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

Find fabulous new habits in your forties

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When you get to your forties you may well find that the habits you have formed have been with you for years, but the reality is they might not be doing your mind or body very much good. No one is perfect, including us, so we’ve looked at easy ways to get happier and healthier as you sail through your forties.

Drop the vices
We all know that smoking and drinking isn’t good for us at any age, but this really is the time to try and get things under control. Binge drinking, midnight snacks, gambling excessively and lighting up one cigarette after another will be taking a toll on your health, and wallet. So look at what’s going on and make a decision to stop, and find something better to do with your time, and money.

Have health checks
Diabetes, high cholesterol, certain cancers and heart disease are all conditions that can be detected early through routine GP visits, so book in and get a clear bill of health. If things aren’t 100% good, it’s best to know what’s happening and trying to get it fixed because if you hide you head in the sand, things could get worse and then it could be too late. You might also want to keep a watch on the menopause at this stage in your life.

Get to bed
Sleep is so important and if you don’t get enough, you can feel irritable, miserable and life can quickly get you down. You might however be finding that as you move through your forties, the ease at which you get to sleep, and the amount of time you actually sleep, will change. We would suggest you still aim to get at least seven hours of snoozing a night as this will enhance your immune system, reduce stress levels, and generally help you to cope with life better.

No tech at bedtime
Talking about sleep, the one thing we do suggest is that you don’t take your phones or devices to bed. Yes, they can help you keep connected with the world, but night time is when you need to switch off, so power down and leave those light emitting screens downstairs.

Keep sun damage away
We need to do this all of our lives, but it is critical in your forties to look after your skin if you want to keep your melanoma risks down, as these increase with age. The sun’s UV rays is one of the biggest risk factors you can control, so find a moisturiser that has sunscreen in it, and if you want to go one step further to both protect yourself from skin cancer and keep wrinkles at bay, use an SPF stand alone too!

Look after your eyes
Yes, celebrities wear sunnies all the time, but they are so much more than a fashion statement; they are a good habit to get into. So take Victoria Beckham’s lead (she’s in her forties and wearing it well) and put your sunglasses on not just in the summer, but every time you go outside, and keep your eyes safe.

Smile
Life can be hard in your forties as your kids move away and your parents fall ill, but getting into the habit of smiling and laughing during your day, can be a really good for you. Laughter boosts your mood, reduces stress, and smiling at a stranger could be the lift they also need in their day.

So, what new habits are you going to make, and which badies are you going to ditch to make your forties fabulous?

Team Pure Beauty

Insomnia and what you can do about it

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Struggle to fall asleep night after night?

Wake up in the early hours and just can’t nod off again?

Simply don’t feel refreshed when you get up in the morning?

It could be that you are suffering from insomnia, which is thought to affect up to one in every three people in the UK at some point.

There are no official statistics to suggest how much sleep adults need because we are all different but the suggested average is between seven to nine hours. It can be detrimental to get caught up with numbers because the main thing is getting enough good quality sleep so that you don’t feel constantly tired throughout the day.

We all have the odd night of bad sleep, maybe when we are stressed, anxious or excited this doesn’t cause serious problems, but persistent insomnia can affect all aspects of your life, from your energy levels, appetite, mood and relationships.

Signs that you might have insomnia include:

• difficultly falling asleep
• waking up several times during the night
• lying awake for long periods at night
• waking up early in the early hours and not being able to go back to sleep
• not feel refreshed when you get up
• feeling constantly tired and irritable in the day and unable to concentrate

This can be caused by many factors, including stress and anxiety, an uncomfortable bed, a bedroom that’s too light, noisy, hot or cold. Lifestyle factors like shift work, jet lag, drinking alcohol or caffeine before going to bed can also play a part.

Mental and health physical conditions, as well as some medications, can also interfere with sleep on a long-term basis.

Whatever the cause, it can be frustrating but there are ways to deal with insomnia.

• Avoid alcohol, caffeine and large meals late in the evening.
• Just like with children, set a bedtime and stick to it and do the same with waking – even at the weekend.
• Relax before you go to bed and turn off all devices and TVs.
• Get an alarm clock rather than using your mobile phone to wake you up as having it on can distract you.
• Have a relaxing, warm bath before bed and add lavender oil to the water as this essential oil can aid sleep.
• Make sure your bedroom is comfortable, clean and the temperature is set correctly.
• Use thick curtains or black out blinds in your bedroom so that the least amount of sunlight is let in.
• Try an eye mask or ear plugs if you get woken often by noise.
• You might be tired but try not to sleep in the day.
• Write a list of worries, if you have any, so they are down on paper and not in your head. Look at areas in your life that are bothering you and getting you down and maybe find ways to deal with them.
• If you really cannot sleep, get up, have a warm drink in low lighting.
• We know we make it sound easy but try to relax and don’t get stressed about not sleeping as this becomes a self-perpetuating cycle of misery.

If things don’t settle down, go to see your GP who will try to help identify and treat any underlying health condition, such as anxiety, that may be causing your sleep problems and then look at other changes that can be made.

Sweet dreams.