Entry #4 Mental Health
Have you ever been stressed out to the point you want to cry? Seems like everything’s going wrong and you don’t know what to do? Believe it or not a lot of people feel like this, and your not alone.
What a lot of people are unaware about is how much stress can actually wear down your body. Stress can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. More common side effects of stress are headaches, insomnia, low self-esteem, and irritability.
Now that you know the symptoms, what can you do to prevent or relive stress? COPING SKILLS! Coping skills are one of the most important tools in relieving stress. Coping skills are tasks or exercises to calm the mind.
Self soothing is a great example of a coping skill. Self soothing is calming yourself using your senses. For example, taking a Hot bath and feeling the steamy water against your skin Another example is lighting a candle and smelling the sweet sent or melting warm chocolate on your tongue. The idea behind this coping mechanism is to focus on the sense or senses your using and to take your mind off of anything that’s stressing you.
Mindfulness is another great coping mechanism. Mindfulness is when you refocus your self on the present moment. By using a simple breathing technique you can lower your blood pressure and your heart rate. First start by taking a deep 3 second breath in through your nose, hold it for 3 seconds, then let it out through your mouth with a duration of 3 seconds. Do this about 5 times or until calm.
The last coping skill I’m going to discuss is called Let it flow. This is when you feel all those feelings rise to the surface and you cry it out. It can be dangerous to keep all those feelings bottled up inside, and by crying or venting you can relieve that weight from your shoulders.
Let me remind you that everyone gets stressed out! Learning how to deal with it is the next step. Here I’ve only provided 3 coping mechanisms, but there are over 100 more! If you’d like to read more about Coping Skills click HERE
It's like you read my mind or knew what I was going through. I am so happy and relieved that you posted this, because I can use these techniques and methods to de-stress myself and relief some of my anxiety I've been having. I also found the melted chocolate interesting, since I haven't heard of that one before.
ReplyDeleteOkay I will surely be self soothing soon! It sounds relaxing especially with that picture you included. You are right though, sometimes we feel like we are the only ones who feel stressed out.
ReplyDeleteI like some of the examples you used. I just do not think I would personally use them. Maybe suggest something for the rugged men next time :)
ReplyDeleteI can 100% related to do this I also have anxiety I like how you gave some tips on how to destress but I don't think crying it out while you are stress is the best idea specially if you are having an anxiety attack. But one thing I have try specially when I cant sleep due to stressed is stressed relief tea you can find it at your located grocery store it really does help
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that whenever I stressed out I feel like I am the only one who stressed out on the world lol. thank you for providing us with those destress tips. I am going to use some of them soon!
ReplyDeleteYou clearly hit on a popular topic here that many can relate to based on all the comments above.
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