Stress is a fact of modern-day life. Most of us appreciate how stressful it is trying to juggle all the different areas of our lives and keep everyone happy. Trying to have it all, a business, family and personal life demands a lot of time and organisation. If one of those areas starts to become especially problematical, through relationship difficulties, health issues, pressures at work, then the stress levels can become overwhelming and impact on our general health and wellbeing.
Let's look at stress and how it can affect our health and wellbeing:
- Balance is an important component in achieving a healthy quality of life. When people talk about work/life balance it is appreciated that sometimes life can become out of balance. Urgent deadlines, family responsibilities, conflicting demands on our time all generate additional stress. Finding ways to think clearly at these times, keep some semblance of control, assess what is going on and determine the best way forward allows stress to be managed even if it cannot be eradicated. Hypnotherapy can help to manage stress, become more assertive and maintain clearer thinking.
- Sleep is often affected by stress. A stressed person can become distracted, constantly replaying scenarios in their mind, trying to find solutions to problems or berating themselves over things they should have done differently. Try to remedy this by finding ways to clear the mind before bed and learn to support a good night's sleep. Introduce lists as a way of managing stress; they can provide mental discipline and the reassurance that important matters are not going to be forgotten.
Waking up in the morning after a disturbed night's sleep can start the new day already feeling tired, preoccupied, unwell. Introduce a regular hour to relax before bed and allow your mind to calm and settle, to prepare for a healthy night's sleep. Hypnotherapy can also be a way to support your commitment to relaxing and sleeping well.
- Food can become an issue when a person is stressed, feeling too busy to shop or eat properly, going for long periods without eating, surviving on coffee or snacks and junk food. They may not find the time to cook properly, living instead on pre-chilled supermarket meals or takeaways. But when a person is living in a stressful environment food and nutrition are especially important.
Taking time to shop for healthy food and spending a little time batch cooking at the weekends can ensure that the freezer has healthy, nutritious meals readily available to cook in the evening. A supply of fresh fruit can provide healthy portable snacks that maintain blood sugar levels and improve concentration and focus.
- Regular breaks are an effective way of managing stress and minimising how it can affect our health and wellbeing. Human beings tend to work in ninety minutes bursts of concentration. After that we may notice that our concentration wanes, we become distracted, irritable, tired. Taking a ten minute break to go for a drink of water, some fruit or a breath of fresh air can be enough to recharge the batteries and enable us to return with renewed energy, focus and clearer thinking.
- Mental and physical effort are equally important to provide balance of our health and wellbeing. If we are going through a time of intense mental strain or emotional distress, physical exercise can provide a valuable way to manage the stress and generate good feelings through endorphins. Conversely if tough physical effort is required following it with mental exercise can be an effective stress management technique and help reinstate balance.
Appreciating that we need to be responsible and take care of ourselves, of our health and wellbeing is especially important during times of intense stress. Ensuring that we plan, consider our needs, take care to eat well, exercise regularly, sleep, have time for friends, family and fun are all ways to support ourselves through especially stressful periods. Hypnotherapy can also provide valuable support at these times.
Susan Leigh is a Counsellor and Hypnotherapist who works with stressed individuals to promote confidence and self belief, with couples in crisis to improve communications and understanding and with business clients to support the health and motivation levels of individuals and teams.
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