April is stress awareness month
At some point in our lives, everybody will feel some stress. In most instances, we can manage this, but if it starts to become an everyday occurrence or you start feeling overwhelmed by stress, it is important to be able to take preventative steps. As a well-known saying states: “you can’t pour from an empty cup.”
But what are the symptoms of stress?
Physical symptoms:
· Headaches/ stomach aches
· Feeling nauseous
· Changes in your sleeping habits
· Eating more or less than usual
· Aches and pains or muscle tension
· Bursting into tears
Emotional symptoms:
· Feeling irritable
· Low self-esteem
· Difficulty relaxing
· Feel like you have lost your sense of humour
· Less interest in things you usually enjoy
· Feeling constantly worried/ overwhelmed
· Difficulty concentrating
These are not all of the symptoms you may experience, but anything that is a change in your physical or emotional presentation could be a sign of stress. Sometimes these can be exacerbated by the way we try to deal with them e.g. using alcohol to relax or eating more or less than you usually would.
If you are feeling any of the symptoms above, or others, and you think they are linked to stress here are some things you can begin to do to support yourself.
Realise when your symptoms are linked to stress:
Do you often suffer from specific symptoms at a certain time of the day?
Do you feel less able to deal with things that normally would not bother you?
Identify the cause
Is something big happening in your personal or work life
Are you feeling that you have too many things to get done in one area of your life and not enough time to do them?
Make some changes, even if they are small:
1) Make a plan:
It could be as simple as writing all your to-do’s in one big list, including those post-it notes and scribbles from your notebook as you go through the week. Once you know the extent of your tasks, you can start to order things into urgent tasks, medium tasks and things to do in a spare moment. Remember to ‘eat your frog each day’ - make sure you prioritise the most important task with the highest value to your organisation/ yourself as the first thing you complete each day.
Breaking your day into bite-sized chunks - the next hour, the next day, the next meeting can help to make things feel less overwhelming and give you space for some clearer thinking.
You could also make a plan for upcoming days that you think are going to be particularly stressful - listing out things you need for this particular day, planning timings and routes if you are travelling, or working out why this day is going to be particularly stressful and what would help you make things better.
2) Take a break:
Even if it’s only for a few hours, it can give you some space to reflect on the cause of your stress and make some plans. In many cases, taking a small break can be more productive as you come back to the task with a clear way forward.
3) Talk to someone:
Seek out a trusted friend, family member or colleague and talk about how you are feeling. Sometimes just sharing the problem can make some of your worries disappear.
4) Get active:
Exercising can help you to burn off nervous energy which in turn can lead to clearer thinking - how many times do you find your mind wandering on a walk or run and suddenly you get that flash of inspiration that you were missing. Exercise also helps with your sleep routine and general wellbeing.
5) Challenge your thinking:
Clear your mind by focusing on some deep breathing. Then give yourself the space to reflect on how your attitude might be keeping you in the same mindset.
What can you do in this situation?
How can you change?
How will changing things affect your emotions?
How would you feel about the change?
Think through different solutions to change your perspective of the situation
You may also need to accept that there are some things that you cannot change. This may not be easy and so focusing on how you can make things more acceptable in this situation is a good way forward.