Unfortunately, stress can be a common part of life. Stress can be caused through work, family life or general overwhelm.
Stress can affect you physically and mentally from sever headaches to putting pressure on your relationships there’s so many way stress can show up in your life.
If you’re unsure of what steps to take to support yourself, it can become a vicious cycle.
In this blog we want to share with you 6 accessible, short-term steps you can take to look after your mental health.
6 accessible short term steps you can take to look after your mental health:
Identify the cause.
The first step to feeling better is to identify the cause of your stress. What is it that’s actually making you stressed? Once you can identity this you can get to work on making a change. If you’re unsure, throughout the day or week notice when your feelings of stress arise.
Identify who your support network is.
If you’re not sure of who your support network is, ask yourself; Who makes me feel better? Who can I talk to who takes the time to listen? Who can support me during this tough time? This may be a friend or a family member, or it may be a support worker or another professional. Once you’ve identified them, make sure you talk and ask for help. You can relive the pressures and symptoms of stress simply by talking to someone.
Schedule in down time
Work/life balance can be tough to establish. So to support yourself, take the time to book in activities that you know will allow you to rejuvenate – think about the activities you enjoy like baking, walking or traveling and schedule time in the future to enjoy those things. Also think about simple ways to relax like having a ‘phone-free’ evening or enjoying a long bath.
Be active
Exercise is known to be a stress buster, if done in an enjoyable way. Don’t exercise to punish yourself, exercise to treat your body. You can exercise by going on a walk or a gentle run or if you prefer to be social (which is also great for reducing stress), we have a range of fun dance and fitness classes. You can see our full timetable here: www.nouveauwellbeing.co.uk
Take control – don’t wait for the stress to ‘disappear’ over time.
During a stressful period, it’s really important to be pro-active and understand what’s causing you stress and make a plan to take care of yourself. It’s so easy to let the symptoms of stress get worse and even wait for the stress to ‘disappear’ but unfortunately that will only make things worse. Take the information from this article and really put it into practice in your life.
Accept the things you can’t change.
This is all part of having a positive outlook. In life, there’s many things we can’t control and when we do try to control those things, we experience a lot of stress and upset. Focus on what you can pro-actively change and enjoy working towards your new goals.
We hope these short term steps support you. We would advise always speaking to a professional if you feel you need more help or feel extremely overwhelmed.
