National Stress Awareness Day
Today is National Stress Awareness Day, and a feeling that many of us have felt at some point this year, during the coronavirus pandemic.
Believe it or not, stress can actually be a good thing. It can improve your brain’s performance, making some people perform better under stress. It makes you more focused, improves your memory and attention span.
Overtime stress can also make you a stronger person. Being able to recognise a stressful situation and figuring out how to deal with it there and then, and not letting it overwhelm you. Giving yourself a greater sense of control and typically making you stronger because you didn’t crack under that pressure. This doesn’t mean we encourage making your life as stressful as possible, as it definitely comes with its negatives too!
Stress Awareness Day can be a day to celebrate, take this opportunity to get rid of your stress. Take the time to recognise where stress affects you and take steps to mitigate them. With that in mind we’ve highlighted some stress relieving techniques below:
- Take deep breaths
This is our number one tip because it really does work! Take yourself away from the stressful situation, sit down comfortably and fill your whole lungs with air, in through your nose, slowly counting 1 to 5, and out through your mouth, let the breath escape slowly. Repeat this process for a few minutes at a time.
- Prepare for tomorrow
Nothing is more stressful than being unorganised for the day ahead. Write yourself a to do list, and get everything prepared. You’ll thank yourself in the morning!
- Laugh
Remove yourself from that situation and do something that will make you laugh. Learning to laugh at yourself is a great form of medicine, next time you do something that would normally upset you, find the positive and laugh. Laughing has many health benefits too.
- Go for a walk or do some exercise
This might be the last thing you want to do when you are stressed, but it will improve your mood, release the tension you have and pumps up your endorphins. Take that first step!
- Journaling
Writing down your negative thoughts can help you analyse your situation and discover a way of dealing with and resolving that stress. Don’t forget to write down the positives too – your achievements for that day too, things you accomplished and things you are grateful for.