Anxiety and stress are common experiences in everyday life. If you are dealing with work, school, uni, family, social, performance, sport or music pressures, uncertainty or personal challenges day to day, you might be feeling stressed or anxious and unsure of how to get help.
Stress and anxiety can feel uncomfortable. Particularly if you wake up in the morning with a flood of stressful thoughts in your mind. Almost as if you are overthinking or ruminating. This can often lead to each day feeling like you dread the next. It doesn’t have to feel this way.
Our helpful team of North Sydney psychologists and Northern Beaches psychologist will work closely with you, using methods that are tailored to your unique situation. By having useful coping mechanisms, this can help you gain effective strategies for managing stress and anxiety.
- Practice Mindfulness (Leaves on a Stream Exercise)
- Approach Your Daily Tasks with Mindfulness
- Use the S.T.O.P Method to Manage your Stress and Agitation
- Notice & Relieve Stress & Agitation Triggers Quickly
- Deal with Stress & Anxiety at Work, School, Uni, Socially, with Family, Sport/Music Performance.
- Seeking Help for Stress
Let’s look at some practical ways you can cope with this and help you regain control, and find peace in your daily life.
What is Stress?
Your body naturally reacts to demanding or difficult conditions with stress as a reaction to difficult or challenging situations. While this is a natural part of life, when it becomes ongoing it can have negative effects on both your physical body and emotional well-being.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a state or feeling of dread, trepidation or the feeling of uneasiness with an unknown and unpredictable outcome.
Both stress and anxiety are common reactions, however if not managed well they can become overwhelming in your everyday life.
It is always important to reach out for Anxiety support if you are feeling worried, agitated or your mood seems constantly out of balance.
Why do I Get Stressed and Agitated so Easily?
If you find yourself getting stressed, agitated or frustrated quite easily, it’s important to pay attention to your personal signs and symptoms. Everyone experiences stress differently, by understanding your unique triggers, this can help you manage them if you are aware of them. You might ask yourself how am I feeling at this moment? What is bothering me about this? The feeling often comes from how your body and mind react to certain situations and scenarios.
The following are some typical causes of increase stress sensitivity:
- Personality traits and genetics
- Trauma and past experiences
- Present day situations in life
- Ineffective coping techniques
- Lack of self care and support
Physical signs of agitation, worry and stress:
By recognising the signs and physical causes of stress, agitation and anxiety, it can help you develop a strategy for early intervention. By paying close attention to these common things, can help you overcome the following symptoms.
These might include:
- Fatigue, a lack of energy
- Your heart beating rapidly
- Shallow breathing
- Headaches
- Digestive issues and a sore stomach
- Sleep disturbances
- Low motivation
- Difficulty concentrating and finishing tasks
- Difficulty making decisions
- Forgetting things easily
How do you Manage Stress & Anxiety?
Coping with Extreme Stress and Anxiety
When stress, agitation and anxiety reach extreme levels, the use of good coping mechanisms can help with these feelings and can assist you with managing emotions that might feel overwhelming.
1. Practice Mindfulness (Leaves on a stream exercise)
By bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis and paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to observe the ongoing stream of internal (thoughts and feelings/images bodily sensations) and external stimuli as they arise, you’ll be able to manage the anxious, agitating, stressful thoughts and feelings with more openness, curiosity, interest & acceptance, flexibility, and feel less caught up in them. Freeing you to feel more empowered, present to enjoy and gain more meaning and purpose.
Mindfulness offers a way of changing our relationship to these phenomena by observing them with kindness and eventually acceptance, alleviating pressure and freeing us to exist more happily. Ironically, the process of paying attention to challenging emotions actually allows more space for changing their negative impact. It also allows more space for positive experiences to flourish and be embraced.
Practising observing and describing all of our own thoughts and emotions with acceptance rather than judgment is central. We discover that the loudest ‘voice’ or the most dominant emotions are not necessarily accurate reflections of a situation, rather they are just points of view—usually biased to boot. Eventually it becomes easier to see individual thoughts as just that – thoughts – and dominant emotions as just those, dominant emotions. With practice we become more aware of other options, and are consequently more capable of making different choices.
Imagine that you are standing by the bank of a gently flowing stream watching the water flow. Imagine feeling the ground beneath you, the sounds of the water flowing past, and the way the stream looks as you watch it. Imagine that there are leaves from trees, of all different shapes, sizes, and colours, floating past on the stream and you are just watching these float on the stream.
Start to become aware of your thoughts, feelings, or sensations.
Each time you notice a thought, feeling, or sensation, imagine placing it on a leaf and letting it float down the stream. Do this regardless of whether the thoughts, feelings, or sensations are positive or negative, pleasurable or painful. Even if they are the most wonderful thoughts, place them on a leaf and let them float by.
If your thoughts stop, just watch the stream. Sooner or later your thoughts should start up again. Allow the stream to flow at its own rate. Notice any urges to speed up or slow down the stream, and let these be on leaves as well. Let the stream flow how it will. If you have thoughts, feelings, or sensations about doing this exercise, place these on leaves as well.
If you find yourself getting caught up with a thought or feeling, such as boredom or impatience, simply acknowledge it. Say to yourself, “Here’s a feeling of boredom,” or “Here’s a feeling of impatience.” Then place those words on a leaf, and let them float on by.
2. Approach your daily tasks with mindfulness
Mindfulness is a really good and powerful set of tools you can use for managing stress and anxiety. By focusing on the present moment in time and engaging completely with your daily activities, it can help you reduce worry, and create a sense of calm.
Here are some techniques you can use in your everyday routine:
- Mindful showering. Start your day by paying attention to the sense of water washing over your skin, the smell of soap on your body, the sight of the water beads on the shower, and the sound of water
- Mindful Brushing of your teeth: Notice the flavour of the toothpaste, the texture of the bristles, and the touch on your hand
- Eating Mindfully: Focus on the flavours, and each bite of food, along with the smell of the food.
- Packing the dishwasher or washing dishes mindfully: when you pack your dishes away, look at the shapes and colours of the dishes, feel the temperature of the water, and the sound of water running
- Mindfully making the bed: Pay attention to the soft textures of your bedding, the smooth sheets, as well as shapes and colours of the pillows
By using these daily techniques and practising mindfulness each day, you create a greater sense of presence, which will develop the more you practise, reducing stress and anxiety.
3. Use the S.T.O.P Method to Manage Your Stress and Agitation
When stress hits you, it is useful to have an effective way to recover, and using a technique that works well, such as the S, T, O, P method can be a great tool to use to relieve stress.
This is how the STOP method works:
S stands for: Slowing your breathing, take big deep breaths in, this helps anchor your body and mind into the present moment.
T stands for: Taking note, and observing your thoughts, feelings and actions without fully judging yourself
O stands for: Opening up and allowing space for your emotions and thought process without trying to change them.
P stands for: Pursuing your values, responding to the situation in a way the completely meets your personal values.
4. Notice & Relieve Stress and Agitation Triggers Quickly
Additionally to the STOP method above, the following tips below can help you actively manage stress and agitation in the moment.
- Tip 1: Being aware of your triggers: Pay attention to what causes your stress, this can better prepare you and avoid such circumstances.
- Tip 2: Your emotional and physical reactions: Recognising how this type of stress can come about and manifest in your body, can help you address it.
- Tip 3 : What you can change: Focus all your energy on the aspects of the situation you can actually control yourself or influence.
- Tip 4: Learn to moderate your physical reactions: By practising breathing and relaxation techniques can help calm your body’s response to stressful situations.
5. Deal with Stress and Anxiety at Work, Uni, School, with Friends, Family Sport or Music Performance?
Working everyday can be a significant cause of stress and anxiety for many people. By using some great strategies and techniques you can utilise them when you need them, especially in the workplace, at school, Uni or for additional and major elements of your life.
- Using the 3, 3, 3 rule: In your mind name three things you can see, three things you hear and move three elements of your body. This simple exercise can help ground you in the moment and reduce anxiety.
- Take more breaks regularly: Take the time to step away from your desk for short periods, refresh your mind and body, this often helps reduce the build up of tension in your body.
- Prioritise your tasks: Simplify larger projects into smaller and more simple tasks, to avoid feeling overwhelmed
- Talk to your colleagues and supervisors: By asking your team for help or clarification on a task when needed.
- Create a comfortable space to work in: Personalise your workspace with good ergonomics to help reduce stress, such as a good chair for back support and adjusting it correctly.
6. Seeking Help for Stress
Self-help and taking the steps needed to alleviate stress is very important.
By seeking professional mental health from our caring and experienced team at ST&A Psychology, we can support you with anxiety counselling and work with you to help create individualised strategies to assist you in your day to day life.
How We Can Help with Stress
At ST&A Psychology North Sydney we understand the impact that stress and anxiety can have on your life. Our team of dedicated and experienced psychologists can help you develop effective coping techniques, specific to your needs. We offer personalised support to help you manage stress and achieve your goals.
Contact us today to learn more about us, our services and how we can help you thrive, and make your journey towards improved mental health and well-being.
