How to cope with stress

Grace Stanhope, 28th Jan 2021
Tags: Life Blog Education Mental health Stress

Stress is something that affects so many people, whether it’s just for a brief moment or for longer periods of time. It can leave you feeling under pressure, overwhelmed, and isolated.

What is stress?

Stress can look different for everyone. For many, it's our body’s reaction to feeling under pressure, which can affect our mood, body, and even our relationships. Sometimes it can make us feel motivated, or it can make us feel anxious or easily irritable.

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We may feel stressed by situations that put pressure on us, for example having a lot to do or the lack of control.

How to deal with stress?

If you’re struggling with stress, you’re not alone. Today I wanted to share with you some tips that have really helped me out when I’m feeling stressed.

Talk to people

I think this is one of the most important things you can do when you find yourself feeling stressed. Whilst talking to someone may feel difficult, it’s so important.

Find someone you trust, whether that’s a parent, friend, youth worker, teacher, let it be someone you feel comfortable talking to.

You don’t have to go through this stressful time alone and telling people you’re close to how you’re feeling can really help. They may be able to help you out in various ways, show you support and encourage you.

Make a List

Do you ever go on your laptop and have multiple tabs open? Sometimes that’s how my brain feels when I feel stressed. There’s a lot going on along with a lot to remember, and things start to feel a bit much.

One thing that really helps me is making a list of absolutely everything that I have to do. So whether it’s personal goals, errands, work or education tasks, jot them down.

When making my list, I find just writing everything down helps in itself; it’s so freeing getting to note each thing so it’s no longer confined to your head. And after making your list, you get the satisfying job of ticking off each thing once it’s been completed!

At first it may feel daunting staring at a long list, but eventually you’ll find yourself working through it.

Find the good in each day

Stress can really affect our mood sometimes, leaving us feeling lower than usual. Taking time to find the good in each day I think is so important, as it shifts our focus to look for the positive aspects.

Some days this may feel harder than others, but if you look closely there’s joy in each day.

It’s also amazing to reflect on yourself and celebrate every tiny victory. Whether that’s just that you managed to cross a few things off your list or are starting to feel the stress ease, it’s important to see how far you’ve come.

Take time to rest

If your list of things to do is pretty long, no matter what make sure you find some time in there to rest. We were not designed to do everything, and we definitely need time to rest.

Schedule in regular breaks, using the time to do something you enjoy or be with loved ones.

I really hope these tips were helpful to see different ways of dealing with stress. Remember if you’re struggling, you are not alone. If I can highlight any of these tips, it would be to talk to someone you trust and not to keep it all to yourself.