10 tips to manage your stress
Stress is our brains natural response to danger. Afterall, our brain is meant to keep us safe.
However, the brain can’t differentiate between real or "received" danger. We often create stress by our thoughts alone create the "danger". We maybe anxious about an upcoming meeting, a hectic weekend schedule, or a presentation.
Here are 10 tips to help you in those situations:
1. Manage your inner chatter – our minds are constantly filled with thoughts, often negative and untrue. These should not be believed at face value. Challenge your thoughts and replace them with more a more empowering narrative.
2. Re-write the story you tell yourself – we have a story we tell ourselves, about our penalty, experiences and qualities. Often it focusses on the negative – re-write your story to make you shine.
3. Pay attention to what triggers your stress – and either avoid or reduce these situations, or at least be aware of them.
4. Practice gratitude – by spending time daily on focussing on what is good in your life, your perspective will change to one more positive.
5. Journal daily - get your thoughts out. By seeing them in black & white, you’ll be able to process them better.
6. Check in with yourself – rather than rushing from 1 task to another, pause regularly and ask yourself how you are feeling. Do you need a walk, some time alone, an energy boost?
7. Daily self-care - Self-care is critical for you to be able to function optimally.
8. Challenge your to-do list – Is this list raising your energy or depleting it? Are the items on the list helping you get to your goals? Delete items off your list that don’t serve you.
9. Say Yes to You – you are probably quick to please others, how about saying yes to yourself?
10. Unlearn the feeling of guilt – You were not born with guilt, babies and toddlers have no problem doing what they want. At some point you absorbed external influences, but you can unlearn these too. Remember, you are in control.