Stress occurs when you experience an imbalance between demands made on you, and your ability to cope with them.
If you experience ongoing stress, for example in your job or from just keeping up with the demands of busy family life, it’s important for your health to manage it.
Here’s how you can reduce stress and in turn improve your wellbeing.
1. Work out what is making you stressed
Sometimes we might feel stressed and not know why. Online questionnaires can be helpful, however we recommend a health assessment that includes; heart rate tests, galvanic skin response tests, checking cortisol levels and speaking with our doctors who can quickly determine your level of stress.
2. Commit to a new mindset and attitude
This includes taking responsibility for reducing your stress and learning how to live your life ‘purposefully’ – a concept that involves paying attention to what you are doing in any given moment and creating real purpose in your life.
3. Start with some basics
You might not be able to eliminate your stress in one go, but you can start with a few basics – such as healthy nutrition, reducing alcohol, and getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night.
4. Learn mindfulness / meditation
This has been proven to reduce stress and anxiety. Mindfulness training might be best done with a coach or within a group so that you can learn it properly.
5. Regular exercise
Exercise has been shown to reduce stress, as it can help burn up tension and reduce that mental ‘chatter’. It’s important to find something you enjoy doing.
6. Boost your resilience
Being resilient helps you bounce back from adversity more easily. There are various ways to learn resilience – including connecting with others, journaling, and developing a hopeful attitude.
7. Incorporate rest periods into your life
Regular naps can reduce stress and improve immunity, while work breaks can help you to rest, reset and improve your productivity.
8. Break down problems
If a problem seems too big, try breaking it down into manageable chunks. For example, write out a to-do list and tick off tasks as you complete them. This helps you tackle only one thing at a time, and gives you a sense of achievement.
9. Tackle unhelpful thoughts
Our thoughts are sometimes self-critical – such as “I should be doing better” and so on. Learn how to be kind to yourself, and recognise you are doing your best in the given circumstances.
10. Know when to seek help
If you are using alcohol to cope, having trouble sleeping or making decisions, or if stress is making you feel physically unwell, it may be a sign that you need to seek help from a professional counsellor or therapist.
To learn more about stress, its impact on health, check out these health assessments to find out how this could directly be affecting you.
