Identify Your Triggers

Identifying your stress triggers will help you to recognise them and give you a window of opportunity to act before the feeling becomes overwhelming.

Try making a note of when you are feeling stressed and identify the thoughts or events that have led to it. You will start to see that pressure in certain areas of your life builds up to stress – especially when there are multiple areas of pressure at any one time.

Is there anything you can do to relieve these pressure points in the long and short term?

We have some short-term solutions below. Long-term solutions may be to budget better for less financial stress, improve your relationships through self-awareness or therapy, or harmonise your work-life balance to name a few. You can find help with these here – Wellbeing Academy

Short-Term Stress Busters

Take time out. Everybody has different ways they like to take time out for themselves. Having a complete change of scenery or engaging in an activity to distract your mind and bring you out of the stressful situation can immediately change your mindset. You can address the problem when you feel more rational later on.
Get outside. Having a complete change of scenery can drastically improve your mood. If you can take a walk on your lunch break, early in the morning or after work, you can drastically reduce your stress levels.
Get a hobby. Finding something in life that you enjoy, away from work, is another really good way of reducing stress.
Connect with like-minded people. Spending time with people who relate to you can be like therapy. Stay in touch with your mates, make some new ones or pick up the phone to a relative.
Get moving. Taking time out of your day to focus on your physical wellbeing. There is no end of options here and some don’t cost a penny. An hour in the gym, pounding the tarmac on a run, swimming, or playing a sport can help you challenge difficult emotions and cope with stress much more easily.

Accept the Things You Cannot Change

There are many things in our lives that we have control over but there are some we don’t. When we find ourselves in frustrating situations which we cannot change, it is important to remember that while we cannot change the situation, we can change our mindset and our reactions.

Acceptance of something you cannot change can help you to change your mindset about the issue and help you move on faster. When we accept the situation won’t change, we can then focus our energy and time more productively and learn to deal with it.

Effects of Stress

Long term stress can present itself in the following ways: