According to stats - sky-high stress levels are on the rise again and its no surprise with the world becoming super busy again. From the petrol crisis, post Brexit shenanigans, the pandemic, and Christmas looming ( 9 weeks to go -Yikes) it got me thinking how can we recognise the signs of stress.
If you can detach and see the signals, you have a much better chance of working through it.
Emotional Stress Symptoms can be any or all of these and, we all feel them during periods of our day and week.
Being irritable and impatient
Overwhelmed
Anxious
Low self esteem
Mental Stress
Indecisive
Constantly worrying
Brain racing
Brain fog
Physical stress
Muscle tension
Anxiety attacks
Dizziness
Headaches
Insomnia
Lethargy
Bowel changes
Reduced libido
The amount of symptoms you can relate to depend on a number of factors in life but the key is how to manage the stress. Just like when all is sailing perfectly in life with friends and family, there is no concrete indication of feeling perfectly fine. There will always be stressful situations in life but knowing how to deal with them is most important.
So how do we manage stress?
Don’t Avoid It
Sometimes we try avoiding stress to the determent of ourselves and the more we avoid it the more it exacerbates our stress levels.
Making lists of each stressor and prioritise what’s more stressful can create clarity on what's getting you bent out of shape and what you can do about it.
For those stress points you can’t do anything about, just acknowledge them and then choose something that will alleviate pressure and bring calm.
Set small goals
When life and work is overwhelming, try breaking larger tasks down into smaller goals to help you process the overall project. SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and with a set timeframe) although not useful for every situation can be make objectives seem more realistic.
Move
Run, lift, yoga, walk, dance, HIT, climb are great ways to cancels out the negative impact chronic stress has on the temporal lobe responsible for learning and memory. Doing any of these sessions with a friend or in a group reduces stress by 26 % according to a study at The Osteopathic Association. How amazing is that?
Be kind to yourself
Show yourself some love by taking a long bath before hoping into bed with some clean linen. Try a treatment, massage or simply talk to someone or take a nap. An early night can do wonders.
Meditation and mindfulness are tools to use be aware of our difficult emotions and negative emotional habits. The more aware we are of theme the less power they have.
Reduce Sugar
We all reach for something sugary when we are feeling stressed. Stress triggers an increase in the body's levels of the fight-or-flight hormone cortisol. A sugar rush does not have positive effects on your mood, infact over time it may have the opposite effect.
Sugar can help you feel less frazzled by suppressing the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis in your brain, which controls your response to stress.
Simply being aware that stressful situations can affect blood sugar can prepare you to have better habits
Sleep
The essentials of stress management is to have 7-9 hours of sleep, wind down time and screen free routine. I keep my phone downstairs to not interrupt my sleep pattern if I wake up during the night.
Take a breather
Being in nature helps release stress symptoms but another method is to try hearing the sound rain, sea or rustling fields on any audio platform like Spotify.
Of course, a regular yoga practice will help reduce stress symptoms and improve your ability to deal stress in the long-term. Sophrology is a technique using meditation, breathing and relaxation techniques with gentle movement and visualisation that are being used in schools across Switzerland and France.
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