How to reduce stress & build resilience

What is stress?

A state of emotional worry or turmoil caused by a difficult situation or events. Feeling unduly under pressure or threatened.

What is resilience?

The ability to bounce back from adversity I.e. difficult events that happen - to be able to work through the pain and suffering and carry on with life.

How does stress affect body and mind?

Most of us have experienced some kind of stress in our lives but it’s how we deal with it that matters. If we don’t learn to develop resilience then this can have long term effects on our bodies both mentally and physically.

Is all stress bad?

Stress can be useful because the process itself produces hormones that enable us to act quickly in response to adverse situations. It can help us perform in sporting events or stand up in front of people, like performing on stage or addressing an audience for example.

However; too much, too frequent or prolonged stress can leave us in a persistent ‘fright or flight’ response that can be overwhelming and cause feelings of being out of control.

Emotional Effects of Stress

• Anxiousness
• Depression & Irritability
• Fear & Frustration
• Anger
• Poor concentration
• Poor self esteem
• Feeling edgy or hyped-up

Physical Effects of Stress

• Panic attacks
• Insomnia & Fatigue
• Chest pains
• Shortness of breath
• Headaches
• Indigestion
• Immune system overload

What can we do to build resilience?

Our ability to cope with stress can depend on many things; early childhood trauma, character, genetics and also our personal circumstances. But any one of us has the ability to develop coping strategies in order to deal with stress.

5 ways to improve resilience

1. Develop a support network, building strong positive relationships for guidance and acceptance can prove invaluable. Join support groups or volunteer - this can develop self esteem and help provide coping strategies for the future.
    
2. Try not to focus on the negatives and take some time to think through past experiences and situations that you have had both positive and negative experiences to identify how best to deal with situations. Keep a journal if it helps!
    
3. Be kind to yourself - take some kind of exercise, take up yoga or meditation, develop a sleep routine and eat a healthy diet and consider a natural supplement to relieve stress.
    
4. Identify your triggers as this can help you to plan how to deal with things better. Organise your time to allow you to be better in control of a situation. Make lists and set achievable targets. Try not to take on too much. Talk things through if you feel stress building in anticipation of loss of control.
    
5. Try to build a positive mindset, acknowledge some things will go wrong but that it will be possible to recover, learn and move on.