You Deserve to Unwind: Here are 5 Simple Tips on how to Heal and De-stress
Stress is the restless nights of sleep, thinking of your to-do-list as you toss and turn for the millionth time on end. It’s lying awake at 2am playing candy crush and all your worst fears coming to reality as you wake up from a nightmare where most of your management had the courtesy of joining. Stress is waking up tired, even though you are positive that you got a few hours’ sleep, as you count them in desperation on your fingers.
Stress is the lack of confidence in yourself and those around
you, it’s creating problems in your head which don’t even exist and wanting to
fix them; ‘’did I reply to that email?’’, ‘’did I lock the office door when I
left?’’, ‘’did I feed the office fish?’’, as you frantically bribe the security
guard to go and check.
Stress is being super aware of everyone’s mood around you,
so much so that the slightest shift in your colleague’s mood will convince you
that you have pissed them off and they will never speak to you again.
I am proud to say that I care about the work that I do and
the people I do it with…but that is what stress boils down to, caring about
what you do and trying to do it to the best of your abilities. This means that
stress to a certain point is not necessarily a bad thing, it is about finding a
balance and training yourself on how to handle that stress through the tips
below;
Learn how to relax
As I
lay in bed, eyes wide open at 2am, going over everything I said in a meeting
earlier that day , I started frantically googling; ‘’tips on how to fall
asleep’’, ‘’when you have already tried counting sheep’’, ‘’am I ever going to
sleep properly again?’’, I came across a meditation app called Headspace.
My
first thought at the sight of a meditation app was – what a complete fad! But
hey, what did I have to lose? I downloaded the app, picked a random sleep
meditation and started listening. Before I knew it, I was waking up the next
morning on a high!
Download
a meditation app, try it – I dare you! They are a great way to decrease stress
and calm your mind. Also, there are so many good apps to choose from nowadays,
and the first few months are usually free too, so you will get a good night’s
sleep and peace of mind for free J
Feedback is your FRIEND
If
feedback is given in the right way, you need to see it as an opportunity to
learn and grow, not as a personal insult or the chance to stress yourself
silly.
Unfortunately,
some employees still see the person giving them feedback as a huge brick in the
wall they are trying to climb over. Please remember; when a colleague or
manager are giving you honest feedback, their goal is to help you better
yourself.Start to seek out honest feedback, take action, keep growing and do not see it as a black cloud raining down on your parade.
Count your blessings every day
Take a few minutes a day and think of anything that you are grateful for; your job, partner, family, pet, TV series, food, musicals. We sometimes underestimate the influence of little things.
Thinking positive thoughts could counteract the negatives ones and reduce your
stress levels. I can empathise, the least thing you feel like when your anxiety
levels are through the roof is someone telling you to ‘’look on the bright
side’’ – so avoid this happening and start your day with thinking of a number
of reasons why you should smile!
In addition be your own best critic – practice boosting yourself up instead of beating yourself up.
If I had to be
honest, I am a person who hates all things training… I love a long walk in the
countryside, but that’s about it. It was only this year that I was forced to
join the GO Gridsters – I say forced since my colleagues, best friend, and girlfriend are all taking part and I feel too guilty being a couch potato
four times a week while they are out breaking a sweat.
No - I cannot say
I am particularly enjoying the training part, or my muscles aching as I toss
and turn in bed, BUT I’m happier because of the kick of dopamine I am getting,
I’m feeling less ghost like during the day, plus my stress levels are much lower.
So join the Grid,
start boxing, swimming, squash, running and get moving to a happier you!
Coming from someone who eats lunch at her desk on a daily
basis, I am still a strong believer that your mind and body need a time out
from your computer screen, in actual fact any screen, so give Facebook & Instagram
a break! And no - online shopping, looking at Pinterest recipes or Tinder is still not considered a screen break.
So whether you take a walk around your block, go to your
canteen for lunch, or spend time in your chill out area, give yourself that
time to step back from the screen and relax.Do not let Stress catch up with you
I always thought that bottling stress up and ignoring it would make it go away – naive right? I came to the horrible realisation that
this was not the case, when one day I reached breaking point and ended up
sitting in a puddle of my own tears (the colleague I sit next to always points
out that I am slightly over dramatic – so don’t feel bad if you are thinking
the same thing).
Research has found that seven in ten millennials wake up at
least three times a week worrying, which is quite an eye opener. For this reason, no matter how
high you think your threshold is, stress WILL catch up to you, so be proactive and deal with it head on!
written by
Emma Gatt
Comments
Post a Comment