2 November is National Stress Awareness Day in the UK and I have shared some effective self-care tips on my social media accounts this morning:
Brighter Beginnings Therapy on Facebook
Brighter Beginnings Therapy on Instagram
Self-care to reduce stress is great, helping relieve symptoms of stress but getting to the root cause of stress can help long-term.
What is stress?
According to the World Health Organisation, stress is "a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation" (1.) and we all have different situations that cause us stress and we all react to these situations differently.
Underlying causes of stress
I, personally, find supermarket shopping stressful, I will avoid it at all costs, but others do not find this stressful at all, in fact, some people seem to really enjoy it! Getting to the root cause of the stress meant me looking at what about it I find stressful. I detest parking the car, I feel overwhelmed with the sheer number of people in supermarkets, the bright lights, the noise, having to make choices about what food to get, how much to get, how much money it is going to cost and navigating a trolley around people when I am incredibly clumsy (and often impatient). So, I do things to reduce my stress. I shop online and then go collect it whenever possible, if I have to go to a supermarket, I pick one with plenty of parking and I go at a quieter time. I wear loop ear buds to reduce the noise and I write a meal plan for the week with a specific list of what I need so I don't have to make decisions on the fly. If I'm really lucky, my son will come with me and he gets the joyous task of pushing the trolley. I also do a five minute grounding technique before I set off to calm my anxiety around this seemingly simple task.
What if stress is taking over my life?
This was a very simple and humorous take on a situation that I find stressful. Often, stress is about something much bigger or much deeper, especially for those who have suffered trauma or abuse. When we have been traumatised we can become hypervigilant and our brains detect life-threatening situations in simple, every day activities. Going to a supermarket might seem simple but what if I see my abuser? What if the overwhelming feeling I get from the environment triggers flashbacks of the brain fog and helplessness I felt in that relationship? My brain, and my body are unable to distinguish between the two, very different, situations.
What can I do?
Grounding techniques such as 5-4-3-2-1 or box breathing are fantastic ways to keep calm in stressful situations. Reaching out to a therapist to work in identifying the underlying causes of your stress and finding ways to integrate them, heal them or move past them is a long-term solution that can bring enormous benefits in a relatively short space of time.
If stress is taking over your life, there is help available. I specialise in working with trauma and abuse and I can help you to identify the causes of stress, the triggers, and ways to move forward to your brighter beginning. Use the Contact form to get in touch and book your free discovery call now.
~ Lisa
P.S. I am collecting my online shop later on today, I don't feel I can face the supermarket this week, and that is ok!
Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash