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Quick Mental Wellness Tips:
How to Calm Your Stressed-Out Brain.
Stress is common. We face stress regularly. Stress can be good, it causes you to be more alert, so that you can work better. However, when you are overwhelmed by stress, it can bring significant harmful health effects to your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. You can’t get rid of stress, but you can learn to calm it down.
These are some unhealthy signs of stress.
• You have constant headaches
• You are not motivated to work
• Your back feels tight and overstretch
• You are easily irritable, impatient, and angry
• You find it hard to sleep
• It is hard for you to focus on your work
• Your mind is racing, and your heartbeat is rapid
• You might have frequent illnesses
• You don’t enjoy the work that you used to like
• In serious cases, you might even experience suicidal thoughts
The good news is that there are strategies to help you calm your stressed-out brain. Here are three you can try.
- Be Mindful, Slow Down and Be Present.
Mindfulness teaches you to be present, accept your feelings and thoughts, and be at peace. It helps you to slow down to see and understand better what you are doing. Many times, when stress shows up, you tense up, rush, and go on the do, do, and do mode. Your mind becomes clouded and fused. You are not fully attentive and aware of your surrounding with those present with you. When you are not fully present, you might miss some very important information and interesting interactions.
For example, you are driving to work. Your mind is thinking of all the problems to be solved and resolved. You arrive at your office, and you realise that you have not even noticed your journey and what you might have passed by or missed seeing. Your mind was too preoccupied and worried with stressful thoughts. You were not present during the journey to enjoy the trip.
Slowing down, being mindful, helps you to be in the present moment to pay attention fully to what you are doing. It helps you to connect with your family, colleagues, supervisors, and customers better to enjoy your life and work, and your interactions with them.
- Give Stress a Name.
When you are stressed, it is so easy for your mind to be clouded and overwhelmed. A simple problem can look like a GIANT. Your mind is fused with all types of negative thoughts of possible disaster, failures, and how things can go horribly wrong. One way to calm the storm of stress is to give your stress a name. First, you must recognize when stress is showing up. Then, take a pause to slow down. Slowing down helps you to think. Look at your stress and give it a name. It can be any name. You can name it “Stress.” Or you can give it an interesting name that is related to the problem.
For example, if your problem is dealing with a particular customer, you can name the stress as “Unkind Customer.” Or you could even give it a funny name, such as “Loud Thunderstorm.” Finally, tell your stress, “Thank you Loud Thunderstorm for coming. I don’t want to listen to you. I am going to put up an umbrella to cover myself and continue to do my work. Maybe later, when the storm is quieter, I will come back to you.”
By giving stress a name, the stress is externalized so that you can defuse from the negative thoughts that are stopping you from being productive.
- Distinguishing Between Helpful and Unhelpful Stress.
Not all stress is unhelpful. Some stress is important as it can help you to be productive. You need to identify whether the stress that is showing up is going to help you to do your work better or is it a hindrance. For example, you are supposed to take care of a VIP customer. You can feel your stress is showing up. Take a moment to write down what your stress is telling you. It could be saying, “You are going to make a mess of yourself with this VIP client. You will be fired.” For most of us, when we look at this statement, we will immediately think of it as a negative defeating thought.
However, take a pause, and let’s look at what this stress statement is telling us. If this stressful thought is going to cause you to be paralyzed at your work, fearful with the customer, or spiral down in discouragement, then this stressful thought is unhelpful. It is time to give it a name and tell it to be quiet. However, if this stressful thought is helping you to make your preparation better, then it is a helpful stress. Take time to listen to it and do what is important for you.
To learn to calm down your stressed-out brain, learn to slow down and be mindful, give stress a name, and distinguish between helpful and unhelpful stress. These three strategies will help to be in more control of your stress, instead of letting your stress control you.
1 February 2023
By Lee Teck Ming, M.A. Counselling (Psychotherapist)
New Vision Counselling and Consultancy 