Are you stressed? Take this quiz to find out.
September is the new January for implementing change. The new academic year, children back at school and with the days getting shorter it is important to start to create new habits now. Let's face it, as come January and February it's often too cold and dark to allow yourself the freedom to explore new rituals, activities or hobbies.
Awareness is the first step to making changes. Start off by asking yourself the following questions:
Are you finding yourself being nervous or on edge, worrying about things that you would normally let go?
A - Yes sometimes. I can lie awake thinking through things that don’t matter and getting myself worked up but other nights I fall straight to sleep
B - Never. I feel good and incontrol of my choices
C - All of the time. I am overthinking all of the time, this makes me stressed and anxious
I find it hard to relax, this means I lose concentration and can feel restless
A - I find it really easy to turn off and relax
B - This is like me, I struggle to turn my mind off and this means I can’t relax
C- I can find myself fidgeting and losing concentration but normally fine
I feel annoyed and irritable
A - Never, I am good and managing my mood around others
B - All of the time, I keep on getting in conflicts at home and/or work
C - Sometimes but not often
I feel like something awful might happen
A - All of the time thinking about all the bad things that could happen
B - Sometimes about some things but often I can control this and/or distract myself
C - Never, I feel in control of what is happening to me and/or around me
If you are mainly oranges: keep this up
What you are doing is working for you but there are always ways to improve your lifestyle and wellbeing. Making time for exercise, meditation and meaningful connections can improve our quality of life and resilience to stress. Think about what you can do in your week or day to enhance these qualities.
If you are mainly greens: Make room for slight changes to see if they can help
Consider: The impact of regular light to moderate exercise to your routine. This could be simply going for a walk at lunch time or starting to attend a couple of yoga classes a week. Exercise is a natural way to combat early stages of stress and releases endorphins which can help manage our mood.
Try some stress combatting techniques such as:
Reach out and connect with people. Meaningful connections help improve our well being, working from home has many benefits but it often means we deprive ourselves from human interaction. With this in mind, reach out to friends and family, make time to be sociable or join a gym or class which feels inclusive. If you are struggling with this then it is also good to talk, you can get in touch with both myself and Sian to off load and get some helpful tips to manage stress better.
If you are mainly purple: Take Action
As well as all the tips listed above it is probably worth taking some time out and reaching out for help and support. This can help you find new ways to manage stress. Often when you are in the thick of feeling stressed, we feel too overwhelmed to do anything about it. This is not the case. Just by taking action and booking an appointment you are taking the first steps to combat stress and make the changes in the right direction.
For a free and confidential call book in with Victoria or Siân.