Practice Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation involves relaxing all the muscles in your body, group by group. To practice, you can start with a few deep breaths.
Then, practice tightening and relaxing each muscle group, starting with your forehead and moving down to your toes.
With practice, you’ll learn to recognize tension and tightness in your muscles and you’ll be able to relax more easily. Each time you practice, however, you should experience a feeling of relaxation sweeping through your body.
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- struggling with your mental health
- loneliness, homesickness or relationship difficulties
- finding it hard to save money or deal with debt
- harmful use of, or withdrawal from, alcohol or drugs.
There are a number of common reactions to stressful circumstances such as these, including:
- Behavioural – these could involve avoiding or escaping from the situation and turning to alcohol or drugs, a change in appetite or an inability to concentrate.
- Physical – you may experience an increased heart rate, sweating, shaking, headaches, butterflies and over-breathing.
- Psychological – stress can lead to fear, panic and the feeling that something bad is going to happen.
‘Stress is a normal, and in some cases, helpful part of everyday life,’ explains Kate Aitchison, team manager of the counselling and mental health team at Newcastle University. ‘The adrenaline that comes as part of our stress response can be motivating and actually help us to perform better. The difficulty comes when stress tips over to distress. When stress is having a negative impact on day-to-day life, when it stops you achieving, relaxing or communicating – thats when some support may help.’
How Can We Handle Stress In Healthy Ways
Stress serves an important purposeit enables us to respond quickly to threats and avoid danger. However, lengthy exposure to stress may lead to mental health difficulties or increased physical health problems. A large body of research suggests that increased stress levels interfere with your ability to deal with physical illness. While no one can avoid all stress, you can work to handle it in healthy ways that increase your potential to recover.
There are several other methods you can use to relax or reduce stress, including:
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Obsession Or An Endless Thought Loop That Leaves You Exhausted
When I find myself writing Ill not control my family. Im not in charge of anyone else repeatedly, its probably a sign of anxiety and not a reaffirming practice to let go.
Sometimes this happens in my mind instead of on paper. When Im around my relatives, I start thinking about what each person is or isnt doing.
Did he load the dishwasher? Is she looking at her phone ? Did he just turn up the music? Are those his T-shirts on the couch?
The thought loop repeats.
Path To Improved Well Being
Stress can cause health problems or make existing problems worse. Talk to your family doctor if you think your symptoms could be caused by stress. Its important to make sure they arent caused by other health problems.
Learn to recognize when youre feeling stressed. Early warning signs of stress include tension in your shoulders and neck or clenching your hands into fists. Try to avoid the event or situation that leads to your stress. If thats impossible, change how you react to stress.
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Anxiety And The Need To Be In Control
When you have anxiety, having control can be very important to you. You either feel like you have it or you don’t. And when you don’t, it feels very scary so you do whatever you have to do to get it back. Avoid, scream, clean, freeze, isolate, carry out a pattern, research, or control someone else, for example.
Helpful Organisations For Money Worries
It is important if you are worried about your finances and debts that you do not try to deal with them alone. There is a lot of help and support available to you through organisations such as Step Change and Citizens Advice.
You should also talk to your GP or a trusted health professional if you are worried about how debt is affecting your mental and physical health.
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Helping Children And Youth Cope With Stress
Children and youth often struggle with how to cope with stress. Youth can be particularly overwhelmed when their stress is connected to a traumatic eventlike a natural disaster, family loss, school shootings, or community violence. Parents, caregivers, and educators can take steps to provide stability and support that help young people feel better.
Remember To Seek Help And Support When You Need It
Remember, that it is okay to ask for professional help. If you feel that you are struggling to manage on your own, then you can reach out. It is important to know that you can get help as soon as possible, and that you deserve to get better.
The first person to approach is your family doctor. He or she should be able to give advice about treatment, and may refer you to another local professional. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness based approaches are known to help reduce stress. There are also a number of voluntary organisations which can help you to tackle the causes of stress and advise you about ways to get better.
Anxiety UK
Anxiety UK runs a helpline staffed by volunteers with personal experience of anxiety from 9:30-5:30, Monday to Friday. Call 08444 775 774.
Citizens Advice
Citizens Advice provides free, independent and confidential advice for a range of problems as well as providing information on your rights and responsibilities.
StepChange
StepChange provides help and information for people dealing with a range of debt problems. Freephone 0800 138 1111.
Mind Infoline
Mind provides information on a range of mental health topics to support people in their own area from 9.00am to 6.00pm, Monday to Friday. Call 0300 123 3393 or email .
Rethink Advice and Information Service
Rethink provide specific solution-based guidance – 0300 5000927 Fax: 020 7820 1149 email .
Samaritans
Specialist mental health services
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Create Positive Thinking Habits
One of the things about the mind is that it will always create what you focus on.
If you are focused on negative situations, that is what you mind will work towards.
Through goal setting you are able to take a more objective view at what isnt working in your life and ask yourself what you would like instead.
If you say you want to stop feeling anxious all the time, what might be the positive opposite of that? Perhaps you want to feel calm and in control?
After a while, these strategies start to become ingrained and so new habits are created. This then leads to increased resilience, confidence and control.
Searching For Quick Fixes
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What Can I Control
So, the past month has definitely beensomething. If youre familiar with the old Jewish curse, May you live in interesting times, it might be coming to mind right now.
Since a lot of folks are struggling with more-than-the-usual stress and anxiety these days, I decided to make a printable version of an activity I often do with my clients. I call it the Circle of Control.
The premise of this exercise is that in any difficult situation, there are factors we can control and factors we cannot control. Theres also all the stuff in between, where we can kind of push it in a particular direction but dont have the final say over how it turns out.
Anxiety often comes up when we focus disproportionately on the factors we cant control, while neglecting to think about the things we actually can change. Often, especially during times like these, those are the basic self-care things: sleep, hydration, food, moving our bodies. Yeah, that stuff.
Unfortunately, this becomes a feedback loopanxiety tends to perpetuate itself, keeping us focused on the big scary things we have little or no control over, and making it even harder to focus on things like drinking water.
This activity can help us refocus.
An example Circle of Control. Possibly relatable right now.
If that didnt make a ton of sense, hopefully the example above does. And heres a printable PDF worksheet to help you learn how to use it:
Heres a blank Circle of Control if youd like one without the rest of the worksheet:
Create More Self Awareness
When you set goals, its so important that they are personal to you and in alignment with what is important in your life .
What might be happening in your life right now that you want to change?
In these situations, you may find that your current life is not in alignment with what you want. That this may in fact be the reason why you are experiencing stress and anxiety in the first place.
You also learn about you as a person. The way you see yourself and that may become a goal in itself to feel more confident and ambitious in life for example.
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Simple Steps To Help You Cope With Anxiety
If you or a loved one are struggling with anxiety, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.
For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database.
Anxiety involves feelings of worry, fear, and apprehension. Anxiety is typically experienced on cognitive, emotional, and physical levels. For instance, when feeling anxious a person may have negative or disturbing thoughts.
On an emotional level, one may feel scared or out-of-control. It is also common to experience severe anxiety through somatic sensations, such as sweating, trembling, or shortness of breath.
These symptoms are common for people who have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. People with panic disorder are typically familiar with the struggle of managing feelings of anxiety. It can feel as if the anxiety is taking over or completely out of ones control.
Does anxiety have an overwhelming pull in your life? Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to manage your anxiety. Listed below are 4 tips to help you cope with your feelings of anxiety.
How To Treat Diarrhea From Anxiety In The Long Run
A good place to start is by eating a healthier diet for your GI tract that is high in fiber, low in acid content, low in added sugar, and high in vitamins. While our dietary suggestions are helpful, it is unlikely to completely remedy the issue completely, simply due to the nature of the diarrhea.
Anti-diarrheal treatments are effective in some cases, but not for all. It is not clear why some individuals experience success with these treatments and others do not. The most likely reason for this treatment is effective is that the person is simply treating an already present gastrointestinal issue that is being exacerbated by anxiety, but not caused by anxiety.
Nevertheless, you will still need to treat your anxiety symptoms in order to truly get to the root of your diarrhea. This will involve both long and short-term changes:
These are unlikely to cure anxiety-induced diarrhea on their own, but a combination of strategies might allow you to better manage your condition. The gastrointestinal system is complex, and when it interprets stress, it is likely to cause significant discomfort. That is why your ultimate step will be to reduce your anxiety and/or stress altogether.
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Quick Ways To Reduce Stress
Taking care of your long-term mental and physical health is an important part of stress management. However, there isnt always time to take a nap, hike a fourteener, or read a novel. Thus, here are 25 ways to reduce stress in five minutes or less. From eating chocolate to meditating, there is a quick stress-relieving tactic for everyone.
1. BreatheSlow, deep breaths can help lower blood pressure and heart rate. Try pranayama breathing, a yogic method that involves breathing through one nostril at a time to relieve anxiety. The technique is supposed to work the same way as acupuncture, balancing the mind and body.
2. Listen to Music No matter what the song, sometimes belting out the lyrics to a favorite tune makes everything seem all right. If youre in a public place, just listening to music can be a quick fix for a bad mood. Classical music can be especially relaxing right before bedtime.
3. Take a Quick Walk When youre feeling overwhelmed or having trouble concentrating, go for a quick stroll around the block. Youll get the benefits of alone time, physical activity, and a few minutes to gather your thoughts.
4. Find the Sun If its a sunny day, head outside for an easy way to lift your spirits. Bright light can be an effective treatment for people who suffer from depression, and can even cheer up otherwise healthy people.
8. Rub Your Feet Over a Golf Ball You can get an impromptu, relaxing foot massage by rubbing your feet back and forth over a golf ball.
12. Be Alone
Tip : Make Quick Stress Relief A Habit
Its not easy to remember to use your senses in the middle of a minior or not so minocrisis. At first, it will feel easier to just give into pressure and tense up. But with time, calling upon your senses will become second nature. Think of the process like learning to drive or play golf. You dont master the skill in one lesson you have to practice until it becomes second nature. Eventually youll feel like youre forgetting something if you dont tune into your body during challenging times. Heres how to make it habit:
Start small. Instead of testing your quick stress relief tools on a source of major stress, start with a predictable low-level source of stress, like cooking dinner at the end of a long day or sitting down to pay bills.
Identify and target. Think of just one low-level stressor that you know will occur several times a week, such as commuting. Vow to target that stressor with quick stress relief every time. After a few weeks, target a second stressor and so on.
Test-drive sensory input. If you are practicing quick stress relief on your commute to work, bring a scented handkerchief with you one day, try music another day, and try a movement the next day. Keep experimenting until you find a clear winner.
Have fun with the process. If something doesnt work, dont force it. Move on until you find what works best for you. It should be pleasurable and noticeably calming.
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