Stress Management 2020
While it may seem like there is nothing you can do about stress at work and home, there are steps you can take to relieve the pressure and regain control.
Why is it so important to manage stress?
If you are living with high levels of stress, you are putting your entire well-being at risk. Stress wreaks havoc on your emotional equilibrium, as well as your physical health. It narrows your ability to think clearly, function effectively, and enjoy life. It may seem like there is nothing you can do about stress. The bills won’t stop coming, there will never be more hours in the day, and your work and family responsibilities will always be demanding. But you have a lot more control than you might think.
Effective stress management helps you break the hold stress has on your life, so you can be happier, healthier, and more productive. The goal is a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, fun and the resilience to hold up under pressure and meet challenges head on. But stress management is not one-size-fits-all. That’s why it’s important to experiment and find out what works best for you.
Identify the sources of stress in your life
Stress management starts with identifying the sources of stress in your life. This isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. While it’s easy to identify major stressors such as changing jobs, moving, or going through a divorce, pinpointing the sources of chronic stress can be more complicated. It’s all too easy to overlook how your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours contribute to your everyday stress levels. Sure, you may know that you’re constantly worried about work deadlines, but maybe it’s your procrastination, rather than the actual job demands, that is causing the stress.
To identify your true sources of stress, look closely at your habits, attitude, and excuses:
Do you explain away stress as temporary (“I just have a million things going on right now”) even though you cannot remember the last time you took a breather.
Do you define stress as an integral part of your work or home life (“Things are always crazy around here”) or as a part of your personality (“I have a lot of nervous energy, that’s all”)?
Do you blame your stress on other people or outside events, or view it as entirely normal and unexceptional?
Until you accept responsibility for the role you play in creating or maintaining it, your stress level will remain outside your control. You can learn to manage stress and lead a happier, healthier life.
Here are some tips to help you keep stress at bay
It is all about your attitude- Keep it positive and avoid negative self-talk
Accept that there are events/situations that you cannot control
Be assertive instead of aggressive. Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive
Learn and practice relaxation techniques; try meditation, yoga, or tai-chi for stress management
Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better when it is fit
Eat healthy, well-balanced meals
Learn to manage your time more effectively
Set limits appropriately and learn to say no to requests that would create excessive stress in your life
Make time for hobbies, interests, and relaxation
Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events
Do not rely on alcohol, drugs, or compulsive behaviours to reduce stress
Seek out social support. Spend enough time with those you enjoy
Seek treatment with a social worker, psychologist or other mental health professional trained in stress management to learn healthy ways of dealing with stress in your life
Try Breathing Exercises for Relaxation
Have you ever noticed how you breathe when you feel relaxed? The next time you are relaxed, take a moment to notice how your body feels. Or think about how you breathe when you first wake up in the morning or just before you fall asleep. Breathing exercises can help you relax.
Deep breathing is one of the best ways to lower stress in the body. This is because when you breathe deeply, it sends a message to your brain to calm down and relax. The brain then sends this message to your body. Those things that happen when you are stressed, such as increased heart rate, fast breathing, and high blood pressure, all decrease as you breathe deeply to relax.
The way you breathe affects your whole body. Breathing exercises are a good way to relax, reduce tension, and relieve stress.
Breathing exercises are easy to learn. You can do them whenever you want, and you do not need any special tools or equipment to do them.
There are lots of breathing exercises you can do to help relax. The exercise below, known as belly breathing is simple to learn and easy to do. It's best to start there if you have never done breathing exercises before.
Belly breathing is easy to do and very relaxing. Try this basic exercise anytime you need to relax or relieve stress.
Sit or lie flat in a comfortable position
Put one hand on your belly just below your ribs and the other hand on your chest
Take a deep breath in through your nose, and let your belly push your hand out. Your chest should not move
Breathe out through pursed lips as if you were whistling. Feel the hand on your belly go in and use it to push all the air out
Do this breathing 3 to 10 times. Take your time with each breath
Notice how you feel at the end of the exercise.
Reasons Why Maintaining a Work-life Balance Is So Important
What is a work-life balance?
Maintaining a work-life balance is about separating your personal and professional lives without allowing one to encroach upon the other. Both are important, neither should be neglected.
The necessity of maintaining a Work-Life Balance is
To maintain your mental health
A very common issue that you may have heard about is burnout. This occurs when immense pressure is put onto a person, culminating in “chronic stress.” That stress could be caused by a variety of things, from outrageous workloads (and no work-life balance) to simply not feeling valued for the hard work you do.
If you do notice that you have been acting out of character lately then it may be time to start assessing your work-life balance or speaking to a professional.
To ensure your physical health and wellbeing
And, as the old adage says: healthy body, healthy mind, so a great way to maintain your mental health is to ensure that you are physically feeling healthy too. That includes regular exercise and eating healthy but also not overdoing it.
Work-Life Balance increases productivity
Studies reveal that those who maintain a steady work-life balance are much more productive than those who do not. A positive way of life automatically leads to amazing results.
Become a more rounded individual
If your life revolves around work, then you lose a lot of the other positive dimensions. Having interests outside of work will increase and improve your skills and make you a more rounded and interesting individual. You will be able to share those experiences and knowledge with other people.
You only get one life
You only get one life, so live it to the fullest (Whatever happiness means to you, chase it).You do not want to get years down the line and realise you missed out; time is something you can never get back.
We as PROCARE are here to support you and your Family during your stay at home period. We also provide counselling via digital platforms (E.g. Skype, WhatsApp video, Zoom) as well as Telephone counselling.
For Professional Confidential Counselling contact us on 0861 776 227 or directly on our
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Sources utilized:
https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-management
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm