The Art of Stress Management No one told you to do so !!

We all feel stressed at times, and this is normal. In fact, some people find stress motivating and even helpful. If stress is affecting your life, I'm going to teach you two on-the-spot stress relief techniques that anyone can use to help. Before we get started, it's important to remember that stress can affect each individual differently. It can affect you physically, mentally, and even emotionally.

WHAT IS STRESS:

Stress is something everyone feels at times, and there are all kinds of stressful situations that can be a part of daily life. Low-level stress can even be helpful or motivational.

There are plenty of things you can do to help cope with stressful events, and simple steps you can take to deal with feelings of stress or burnout.

Stress is the body's reaction to feeling threatened or under pressure. It's very common, can be motivating to help us achieve things in our daily life, and can help us meet the demands of home, work and family life.

But too much stress can affect our mood, our body and our relationships – especially when it feels out of our control. It can make us feel anxious and irritable, and affect our self-esteem.

Experiencing a lot of stress over a long period of time can also lead to a feeling of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion, often called burnout.

Stress can cause many different symptoms. It might affect how you feel physically, mentally and also how you behave.

It's not always easy to recognise when stress is the reason you're feeling or acting differently.

Physical symptoms:

• Headaches or dizziness

• Muscle tension or pain

• Stomach problems

• Chest pain or a faster heartbeat

• Sexual problems

Mental symptoms:

• Difficulty concentrating

• Struggling to make decisions

• Feeling overwhelmed

• Constantly worrying

• Being forgetful

Changes in behaviour:

• Being irritable and snappy

• Sleeping too much or too little

• Eating too much or too little

• Avoiding certain places or people

• Drinking or smoking more

Let's take it one step at a time and learn the actual stress relief technique. The first technique I'd like to discuss with you is what we call the emergency stop technique. This one is really useful when you need to cope with a really stressful situation and then you'll have time later to relax further.

Step number one

Recognise the fact that you are stressed, and learn to recognise the symptoms and sensations that we described before.

Step number two

Say the word stop to yourself sharply, and if the situation allows it, if there is no one else about, say it out loud; there is no harm in doing so, and it will help you stop fretting and getting heated up.

Step number three

Breathe in through your nose for a couple of seconds, maybe one to two seconds, and then breathe out. In general, you shouldn't really pause when you're breathing, but in a really stressful situation, it can actually be quite helpful. I wouldn't recommend pausing your breathing for more than two to three seconds.

Step number four

Now, as you breathe out, breathe out through your lips and then repeat the cycle, progressively relaxing your hands and shoulders before moving on to the next step.

Step number five

Begin slowly relaxing your forehead, face, and jaw as you breathe in and out.

Step number six

It's best to be silent for a few seconds and then gently return to what you were doing before. If the situation does not allow for this and you must talk, speak a little lower and slower, and then gradually build yourself back up. What I really like about this technique is that you can do it without anyone noticing, so if you're surrounded by people, most of the time they won't realise you're doing it. Now, regardless of your feelings, you will notice that your tension begins to ease, and for a slightly more advanced version of the emergency stop technique.

Try breathing from your abdomen now, this tends to be more calming than shallow breathing from your upper rib area, so to do this all you really need to do is put your focus on your abdomen and feel it swell when you breathe in and sink when you breathe out once you've got the hang of it it is actually very easy to do and it will be very useful too so step number one spread your fingers spread out your fingers and thumbs. Step two is to hold it like that for a few seconds before slowly relaxing it back to its natural position.

Relax your jaw now it's a little tricky to do on camera because I'm talking at the moment but what you need to do is drag your jaw downwards and feel it relax in your mouth in fact try it right now while I'm saying it drag your jaw downwards and just feel it relax and see how good that feels so by doing this you should feel that your throat relaxes and your tongue gets nice and loose. Step four is to push your head back while your shoulders are nice and loose and low, as mentioned in step three, and try to keep your chin pointing towards your feet. The resulting position should be very comfortable, and step five is to loosen your arms and shoulder muscles by shaking your sleeves down.

You can actually do this without being noticed at all, so now that you know what you're doing, it's useful to try and keep counting and relaxing each body part, so for example, counting one two and then your arms relax three four and then your neck and shoulders relax and keep counting and relaxing each body part.

It will need practise for you to get better at it; the more you practise it, the more valuable it will become. It's also important to remember when and where to get help for stress, especially during difficult times, so I'm going to leave a lot more information about this in the description below and I'd highly recommend that everyone reads it. I really hope that my journal helps you, please let us know how you get on by leaving a comment below and also if you have any of your own tips, if you have anything that works really well for you leave a comment below.

I'm sure everyone reading this jurnal will remember you as amazing, and I'll see you again soon.