, or feeling agitated or short tempered. Everyone’s warning signs are different. Take some time to get to know yours.
Know your Triggers
Triggers for stress can be anything from being hungry, to certain family members, work pressure, finances, and just generally how we feel about ourselves. Experiencing triggers can raise our levels of stress. If you can anticipate what your triggers are then you can be prepared to face them.
Establish Helpful Routines
Maintaining a helpful routine is hard. Work out what you need as a bare minimum to function every day and stick to it. Having a routine in this way gives you a sense of calm and reassurance which can put you in a better place to handle stress.
Spend time with People Who Care
This isn’t always easy, but surrounding yourself with likeminded people can help you to feel less stressed. This will also enable you an opportunity to “offload” as bottling things up can be harmful.
Look after your Physical Health
Looking after your physical health also means looking after your mental health. By eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, and maintaining a good sleep routine, you are working to maintain a piece of the puzzle in managing stress.
Notice Unhelpful Self Talk
Let’s face it, we all talk to ourselves in our own head. Sometimes this talk is quite critical. When you notice that this form of self-talk is more unhelpful than helpful, try being gentle on yourself and encouraging yourself to keep going and to push through no matter how hard it seems.
Self-Monitor
Self-monitoring is probably one the most useful ways of managing stress. Check in with yourself sporadically throughout the day to see where your levels of stress are at in that moment. If you feel like it’s not too bad then keep going. If you feel overwhelmed or that you’re struggling, then choose an activity to help you to de-stress.
Practice Meditation and/or Relaxation
Practicing relaxation and/or meditation is not easy. It’s a hard thing to do because you’re being asked to be alone with your thoughts. Many people spend a lot of time avoiding or ignoring their thoughts, however when we drop the struggle and make room for our thoughts irrespective of how we feel about them, then we can also alleviate our stress levels. This takes practise and patience.
When to get Help?
If you feel like you’re doing everything you can but are still struggling then our clinicians can help. To make anappointment with our team give us a call on 9882-8874.