April 2023 is National Stress Awareness month so what better time to look at how to manage personal stress!  

What is stress?

With any stress – physical or emotional, the end result is the same.  You will have a stress response, also known as your fight or flight response. This is a physical response that dates back to the dawn of mankind.  It is a primeval response aimed at ensuring the survival of our species. 

What happens in the stress response?

When you experience any stress – physical or emotional, the endocrine system releases certain hormones which are designed to maximize strength and speed. They zip around the body making distinct changes – here are a few;

• blood flow is diverted from what are seen as non-essential functions to make sure more blood goes to our vital organs – for example the heart and lungs so that we can run at a sprint away from danger
• Our intestines stop producing the mucus that lines them
• The blood flow to our guts is reduced
• the immune system is suppressed
• breathing becomes shallow and we breath into the tops of our lungs with short sharp breaths

Are you stressed

Not all stress is bad.  We do need some stress to function, and we are designed to deal with a certain amount of stress.  Stress becomes negative when it happens repeatedly without our body having time to return to normal balance.

There are some key indicators to look out for that can show you are experiencing chronic stress. There are others but these are very common

• You wake in the middle of the night with your brain racing
• You have frequent infections, colds or skin conditions are typical
• You have irritable bowel or digestive troubles
• You become forgetful when ordinarily you are not
• You become moody or irritable

What next?

So, you have identified that you are experiencing negative stress – what do you do about it? The first stage to managing stress is to identify what it is that is causing your stress.  It is highly unlikely to be just one thing.  After you have identified what is causing your stress you can start to think about how to address it. 

This is where the stress bucket comes in.  We covered the stress bucket in a previous blog so click here to read more.

Top five tips to managing your personal stress!

1. Think positive!

I can hear you shouting easier said than done but hear me out! Research has found that people with a positive mindset have more positive experiences in life, fewer illnesses and a greater life expectancy than those who think that their glass is half empty.  There’s a great book on this “How Full Is Your Bucket: Positive Strategies for Work and Life” by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton. It’s full of ways to turn your negative perceptions into positive thoughts. 

One easy way to change your mindset is to use positive affirmations.  You need to use an affirmation that is meaningful to you so look through a few until something strikes a chord with you.  Then simply repeat it over and over again, write it down repeatedly and your brain will start to listen!

Why not start with Michelle Obama’s positive affirmation “Am I good enough? Yes I am!” Michelle Obama, Becoming

2. Tech detox

Give yourself a break from technology.  Try to go a day without looking at social media – RADICAL! The information that we see online really does have a powerful subliminal influence our brains, mood, self-esteem and self-confidence. 

Learn to give yourself a regular break from online news and social media.  Spend the time repeating your positive affirmation instead!

Here’s a great article if you need convincing that a break will do you good!  “Experimental evidence of massive scale emotional contagion through social networks”  Adam Kramer, Jamie Guillory and Jeffrey Hancock 

3. You really are what you eat!

Diet can influence mood – fact!  There is so much research backing this up that it really is undisputable. For a quick win reduce caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and simple carbs. It might not be possible to quit them all completely but reduce your intake and replace them with wholefoods, nuts and 2 liters of water each day

“Poor nutrition may be a causal factor in the experience of low mood, and improving diet may help to protect not only the physical health but also the mental health of the population”  

4. Get some sleep

A good night’s sleep is essential to restore and maintain physical and mental health. Waking in the small hours of the night with a brain buzzing with busy thoughts is a typical symptom of bad stress.   

The good news is that you can improve your sleep by making small changes.  You don’t have to make radical changes all in one go – you can but you don’t have to.

Take a look at the Sleep Foundation to get some ideas about how to improve your sleep and create your own sleep hygiene plan https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/healthy-sleep-tips

5. Exercise if good for you laziness is not!

We know now that gentle exercise stimulates the brain to release our wonderful feel good hormones – endorphins! This happens whether you are doing exercises sitting in a chair, going for a gentle walk or running a sprint. 

What matters is that you do exercise appropriate to your level of fitness. It is meant to be gentle and comfortable not painful!

So try to up your exercise. If you normally do chair yoga once a day try it twice a day. You get the idea!

National Stress awareness month

Why not use National Stress Awareness month to really focus on your own stress and how you can reduce it or manage it?  Take some time to complete a stress buck and think about how you can target your own stress creators!

Take a look at the International Stress Management Association for more handy hints and further information.

10% off relaxing treatments

During April we are offering 10% off all of our relaxing massage treatments.  The idea is that you can come along and try something new to experience the stress relieving benefits. Or if you know that massage, reflexology or reiki works for you then come and have a treatment as part of your stress management plan. 

Just enter the promo code RELAX at our online check out. take a look at our website for more details of the treatments that we offer  and click here to book or or call 0113 234 0818

Phoenix Health & Wellbeing is a Charity.  By coming to us for a treatment you are helping us to continue our charitable work. We use the proceeds of your treatment to subsidise support for those who would not otherwise be able to access our therapies. Roughly £4 to every £10 spent with us will go to help others. For more information visit: https://www.phoenixhealthandwellbeing.org.uk/were-different/

Opening times:

Monday to Thursday from 10:00 to 20:00

Friday and Saturday from 10:00 to 16:00

Sunday closed.

Book your treatment via our website or call 0113 234 0818 to speak to one of the team