Top 4 Stress Awareness Month Tips

So, April is stress awareness month, and we think that there’s no better time for us to all make sure we’re looking after ourselves.

What with the current climate, stress is coming from all different angles: keeping a job, finding a new job, financial insecurity, social, health and cultural anxiety. 

For many people around the world, the coronavirus is a pandemic that their country does not have the infrastructure to deal with. 

For those of us lucky enough to be safe at home with the internet, access to healthcare and food, maintaining a rational perspective will definitely help. 

And for those for whom the coronavirus has impacted existing conditions, there are many stress awareness resources that are available, all with helpful tasks, activities and information to help you be aware of what causes you stress, how to manage the problem and useful links for when you can’t manage it alone.

An organisation called No Panic also helps people who feel like their stress is becoming unmanageable, and useful information and assistance for people who want to get better at handling their own stress but who don’t need additional, external support. They’ve devised a list of resources that will help!

We’ve put together a few ideas that we think are useful for keeping calm, providing initial links to helpful resources for those who might be impacted by the stressful situation we’re all in, and ideas to fill the gaps.

Online Stress Test

While it might seem silly that you can take an online test to see how stressed you are, The Stress Management Society has devised a simple test that gives you initial responses and ideas to how you can manage your personal stress levels. 

They also have amazing links for managing personal stress, work-related stress, and even have a handy 10 step stress solution list for those able to manage their stress at home.

Learn A New Skill

Putting your mind to learning a new skill during this lockdown might just be the thing that keeps you busy, and so reduces your stress! The cognitive benefits of learning are almost too many to count, whether that’s learning something creative, learning a new skill or even learning a language!

And if you do decide to learn a language, we’ve got you covered!

If you’re looking for the distraction, enjoyment and practicality that learning a language will bring, why not give our private Spanish lessons a go? We cover all levels, from beginner Spanish to conversational Spanish classes for fluent speakers who want to brush up their skills. 

Each lesson is fully virtual, so you can stay at home, safe, and learn this amazing language from the comfort of your sofa (or wherever you like!) 

Our highly-qualified Spanish teachers will guide you through each lesson, with tailored, one-to-one feedback so you can really make progress during your Spanish courses.

Or, if you’re not too keen on the idea of learning a language and would prefer that just-exercised-rush, we can help there too! Our Flamenco Fitness classes get you up and moving, banishing that stress with the bliss of movement.

Plus, you don’t even have to know Flamenco to take part. If you just want to learn something new, bring some variety to your day and release stress, then this is definitely for you. 

Alternate Breathing Exercises

Breathing is something that we take for granted every moment, of every day. And ironically, it’s one of the easiest stress-relieving resources we have access to. 

Alternate nostril breathing, or ‘Nadi Shodhana’ if you want to know it’s ‘official’ name, is a method of breathing utilised in many mindful practices such as yoga and meditation. It helps reduce anxiety, increase connection to the body, and ground you in the present moment but focusing your attention on the simple task of breathing. 

Alternate nostril breathing can help to:

• Improve our ability to focus the mind
• Support our lungs and respiratory functions
• Restore balance in the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and clears the energetic channels
• Rejuvenate the nervous system
• Remove toxins
• Settle stress

It’s an easy way to quickly settle yourself, bring focus to what you’re worrying about and regain perspective.

Digital Detox Checklist

Research suggests that spending too much time staring at our phones, digesting the constant stream of information from online news sources, and filling our minds with immediately-available social media can get too much.

So why not make a conscious effort to give yourself a digital detox? It doesn’t have to be anything dramatic. Even disconnecting from the outside world for an hour every day – while that can seem scary when often technology is the only way we can connect at the moment – actually helps reduce our stress levels. 

You can detox for however long will benefit you. Why not try an hour each day, and work upwards, and see how you feel?

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