Stress Free

As part of my month of self care, I want to reduce my stress levels and how prone I am to stress. (See my Pinpointing your Stress post.)

Discovering how high my stress levels were, in terms of causing anxiety and depression, has really shown me that I need to take action to fight against stress. It has shown me that there are certain things I should be doing more of, and less of.

Working out what causes stress is key for establishing how you can go about reducing it. I suffer with anxiety, and as a result I often find myself stressed out and flustered in everyday situations. 

Over the last week, here are some of the things that have given me major anxiety...

• Travelling to Sweden.
• When the security guard spoke to me at the airport.
• My ears hurting on my flight.
• Realizing I should have bought the family better presents on holiday.
• Waiting for my report to come back from the designers in work.
• Going to the cinema only to realise I forgot the card I'd prebooked my tickets with.
• When the film was longer than I'd expected and I worried about being home late.
• Having to call in sick to work.
• Panicking I'll miss the bus.
• Getting the bill in a restaurant.
• Having to get up extra early because of the Luas strike.
• Fearing I'll be late to work because of said strike.
• When my compressed powder broke and spilled all over me on the bus.

Pinpointing your Stress

Stress is a key component of our everyday, modern lives. We expect to be stressed; it's a sign of success. It's an indicator that we are busy, in-demand people. But it's not healthy.

A huge part of self care is about recognising when we’re stressed, under pressure or generally suffering with a lot of anxiety and taking measures to alleviate it. For me, stress leads to me being run down. And along with experiencing a lot of worry mentally, my body reacts physically as well.

Here are the physical symptoms of stress that I exhibit:
- mouth ulcers
- psoriasis
- migraines
- swollen glands - inflamed throat
- difficulty sleeping
- irritability

Practicing self care methods can help us to feel calmer, healthier and reduce the physical symptoms of stress.

This month I’ve been keeping an eye on my own stress levels with regular stress tests.
When you’re working a full time job, working a part-time evening and weekend job, plus teaching a class, volunteering, and running a blog, you can struggle to find time to breathe. At least I do.

My Stress Busting Tips

Work's been a little bit stressful lately. Not in a bad way. More in an I'm really busy way and don't get time for a breather.

I've also figured out that I stress myself out for no real reason. Put it like this, if I ever randomly bump into someone in town, I won't have time to stop. I run to a schedule. I always have some place to be. Even if it is just 'BACK HOME AT 6;15PM TO PUT YOUR FIRST LOAD OF LAUNDRY ON.' I can categorically say I am stressed.

 Which isn't good. Stress is really harmful to your body.

Source Look at all the harmful things you do to yourself!

So I want to share my mid-week de-stressing tips to help you beat the stressful blues!