8 Key Stress Management Solutions
1 - Identify your Stressors
Take some time to consider what tends to set stress off for you. Often it's to do with change or loss in our lives, and may fit into the following situations:
Divorce/separation Illness or accident
Financial issues Bereavement
Discrimination Work problems
Lack of sleep Health worries
Job problems Relationship problems
Poor diet Poor environment
And it’s worth remembering that happy events such as marriage, moving home, promotion and having kids can also increase stress.
2 - Consider your thinking patterns
Step back and notice if your thoughts are fast streaming and a little disordered or negative? Are they emotionally influenced and not reflecting the facts of a situation? This comes with the stress territory and generally demotivates us from taking positive action. Making an effort to become aware of unhelpful thoughts and challenging their validity can help break the stress cycle and is one of the aims of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). Balancing thoughts into a more realistic perspective is not easy but has a positive impact on reducing stress. Developing compassion for yourself in your thinking has big benefits and is a growing area of research.
Practicing some form of Mindfulness is another way to ‘unhook’ from thoughts about the future or past and focus back on the present moments. It’s not about getting rid of unwelcome thoughts but acknowledging they are there and choosing not to focus on them; let them be on the back seat.
It doesn’t need to be formal meditation, being in nature is the most obvious place to get away from it all and soak up the scenery and fresh air. We can also practice it in our gardens and our houses by having an intention to come out of our thinking spirals for a short while and simply focus on our daily actions or our hobbies.
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another”
3 - Breathe
Always at the top of any stress management protocol is to understand and manage your breathing. One of the key pieces of information that our primitive emotional brain will use to understand that we are not under threat, is when our rational mind, our prefrontal cortex, takes control and overrules the stress response when we choose to slow the breath down, effectively putting on the brake. Try the 4-7-8 method in the video below…..get yourself in a comfortable seated position and follow the voice that will guide you through. Practise it a few times a day regardless of how you are feeling, and certainly use it when you need to calm physiological symptoms of stress.
4 - Problem solving techniques
When stressed we may experience brain fog when our concentration, memory and reasoning skills feel limited. Problem-solving is a useful way to return to some form of ordered thinking by giving our mind a framework to work with. Clarify what the specific problem is and brainstorm possible solutions. After listing the pros and cons of each option, choose one to put into action.
5 - Build regular exercise into your life
I know it’s repeated over and over but physically working out (in whatever way you fancy) gets your blood circulating and regulates your breathing, balancing the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood (as opposed to a stressed state when these gases are not in balance). It discharges tension in your muscles and helps the body unwind.
Exercise also includes stretching and flexibility. Yoga is a fantastic way to release tension in the muscles by stretching. It also encourages a slowing and deepening of breath in ways that mediate the stress response.
6 - Make time to spend with others
Connection and engaging with other humans (and our pets) stimulates our resting social engagement system, our ventral vagus nerve, that signifies contentment, safety, cooperation, security and healthy relaxation. This is the complete opposite to the stress response, and research shows that caring creates resilience. Plan time for this to make sure it happens.
7 - Relaxation
To feel relaxed, our heart and breathing rate need to slow down into a mode of calm and soothing slowness, when our mind will also be more settled. Breathing exercises, meditation, gardening, being in nature, perhaps a warm (but not hot) bath with relaxing bath oil to stimulate our sense of smell. Reading something you’re interested in also helps as it requires us to sit calmly and quietly, but make sure it’s not a thriller! And don’t forget music can be a great mood changer, so keep your favourite music playing.
8 - Eat and Sleep well
Not always easy to do when busy and stressed, but these are the two non- negotiable fuels for your body if you want it to function well. These both provide a strong foundation that helps protect you from ill physical and mental health.