How To Cope With Stress

July 8, 2019 8:00 am Published by Dayana Nikolova

According to the Mental Health Foundation; “Stress is a feeling of being under abnormal pressure. This pressure can come from different aspects of your day to day life. Such as an increased workload, a transitional period, an argument you have with your family or new and existing financial worries. You may find that it has a cumulative effect, with each stressor building on top of one another.”

During situations of stress, you may feel threatened or upset and it can cause a variety of physical and emotional experiences which can change the way you behave.

The first thing to do is to identify your symptoms and find out what is causing you to feel more stressed.

As stress affects each person in a different way, there are many symptoms to identify, most commonly; feelings of worry, anxiety or overwhelm. Perhaps you have difficulty concentrating or relaxing. If you’ve noticed a change in your eating habits or sleeping patterns this could be a sign of stress. Or maybe, you have low self-esteem, mood swings or are short tempered.

The next step to take it to try and eliminate as much of the stress as possible. Perhaps you’re taking on more than usual? If there is someone who can help you, now is a good time to ask for some help. Consider slowing down a little and prioritising tasks that need to be completed. Often we feel stressed when we have a lot of deadlines and things to do, can you push back on a few tasks to give you more time to complete them? If your stress is caused by work factors, speak to your manager or boss about how to distribute the workload more effectively.

Whilst we cannot completely eliminate stress in our lives there are some key things you can do every day to help you effectively manage it, stay well and cope with stress if and when it occurs: