I believe that stress is a self-fulfilling prophecy. In today’s society it is almost unacceptable to not be stressed. If you’re not stressed you’re clearly not doing enough, if you’re not doing enough, you’re lazy and if you’re lazy you don’t care. Wow – that is a lot of pressure to have on your head!
Zara on stress
This happens when you put yourself in competition with your peers. Concentrate on yourself and being the best person you can be, instead of getting into a mind games with the people around you. So I have tried as much as possible to stop that behaviour and allow myself the freedom to be honest with myself and the people around me.
Be honest
Being honest and talking about your anxieties really does help to dispel the stress that has attached itself to these anxieties. Encourage openness in your world, and if you are surrounded by people that are bringing your energy down, remove yourself and find people who understand you.
Taking action
You will spend more time worrying about something than just taking action and getting it out of the way so I say, just do it! Relieve yourself from the stress you put on yourself. For example, that conversation that you have practiced again and again in your head, go and have it instead of thinking about it. That little job that you have been putting off (the one that is like a little gremlin creating knots in your stomach), go and do it.
List the things that are making you anxious and deal with them, because you will feel better! Everything gets harder the more you toil over it. The reality is a lot easier to deal with than the made-up reality your mind creates. You will adapt to whatever changes come along.
Essential Oils
Now, having said all of that (and don’t roll your eyes during my next sentence), I also support my body and my emotional state with my new-found love of essential oils. Now I don’t like the term ‘essential oils’ because it makes me think of an old lady with a wafting skirt and wind chimes, chuntering a mantra – not my style! But what I have discovered is that there are so many oils that help your body to deal with physical and emotional symptoms. And creating a blend to wear as a perfume every day helps boost my body’s circulation and enhance my self-belief. So I highly recommend you give it a go – what have you got to lose?
In the HeX office, we use oils for focus and if someone is feeling a little stressed, we diffuse a blend which sends signals to the brain to create happy chemicals. At the end of the day when I get home, I diffuse some relaxing scents into the air and the warming and comforting smell of home switches my working brain off and settles me for a good night’s sleep, in theory. Of course it doesn’t work all of the time… but a good book to distract me from my thoughts will always finish the job.
Your ‘stress’ is yours to control. You have a choice on how you react to a situation – choose to not be stressed and life will become easier.
Do you have different ways to cope with stress? Let us know what you think works, and join in the conversation.
Visit Mind for support around stress awareness and management.
