Anxiety NZ is here to help grow the mental health and wellbeing of people in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Stress Awareness Month is a chance to celebrate this and to look at our personal self-care practices to help us manage our wellbeing.
Stress Awareness month started in the UK in 1992. It gives us an opportunity in Aotearoa, NZ to open conversations around our health and wellbeing, and support healthy responses to stress.
Everybody feels stressed at times, but too much of it can harm our physical and mental health.
Stress involves being placed under pressure (real or perceived) and believing we do not have enough resources to cope.
That is, the demands of the situation seem to outweigh our abilities to cope with or manage the situation. Usually, the stressor (the thing or situation that triggered our stress) is something imposed on us, such as having to meet a deadline, or getting an unexpected bill, or relationship difficulties. Stress can be short-term (e.g. meeting a deadline on a school assignment) or long term (e.g. living with pain).
An important way to manage stress is to take care of ourselves.
As we share in our online, self-paced mental wellbeing course, Empowered, we can grow our capacity to manage stress with simple self-care measures. To learn more check it out here.
Different people will adopt different self-care practices. When we are regularly taking care of ourselves, we are better able to react to the things that go on in our lives.
When self-care is practiced regularly, research has found that it contributes to positive health outcomes including reduced stress levels and increased productivity
Self-care doesn't need to be time-consuming, hard or expensive.
Self-care strategies can include:
Physical relaxation
Massage
Rest
Sleep (for example setting a mindful evening routine, choosing a bedtime that enables you to get enough sleep etc.)
Nutritious and balanced meals
Mindful, deep breathing (link to breathing practice)
Physical activity (exercise or sport)
Therapy
Effective time management
Goal setting
Hobbies and leisurely activities
Connection with self and others
We want to gently challenge you to consider adding some small self-care activities each day for Stress Awareness Month.
Perhaps you'd like to:
Train for a half marathon
Knit a scarf ready for winter
Meditate for 10 minutes a day, every day in April
Send a message to one friend every day in April
Take a yoga class once a week
Do a breathing practice each day
Journal each day
Get into bed by 10pm each night
The sky is really the limit here.
To grab the free Self-Care Strategies worksheet to support you to make and keep your goals, sign up below!
