Tips to Manage Stress

This month we have been looking at ways we can manage stress. Everyone feels stress at some point in their lives. A little bit of stress can be a good thing, but it is useful to learn how to manage stress so it doesn’t build up and affect your mood. When stress strikes, adrenaline surges through your body. This hormone can make you feel breathless, anxious, dizzy and even a bit sick. This month, we’re finding ways we can overcome this sensation.

Here are some steps for relieving stress:

• Teach yourself new strategies you’ve not tried before. For example, you might try mindfulness colouring to help you focus on the present moment, rather than worrying about things that may or may not happen in the future. There are mindfulness colouring pages in this year’s Journal for you to try.

• Make sure you are getting enough sleep. If you’re having trouble sleeping, take a look at our tips for getting a good night’s sleep.

• Remove stressful triggers from your environment. Sometimes this isn’t always possible, but small things like setting a ‘phone-free’ hour in the evening can help.

• According to research, exercise can release hormones which make you feel relaxed. You could go for a walk once a day and listen to some music!

• Give yourself opportunities to celebrate small successes. This will help you build confidence so that if you become stressed, you know you have the tools to manage it.

• Strategies you’ve used in the past can be used again to help deal with stressful thoughts. Build your ‘stress management toolkit’ by remembering what works best for you.

If you have any of your own tips on how to manage stress, feel free to email them to communications@creativesupport.co.uk so we can post them on our social media! You never know, you might be able to help someone else through a hard time!

Take a look at the Managing Stress section of this year’s Journal.  You can download our 2024 Journal here, filled with tips to manage stress.