5 Tips to manage stress

Sally Poyser is a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner at Touchstone one of the partner organisations in the Leeds IAPT service. To mark stress awareness day Sally gives five easy tips to help manage stress.

Stress affects everybody, but high levels of stress can affect our ability to cope with the demands that come up in life.

So, it’s important that we try to look after ourselves by taking steps to manage our stress levels.

1) It can be easy to feel overwhelmed if we have a lot of things happening in our lives. We naturally focus on the negative things in life such as the things we can't do. Try to focus on the things that you can do something about. This will help you feel more in control.

2) It can be easy to only do the things that we need to do in life and we forget about the pleasurable things. Don't let stress get in the way of the things that you enjoy, arrange to see that friend that you have not seen for a while; pick that hobby back up that you have neglected or do something that you have always wanted to do.

3) We all need help from time to time, talk to a friend about what you are going through so you can get some support from others. 

4) It is a natural human response to avoid things that are uncomfortable, but we know that avoidance makes stress worse in the long term so look at the things in your life that you are avoiding and start to tackle them by facing your fears.

5) Exercise is a natural ‘antidepressant’, try to make small changes to be more active such as taking the stairs rather than the lift or go for a brisk walk.

If you feel that you need further help in managing stress our Leeds IAPT Partnership offers courses which run once a week over a six week period. These courses help learn coping strategies and techniques to help manage stress more effectively. You can call 0113 843 4388 to have an assessment the same day or see our service webpage for more details.

Sally Poyser. Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner. Touchstone.