It’s Stress Awareness Day and this national day is a great opportunity to make people more aware of the impact stress has on people’s daily lives, being personal or professional, and how to cope with levels of stress at home and in the workplace.
In this day and age, it is almost impossible to be stress free, life challenges us in multiple ways that will eventually cause stress. What is important, is the intensity of this stress, consistency and how you manage stress. This article is great for yourself as an employee, employers, or as friends and family who might need to support someone who seems to be overwhelmed and stressed.
Levels of stress
There are different types of stress, from instant stress, temporary stress and prolonged/chronic stress. Different types of situations can cause different people to deal with levels of stress differently. A small amount of stress, instant stress, can often motivate you to get tasks completed on time, whether it be at home or in the workplace. However higher levels of prolonged stress, chronic stress, can have a very different outcome, leaving people unable to cope with the simplest of tasks.
Chronic Stress is a very different type of stress and impacts the daily lives of many people. Over the past couple of years many of us have had very big life changes. This could be from; the pandemic, remote working, feeling isolated or having to spend time apart from family and friends for long periods of time, inflation and cost of living etc. These situations have impacted our daily lives and have left many people having to cope with chronic stress on a daily basis.
Stress management
So, what can we do? Everyone deals with stress differently and finds certain things/situations more stressful than others. It’s critical that you create ways that can manage your stress in a way that best suits you. Below are a few things that are suggested to help with stress management.
Instant or temporary stress management:
- Meditation – calms your body and mind.
- Positive thinking – think of it as a temporary issue that can be improved or even think of the positives of the situation rather than focusing on the negatives.
- Create a gratitude list – similar to the above but think about what you’re thankful for and have now rather than stressing about what hasn’t even occurred yet for example.
- Why not take a break and reflect on the situation – stop and slow down your thinking process, praise yourself on how well you dealt with the stress and got through the situation.
- Hobbies, music and exercise – these all contribute to managing stress and/or forgetting about it to ease your stress levels.
- Most importantly, ask for help! This is crucial to stress management, get support from colleagues or family and friends to aid you with whatever is making you stressed.
If you think you have continuous stress (prolonged or chronic stress), you should:
- Address problems one at a time as they occur.
- Recognise and accept that we all have limits.
- Take responsibility for things you are totally responsible for and nothing else.
- Set yourself some easily achievable goals each day, whether this be at work or at home – we all strive on having a purpose and seeing it come into fruition.
- Have realistic expectations of yourself and others, remember that in life you will face stressful situations, it’s just about how you manage them.
- Realise when you need to ask for help and be clear of what help you need, (don’t be afraid to reach out to family, friends or colleagues).
- Think back on previous stressful situations and what the outcome was – this can help with resolving future potential stressful situations.
- Make time for yourself and talk about these stressful situations with others.
Employer Top Tip
- How about starting a support group or implementing a program within the organisation that will aid everyone through these situations. This will create a good support network for employees.
So, all in all Stress Awareness Day encourages individuals and organisations to ensure their colleagues, friends and family are looking after their wellbeing, mental health and health in general. This is so you can enjoy your day-to-day life and not be consumed with stress but instead build resilience against stressful situations with effective management.
A great resource you can check out and gain more in-depth information, is from Mind, a mental health charity: Managing stress and building resilience – tips – Mind