Have you ever experienced crippling worry or stress? You know the kind that makes you feel irritable and as though you are just about holding it all together? Before you know it, you\’re struggling to sleep and begin to get niggling health issues. Sound familiar?
Here are 9 tips to help:
- Assess what is within your control. (NB we can only control ourselves, not other people). We can however, be in charge of our state of mind and thoughts. (See below). Then identify all the possible things you could do to resolve the issue/worry and take action.
- Some things are outside of our control, in which case choose how to deal with the thoughts, e.g. mentally putting them in a box and closing the lid, or perhaps writing them down and then shredding or burning them!
- Do something that presses your reset button every day, don\’t wait until a holiday, e.g. going to the gym or walking the dog…you\’re not allowed to ruminate whilst you\’re out though! Try keeping your eyes in an upward direction; it makes it more challenging to engage in negative self-talk and or feelings.
- Be mindfully aware of your physiology. Mind influences body, but body also influences mind. When we are stuck in a state, we adopt certain body language. If your body is hunched up or tense, you will be creating the stress hormone cortisol. However, if you broaden your physiology out and upwards, you will create more powerful feeling hormones, such as testosterone. Imagine a cotton thread lifting you up through your abdomen and chest to the top of your head, or simply have a good stretch. This is also great as a confidence booster too!
- Sometimes we get stuck in a worry loop and forget to exit. It serves no purpose other than to make us feel bad. A trainer recently said, \’Think of thoughts like busses. You are at the bus stop. Choose which buses you are going to get onto, as opposed to hopping on the 28, then the number 39 and before you know it, you are at an unplanned destination.\’ Be mindful.
- If the above metaphor doesn\’t connect for you, try visualising a stop sign or saying the word ‘Stop’, each time you begin a worry loop.
- Alternatively, distract yourself with something pleasant, as you would a child that was in a funk.
- Clear up the worry completely using a technique such as Havening. I have been using it with clients and getting some really great results. You can find instructions on how to do it here in this article. Or book a free discovery session to sample it.
- Take regular pit stops throughout the day. Your mind needs to go offline to back up, (roughly every 90 minutes). Failing to do so can mean that we have too much information to process in dream sleep, which can result in waking up feeling unrefreshed. It doesn\’t have to be for too long. Try these:
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- 2 minutes looking at a view
- 5 minutes undisturbed in your favourite armchair with a cup of tea
- Sitting in your car listening to a mindfulness app or your favourite tunes
We run courses on stress management.
