In such an unpredictable time it’s only natural to experience increased levels of stress and anxiety, which is why it’s more important than ever to learn how to build a personal resilience to stress.
We recently partnered with wellbeing experts Mind It to run a free webinar on how to build a healthy resilience to stress and some tools to help reframe and cope with stress.
Don’t worry if you missed our webinar, we have put together some of the tips on how to deal with personal stress and build an emotional resilience.
Put Your Focus on Things You Can Control
You only have so much mental energy in any given day and where you choose to spend it is up to you. Spending hours mentally worrying about things you can’t change feels disempowering and adds to increased stress and low mood. During our recent wellbeing webinar Zoe, a Mindset Specialist from Mind It advised, “start to notice your thoughts and proactively change the focus to something you can control rather than the things you can’t.”
Monitor and Manage Your ‘Stress Bucket’
We all have a range of demands and pressures to cope with. These things add to our individual ‘stress bucket,’ a metaphor that Zoe shared in our recent webinar. As she said stress isn’t often due to one thing but a build-up of lots of little things. Monitoring how much is in your bucket and using the tips shared to ensure you have healthy coping mechanisms as part of your day-to-day life is the secret to building healthy resilience.
Disconnect
It is important to take some time in your day where you aren’t staring at a screen. We recommend turning your phone off if you can. When we don’t have our phones consistently lighting up with new notifications our productivity is likely to boost which can contribute to a decrease in stress and feelings of being overwhelmed. We have some more simple tips on how to kick-start a digital detox here.
Plan Ahead
As the saying goes “fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” and this is as prevalent as always. To avoid any added stress, try and plan out your day. What tasks do you want to achieve in the working day, be sure to plan an achievable to do list so you can end the day feeling accomplished and positive. If you’re struggling with working from home we have some useful tips on our previous blog: how to stay focussed when working from home
Just Say No
The power of saying no is a great way to deal with stress. For many of us it can be a very difficult thing to say ‘no’ to someone. However, it is incredibly important to find time for yourself and a great way to reduce stress is to not take on additional tasks that are not essential for you to do.
Prioritise Sleep
Sleep is key. Everyone has their own optimal amount of sleep ranging from 4 -10 hours. By making sure you get your optimum amount of sleep it will allow you to be more alert throughout the day and will help you to focus on the different tasks that you are doing. If you’re struggling with your sleep routine we have a blog with helpful tips on how to get back into a good sleep routine.
Exercise
Getting outside and exercising is a great way to clear your mind. If you’re getting stuck in a rut, turn off your laptop and go outside for a walk. Or if you don’t fancy a walk, why not try a home work out? Exercise releases endorphins in your brain which help to relieve stress and help to put you in a more positive mindset. Why not join one of our free weekly virtual chair yoga sessions or if you live locally follow one of our city centre walking routes.
Talk to Someone
If you are struggling to deal with stress and anxiety, then if you can, talk to someone about it. Whether that’s a partner, family member, friend or colleague verbalising your stresses and talking them through with someone can help in understanding how best to reduce them.
A final important reminder from Zoe, “Healthy resilience is not the absence of emotion and the idea of eternal peace; it’s having healthy mechanisms, so you have the confidence to work through your emotions no matter what they are.”
We hope these tips on how to build a healthy resilience to stress are useful and provide you with some practical advice if you are struggling to cope with stress and anxiety.
Due to the popularity of our last two wellbeing webinars with Mind It, we have scheduled in our next one on 26th June 12:30pm. This wellbeing webinar is all about motivation, discovering what motivates us and how we can increase our levels of motivation to be more productive.
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