Stress Awareness Day- Tips for relieving stress

Written by Sophie Allen

We all have experiences with stress; our own stress-points, tolerances, manifestations and coping methods. Some of us tend to get more stressed at work, some at home or some are generally more prone to stress than others.

Personally, I’m a big stresser. For me, it goes hand-in-hand with my anxiety. But, how do we confront this? Here are 3 techniques I’ve found helpful that you too can utilise to help relieve stress.

1. Self Care:

The practice of taking care of your mental, emotional and even physical health. Even taking just 5-10 minutes a day for self care can help improve your mindset. There’s no “right way” to practise self care, what works for you may not work for other people. That being said, I wanted to include a few generic examples that may help you get started:

5-15 minutes: Sit with a cup of tea and take that time for yourself or cuddle a furry friend.

30-60 minutes: Take a bath, read or journal.

1-2 hours: Watch an episode of a program or a film. 

Exercise: Go for a walk, attend an activity class or adopt a regular workout routine. 

Hobbies: Play a video game, paint, craft or do some gardening. 

2. Worry time:  

Worries can be a large source of stress. If you find that your worries are taking over, it can help to try to manage this by setting yourself some "worry time”. Worry time is a period of time that you can set aside - whether 15 minutes a day or an hour - where you can focus on your worries and reflect. This provides us with a designated time to feel those emotions, embrace those uncomfortable feelings and even formulate solutions during this time, rather than worrying about them throughout the day. 

Within this time you can write your worries down, talk about them with somebody or simply work through them in your head. Following this, be sure to practise self care in some way to offset those feelings, especially if you’re carrying out your worry time before bed.

3. Engage your senses: 

By engaging your senses, it can help relieve stress. The following technique is a grounding technique to help ease the mind, it’s called ‘Right Now’ and it focuses on what’s happening in the moment.

As soon as you notice those overwhelming thoughts and feelings, say to yourself: “STOP!” Then think about or say out loud in that moment:

5 things you can see right now,

4 things you can hear right now,

3 things you can touch right now, and touch them if you can,

2 things you can smell or like the smell of,

1 slow, deep breath. 

Focus on your breathing before shifting your focus of attention onto something different. This can help you refocus; I know for me it’s helped stop spiralling worries and stressful thoughts. 

These are just a few things you can try yourself, shared with you in light of ‘Stress Awareness Day’. I hope some of these practices are as helpful for you as they have been for me. Remember, it's okay not to be okay and taking breaks is important to help stay happy and healthy. Stress comes and goes, but there’s only one you in this world. Take care of yourself - you’re truly one in 8 billion!