Stress isn’t just for National Stress Awareness Day

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While the first Wednesday in November each year is National Stress Awareness Day, the world is a pretty stressful place a lot of the time and it is different for us all.

You might feel irritable and impatient, nervous or depressed. There can be knots in your stomach, a sense of dread and the inability to see the good in life. Panic attacks, sleepless nights, loss of libido and feeling sick, dizzy or fainting are all ways stress can be experienced.

If we are to thrive, we need to find our own ways of coping with whatever our busy lives throw at us, so we have some ideas we hope might help.

Know your triggers
A buzz word, maybe, but it’s really good to try to access your triggers, where possible. Stress can come from many things, be that work, kids, family, friends or other people on social media! If you can identify what causes your stress, this will help you to tackle it and get things under control. Start to keep a diary of when you feel stressed, look at who or what sets it off and if a pattern emerges look at the changes you can make so things settle down.

Look at your lifestyle
Exercise is often on the bottom of our to do list, but it is a great way to manage stress. Increasing your heart rate, eating a nutritious diet, drinking lots of water and getting plenty of sleep are really important if you want to keep stress levels down. Just as you track your stress, look at how good you feel after a run or a swim, and how your skin improves when you swap chocolate and coffee for fruit and veg.

Pick your battles
There can be many things in life that are stressful – from a big bill, unfair boss to an angry customer, but if you react to them all you are going to be ill. Choose which things you are going to actually direct energy at and try to resolve, but the rest can be put behind you because they aren’t worth it.

Let it go
Stamp your feet, shout out loud, cry or jump up and down or do some boxing! No, we aren’t talking about toddler tantrums, but letting out your stress and steam in a more physical way. If you are feeling cross and out of control, it might just help to yell about it and get that stress out of your system.

Switch off
Turning off your phone, not checking your emails and powering down your laptop can all help put a lid on stress. You don’t need to be ‘on it’ 24/7, and no one expects you to work late every night, and if they do, maybe you need to look at how much work is impacting your life and stress levels.

Be mindful
This is talked about a lot, but mindfulness is where you have an awareness of the present moment and you pay attention to thoughts, feelings and sensations in the here and now. Mindfulness is really good for healthy mental wellbeing, so if you feel stressed, take a moment and reflect. If your mind gets busy, mindfulness can help to slow it down.

Kick the bad stuff
Smoking, drinking and binge-eating are ways many people cope with stress, but none of those toxic habits will do you any favours. Giving up cigarettes, cutting down takeaways and going to the gym rather than the pub will help you to feel better in the long run.

If things are getting out of hand, chat to your GP – you won’t be the only one.

Team Pure Beauty

Easy ways to stress less every day

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Life is busy, demands grow every day, the need to be Insta perfect plays on our minds and sometimes things can just get too much. It is just as important to look after your mental health, as it is to keep tabs on your physical wellbeing or things can start to get on top of you.

We have had a look at some simple ways you can take back control when it comes to feeling good about life and stressing less each day.

Think about how you start your day
For many people, anxiety is an issue and it can feel worse in the morning. To help with this, try to avoid activities that trigger your stress levels the moment you get up. Don’t look at your emails as soon as you wake, scroll through social media when you are at your desk and not in bed, and if coffee adds an edge, try a herbal tea and some meditation before hitting the caffeine.

List it
We aren’t talking about a to-do list, but a gratitude journal. Each day write down ten things that you’re grateful for and start to appreciate the little things we often take for granted, like family, health, food on the table and even the sun shinning. When you start to see what you do have and focus less on what you wish you had, shifts can be made and stress levels can go down.

And breath
Tuning into your breathing can make a real difference to how you feel as this really does affect your body. Think about it, when you are stressed out, your breathing becomes shorter and shallower, this can make you feel worse and a vicious cycle is set in place. Meditative breathing techniques can make a big difference to how you feel and allow you to become more relaxed and able to think straight. Start by simply taking deep, full breaths in through your nose, and exhaling slowly out of your mouth. Set aside ten minutes a day, more if you can, and just sit with your breath and feel the tension lift.

Get some exercise
Yes, we are all busy but there are real benefits for our mental health if we exercise. When you move your body releases endorphins, feel-good hormones, and when this happens it helps you to feel more energised and focused. This doesn’t mean hitting the gym twice a day or training for a marathon, but simply walking the dog, getting on your bike or taking a step class are all ways to bring good vibes into your life the natural way.

Be your own best friend
Have you ever stopped and thought about how you talk to yourself? Words like stupid, slow, lazy and failure are negative phrases we often use with ourselves, but now is the time to stop and be your own best friend and look after you.

Sleep it away
When we are tired, our worries seem to get worse and we find it harder to turn off and relax. Try to get yourself into a healthy sleep routine so you are able to give your body and mind time to recuperate and catch up. A set bedtime, having a warm bath with added essential oils, doing some yoga are all ideas that can have a positive impact on your mental health.

Live in the moment
It is all too easy to think about what went wrong in the past, or worry about the future, but why not start to enjoy and appreciate the here and now? You cannot change what has happened and we do not know what will happen tomorrow, next week or next year, so savour the moment and leave those worries at the door.

Team Pure Beauty

A quick guide to mindfulness for a happier life

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Mindfulness is being talked about in the media today more than ever, but what’s it all about?

Quite simply, mindfulness is an awareness of ourselves as well as the world around us and it can improve our mental wellbeing, calming the mind and allowing us to focus on the here and now.

If we are more aware of the present moment, it can help us enjoy the world around us more and understand ourselves better. If this happens, we can experience and enjoy the people and things we have been taking for granted, and leave behind the stresses we don’t need.

What does it involve?
Just taking notice of your thoughts, feelings, sensations and the world around you is the first step towards mindfulness.
There are books, apps, and courses that give you a structured way to bring mindfulness into your life, but at the heart of it, what you are doing is stopping for a while and focusing on your breathing. You will then notice that your heart rate slows down, adrenaline production is reduced and you feel more relaxed. With practice you can develop greater focus, better sleeping patterns and start to feel happier as well.

It is true that some of us find the idea of sitting with our thoughts when we are stressed or unhappy, quite difficult, so we have some simple tips that could help you get to grips with mindfulness.

Mindfulness isn’t easy to learn at first, so you can start by reading up about it some more, taking a course, joining a group or using an app like Calm.

It is thought that just ten minutes of mindfulness meditation a day can bring massive benefits when it is done on a regular basis. If you can, do it at the same time each day – maybe when you are on the tube, at lunchtime or before you have a bath in the evening, and it’s at this time when you can really be at one with yourself and leave behind your worries and fears. Clear this space each day, stop everything else and practise your mindful meditation.

Start with short bursts of three, five or ten minutes – you can even do it on the train.

When you sit down to meditate, take a few moments to get comfortable. Notice the sounds around you and how you’re feeling. This will help your mind and body reconnect, so when you do start focusing on your breath, it’s a little easier.

When you are practicing mindfulness and meditating, all you need to do is notice your breath and when your attention wanders, which it will as you wonder what to eat for dinner or where to go at the weekend, let go of it and bring your focus back to your breath. Each time you do that, it’s a win and it gets easier.

When you progress and start to bring mindfulness to your daily life, our advice is to start slowly. We suggest that in week one, you are mindful when you are brushing your teeth – be aware of the sound, the smell, the taste, and the movement as you clean. Then build up slowly, adding a new thing each week, such as being mindful on your walk to work, or while stacking the dishwasher.

Mindfulness isn’t for everyone, but why not give it a try and in time we hope it can become a part of your life and one that will make things easier and happier for you.

Team Pure Beauty