Stress

How do we define stress?  It can be defined as a demand on phsycial  and or mental energy.  There are different kinds of stress, some people work well under stress others find that they feel pressured under stress and it has a negative affect on their wellbeing.  We may be under short-term stress due to an important project at work or some other crisis that you know at some level is going to be short lived; that can be helpful knowing that it will be over and that there will be some resolution. Long-term stress may be more difficult to deal with.  However everybody copes differently with stress, stress can be healthy or unheatlhy if you are suffering because of unheatlhy stress there are a few important questions to ask yourself:
Do you have a well balanced lifestyle?
what is causing your stress?
how it is impacting on you?
how do you deal with stress?

When considering a healthy lifestyle balance it might be helpful to use the diagram below - there are a few suggested areas that you might like to think about - if the titles don't fit feel free to choose different ones, it's your wheel!  The idea is to have a well balanced wheel, see can you identify areas of your life that need addressing.

The next area to look at is how unheatlhy stress is impacting on you; Trevor Powell (2000) in the Mental Health Handbook identifies 6 areas of our lives that can be impacted by stress these are; Emotional, Mental, Health, Physical, Behavioural and Organisational.  We can start to suffer mood swings, over-react to situations, have difficulty in concentrating, be negative towards ourselves, start suffering from headaches, Irritable bowel syndrome, back pain, fatigue, may find it difficult to relax, excessive drinking and smoking, job dissatisfaction, absenteesism, the list goes on.

So how do you deal with stress?  Powell (2000) talks about one of the first ways of dealing with stress is to understand it, know your limits and plan if possible if you are facing a stressful period, what do you need to put in place for yourself.? Building a good support network is crucial, know who you can talk to, family, friends, and don't be afraid to seek professional advice if you need it.  Developing a healthy lifestyle is also a good idea, take time to exercise make sure to eat a well balanced diet.  What do you do to relax, plan breaks, and maybe think about taking up a hobby for enjoyment.  Planning and putting a good structure to your day can be helpful when dealing with a heavy stressload.  Our interpretation of stress is also important, are we thinking about it in a realistic way, or could we be mis-interpreting something.  Next blog will look at how we break the Negative Stress Cycle.

References:  Powelll Trevor, 2000,  The Mental Health Handbook revised Edition, Published by Speechmark Publishing Ltd., (p 103 - 129)

Recommended reading:  Flagging Stress, Toxic Stress and how to avoid it by Dr. Harry Barry

Crisis and the impact of change

In Ireland at the moment we are in the midst of a crisis and many changes have already taken place and without doubt we can rest assured there will be more.  It has been very difficult for people who feel that many of these changes have been imposed on them and that it was out of their control.  There has been much talk and debate about the way out of this crisis; however at times this seems to compound our worries and our anxieties rather than alleviate them in anyway. 

 With all this in mind I have decided to write a blog which I hope will be of support to people at this present time.  I too have been impacted by the recession and have witnessed and heard from many other people who have been impacted and have had their own unique experiences.  I am very interested in working with this issue and hope that this blog will be a source of help for people who are currently finding it difficult to cope with the current crisis.

A time of crisis is a time of change, with all change there will be gains and losses.  When we are in the midst of a crisis it can be difficult to keep perspective, we can be facing changes that we have not wished for or chosen and maybe finding it difficult to adjust.  As with any crisis we can have many emotions and may in fact feel very overwhelmed at times; we may feel anxious and worried, we may feel angry, we may also feel stressed out and not really sure about how things will eventually turn out.  With all these worries we may start to lose confidence in ourselves and others. 

“Not all transitions are smooth and those that hit us hardest are the ones we did not choose and that come to us uninvited as upheavals and disruptions of the very structure of our lives” 
Emmy van Deurzen 2009 Psychotherapy & the Quest for Happiness p 105

The thing to remember about a crisis is that it does come to an end, and how we look after ourselves in that crisis is of the utmost importance.  What I will write about in this blog is how people can learn to help themselves cope in a time of crisis and change.  I will look at issues such as stress, anxiety and worry, with tips on learning to manage these thoughts and worries.  Look at how even at times of crisis we can put a structure in place to help us through looking after all the different areas in our lives - a healthy lifestyle balance.  Building supports is equally important, as often when people are in a time of crisis they can become very isolated; knowing what help is available and how you can access that can be very helpful.  Other things that I will write about include looking at building up and developing resilience and lastly tips on how to keep your motivation going.