In our fast-paced modern world, stress has become an ever-present reality for many of us. From work pressures to family obligations and financial concerns, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and unable to cope.
The first step in managing stress is to recognise when it’s happening. However, many of us are so disconnected from ourselves that we fail to notice the early warning signs.
If you’re one of those people, the tools below for reconnecting to yourself can be a game changer for your wellbeing.
The Importance of Recognising Stress
Stress can manifest in many ways, from physical symptoms like headaches, muscle tension, and digestive problems to emotional symptoms like irritability, anxiety, and depression. When left unchecked, stress can have serious consequences on our health, relationships, and quality of life. That’s why it’s so important to be able to recognise when we’re stressed, so we can take steps to manage it before it becomes overwhelming.
Reconnecting to Yourself
To recognise the signs of stress, we need to be present and aware of our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. Unfortunately, many of us have become so disconnected from ourselves that we don’t even know where to begin.
Here are some tools for reconnecting to yourself:
Mindfulness
Mindfulness meditation involves sitting quietly and focusing your attention on your breath, sensations, or thoughts without judgment. It’s a powerful tool for becoming more aware of your inner experience and learning to observe your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them.
You can also practice mindfulness in your everyday life, for example by focusing on the feelings in your feet when walking, or the sounds, smells, and colours before you when cooking.
With practice, mindfulness becomes automatic and you’ll feel instinctively more aware of your inner and outer experiences, which will help you notice when something has deviated from the baseline.
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence involves understanding and managing our own emotions as well as recognising and empathising with the emotions of others. By developing emotional intelligence, we can become more aware of our own emotional states, including when we're feeling stressed. We can learn to recognise the triggers that cause us to feel stressed, understand how our emotions are impacting our behaviour and decision-making, and develop effective strategies for managing our stress.
Furthermore, developing emotional intelligence can help us build stronger relationships, which can provide important sources of social support when we're experiencing stress.
You can learn more about how you can better understand your emotions here.
Journaling
Journaling involves writing down your thoughts and feelings without censoring or judging them. It can help you become more aware of your inner experience and identify patterns of thinking or behaviour that may be contributing to your stress.
Through regular journaling, you can gain a better self-understanding and identify what causes your reactions (whether stress or other reaction). From there you can start to find solutions but also start challenging your unhelpful thinking patterns.
Feeling lost where to start?
I help people take control of their life and keep stress in check whether complete beginners or those already on a path of self-development. If you would like to see how I could help you remove stress and find joy in your life, contact me for a free consultation.
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