International Stress Awareness Week

Today is the beginning of International Stress Awareness Week (7 – 11 November). It was created to raise awareness for stress-related mental health issues. Stress is an automatic physical, mental and emotional response to a challenging event. It's a normal part of everyone's life. When used positively, stress can lead to growth, action, and change. But negative, long-term stress can lessen the quality of life. In this article we want to provide advice on how to manage stress, starting with the stigma that surrounds this type of problems. As Covid-19 has caused an increase in mental health issues, particularly loneliness and grief, we want to give stress management the right amount of attention.   

To make the situation clearer we will now speak numbers. 3 out of 4 people are unable to cope with the levels of stress in their lives, 2 out of 4 people are feeling anxious, and 1 out of 4 people report to have suicidal thoughts.    

What we as healthcare providers can do is focusing on emotional management, giving you advice how to tackle this problem. The first issue is with the avoidant behavior towards stress, because it’s preventing people’s recovery. If we know our triggers, we can be able to manage it the best way we can.   

So what are the most common causes of stress?   

• Pressure to Succeed – 60% Young Adults;   
• Self-Image – 49% of Young Adults;   
• Health – 36% of Adults;   
• Body Image – 36% of Women & 23% of Men;   
• Housing – 32% of Young Adults;   
• Work – 26% of Adults;   
• Debt – 22% of Adults.   

What can we do to manage stress? Let’s put it in simple words. If a flower does not bloom, do we blame the flower or its environment?  The first thing we do is check the soil, the light, the air around it and the humidity. So now let’s think about ourselves as we are that flower, we have to analyze the reasons why we are not sprouting and blooming the right way. Here are 5 simple tips on how to be the best version of ourselves.  

·       Get in touch with your thoughts  

Guided meditation is a great way to spend time with yourself, your thoughts, and your deepest fears. There are many free guided meditations available on the internet that can help you out. When you need guidance to shift your patterns of thinking a talk with a friend, or even better with a therapist. They can give you a key to unlock some abandoned fears that are consciously or subconsciously giving you stress  

·       Practice deep breathing.  

Deep breathing is a great way to reduce the activation of your sympathetic nervous system, which controls the body’s response to a perceived threat. Deep breaths taken in to a count of five seconds, held for two seconds and released to a count of five seconds, can help activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which helps reduce the overall stress and anxiety you may be experiencing.  

·        Maintain physical exercise and good nutrition.  

Physical exercise and nutrition are the two key components in stress management. Physical exercise is proven to be a great stress reliever. Every time we exercise our bodies release hormones called endorphins, that are responsible for that deeply euphoric state following intense exercise.  

Nutrition is important as stress can consume certain vitamins, such as A, B complex, C and E. Maintaining proper nutrition not only helps your body feel better, but your mind as well, which allows you to better combat stress.   

·       Manage social media time.  

We all heard the expression we become what we surround ourselves with, and one of the platforms where we consume the most content is social media. Spending time on social media sites can become stressful, therefore we must be aware of the content we consume, and very picky to use this free content to make ourselves feel good  

• Connect with others.  

Humans are social beings. You need to have connections with people to feel supported. Finding a sense of community, whether at work, or through shared activities, such as organized sports, is important to our well-being. Enjoying a shared activity allows you to find support and foster relationships that can be supportive in difficult times.