Our top 5 Stress Management Tips

Stress has its role in life as a motivating kick in the butt.

A good level of stress should be manageable. You should feel confident that you will have things under control.

But if you think you’re stressed but don’t trust that ‘everything will be OK’, you may actually be bordering on anxiety or burnout.

Stress becomes a concern when we are “spending above our means,” – we’ve surpassed our stress threshold. This could be one traumatic event, or it could be ongoing, relentless emotional or mental pressure.

Everyone’s ability to deal with stress is different.  

The goal of Stress Management is to aim to increase your strength to deal with pressures, present or future.

Our top 5 Self Care Tips for Stress Management

#1 Lifestyle

How you live your life day to day can have a profound effect on stress.

A healthy lifestyle can both help and manage stress.

Exercise

Exercise helps in the management of stress by burning off the cortisol, adrenaline and the extra energy stress releases. Plus, it gives you a hit of endorphins – double whammy!

Aim to achieve the recommended 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 days per week. But if you’re feeling a bit on edge, a HIIT session might be in order to burn off the stress. Get to a boxing class, swing some kettlebells, or do some sprints. Or maybe you’re the opposite and respond better to yoga or tai chi?

 Diet

Nourish yourself with healthy food!

Stress places extra demand on the body and we go through more vitamins and minerals, so you need to make sure you’re feeding your body what it needs,

Try to avoid junk food, stimulants and depressant. These place extra stress on the body through increased inflammation and create difficult fluctuations in energy levels.

Sleep

Stress is tiring!

Make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Quality sleep can be hard to get when you’re stressed, but we have some tips for you here.

Relax

Schedule downtime!

Relaxing can be hard if you’re stressed and overwhelmed but try to make it a priority. Schedule some relaxing activities into your diary. Maybe a bubble bath with some lavender oil? Whatever relaxes you!  

Laugh

Watch a comedy, scroll funny videos on youtube or hang out with a friend who makes you laugh.  This can be a fun distraction but also provides relief and endorphins.

#2 Massage

Our body literally gets tense and sore from the stress.

Massages though, especially frequent ones, aren’t the most-friendly for your savings account, but lucky for you, self-massage can be just as effective!

Use a foam roller, massage ball or your dog’s (new) tennis ball. Get into those knots, you’ll find them. There’s usually heaps around the neck, shoulders, back and hips. Remember to breath. And it’s ok to cry.

Whether its paid or self-massage, both help relax these muscles, can improve breathing quality and wake up some endorphins.

#3 Focus

Properly focusing both strengthens and relaxes the brain.

Throughout the day try to be mindful of your present situation, with your attention on what you’re doing Right Now. Do one thing at a time (multitasking can exacerbate stress!).

The next level is meditation. Meditation can be an exercise for your brain. There are various types of meditation, but in general, you focus on one thing. Focusing on your breath not only takes attention away from the stress but also literally decreases your physical stress response by activating the Vagus nerve, which functions to decrease heart rate and blood pressure.

Alternative options to change your focus involve immersing yourself in activities that derive your pleasure or satisfaction.

Have you tried colouring-in, listening to music, reading or finding shapes in the clouds?

Or perhaps getting into some more serious hobbies like playing music, drawing, woodwork or pottery? In addition to taking you out of the stress world, you can get some extra endorphins and dopamine though that sense of achievement!

#4 Connect

Connection helps us humans feel safe and whole.

Connect with your purpose, remind yourself what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

Connect with friends and family. They can also be a great distraction for some laughs, or just help you feel safe through fuelling some oxytocin release (your love hormone).

Connect with fur babies (yours or someone else’s!). Playing and petting pets has actually been shown to decrease stress in humans. (More oxytocin!)

Connect with nature, breathe fresh air and admire the natural beauty. This helps with the breathing tip above 😉 But it also helps us step back and appreciate what we have.

#5 Question your stress

What are you stressing about? Do you even know!?

These things you're stressing about, how serious are they? What are the consequences? Are there any other ways you could look at it? (Humour me).

Life can be a bit like a problem-solving game - take some time to play the game and brainstorm some solutions around how to resolve the stress or decrease the impact 💪

If you have a fair bit to work through, talking through it all with a counsellor can really help – this is their job, they specialise in this!

Measuring your stress

We use HRV monitoring which can literally show us your capacity to deal with stress.  But you can watch our social media for other fun tests you can do at home to assess your stress levels.

Hopefully that gives you some extra tools to show stress who’s boss. As always, we’d love to hear your opinions or answer any questions you may have!