The most effective way to manage stress is through a combination of techniques that: take action, manage emotion, and accept what is in our power to do, rather than worrying about what we can’t do.

Take Action:

1 - Identify your Stressors

Take some time to consider what tends to set stress off for you. Often it's to do with change or loss in our lives, and may fit into the following situations:

Divorce/separation
Illness or accident
Bereavement
Financial issues
Work problems
Health worries
Discrimination
Lack of sleep
Job problems
Relationship problems
Poor diet
Poor environment

And it’s worth remembering that happy events such as marriage, moving home, promotion and having kids can also increase stress.

2 - Build regular exercise or activity into your life

I know it’s repeated over and over but working out (in whatever way you fancy) gets your blood circulating and your breathing adapting to the need for oxygen, balancing the levels in your blood. It discharges tension in your muscles and helps the body unwind.

Exercise also includes stretching and flexibility; yoga is a fantastic way to release tension in the muscles by stretching. It also encourages a slowing and deepening of breath in ways that mediate the stress response. Activity hobbies allow for a sense of flow and engagement that is also very beneficial.

3 - Problem solving techniques to regain order and make a plan

When stressed we may experience brain fog and our concentration, memory and reasoning skills feel limited. Problem-solving is a useful way to return to some form of ordered thinking by giving our mind a framework to work with. Clarify what the specific problem is and brainstorm possible solutions. Problems could be regarding workload, work balance, relationship issues, and many more.

After listing the pros and cons of each option, choose one to put into action. You can use this Problem Solving Worksheet to aid you in this.

Managing Emotions:

4 - Breathe and Drop Anchor

Always at the top of any stress management protocol is to understand and manage your breathing. One of the key pieces of information that our primitive emotional brain will use to understand that we are not under threat, is when our rational mind, our prefrontal cortex, takes control and overrules the stress response when we choose to slow the breath down, effectively putting on the brakes.

Check out our 5 Helpful Breathing Techniques.

Adding some present moment attention in the body and in our surroundings can add an extra dimension to calming an emotional storm through a technique called ‘Dropping Anchor’. Have a go at the ‘dropping anchor’ exercise.

5 - Consider your thinking patterns

person writing in thought diary to break stress cycle

Step back and notice if your thoughts are fast streaming and a little disordered or negative. Are they emotionally influenced and not reflecting the facts of a situation? This comes with the stress territory and generally demotivates us from taking positive action. Intentionally, becoming aware of unhelpful thoughts and challenging their validity can help break the stress cycle and is one of the aims of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Balancing thoughts into a more realistic perspective is not easy but has a positive impact on reducing stress. Keeping a regular thought diary helps this process.

Without realising it we can often beat ourselves up in our inner thought conversations. Developing compassion for yourself in your thinking has big benefits and is a growing area of research. Instead think of how you would speak to a best friend who had the same problem.

Practicing some form of Mindfulness is another way to unhook from difficult thoughts whilst attending to the present moment. The 87% app is a great place to find short mindful exercises. Nature is the most obvious place to get away from it all and soak up the scenery with all your senses, whether out in a wood or a garden.

Acceptance to reduce overwhelm and do what is in our power to do

6 - Make time to spend with others

Seek and give support. Connection and engaging with other humans (and our pets) stimulates our resting social engagement system, our ventral vagus nerve, that signifies contentment, safety, cooperation, security and healthy relaxation. This is the complete opposite to the stress response, and research shows that caring creates resilience. Plan time for this to make sure it happens.

7 - Relaxation

To feel relaxed our heart and breathing rate needs to switch down into a mode of calm and soothing slowness, when our mind will also be more settled. Water helps some – perhaps a warm (but not hot) bath with relaxing bath oil to stimulate our sense of smell, will soothe. Reading something you’re interested in also helps as it requires us to sit calmly and quietly, but make sure it’s not a thriller! And don’t forget music can be a great mood changer, so keep your favourite music playing.

8 - Eat and sleep well

Not always easy to do when busy and stressed, but these are the two non- negotiable fuels for your body if you want it to function well. These both provide a strong foundation that helps protect you from ill physical and mental health.

How we can help…

At 87% we can help you to measure employee stress across your organisation, with the ability to measure changes over time and between teams and regions. With our Employee Wellbeing Platform you can harness real (anonymised) data from employee self-assessment to uncover which audiences report the most critical levels of stress. Through tailored AI-driven recommendations you will learn how to address these issues in your organisation. Have a chat with us today to see how we can help you to help your people.