Mental Health and Me

Chapter 6: Stress

We all feel stressed in different situations but being able to cope with stress and not allow it to destroy is key to boosting further your mental health. I've always been the one to put more stress on myself and exams through college and high school have been things that have put me under the most stress. Pressure is one of our biggest stressors with 60% of young people feel so stressed by pressure and 57% of young people felt so stressed because of fear of making a mistake. But I learnt more and more how to cope with stress and it relates to the previous chapter confidence.

There are many reasons for being stressed but the first reason is that we have too much to do in a space of time, but this doesn't mean you have to give up on one thing managing a high workload more effectively can reduce stress massively. When we have big workloads looking at and feeling daunted and thinking we will never get this done will mean you'll never get it done and also your being negative already. Starting with a more positive mindset that it can be done is the first step. We need to cut each task into smaller chunks and plan when you want to get each one done by this can make you less stressed because seeing a plan of when each task will be done by and by the deadline can decrease stress straight away. Making tasks into more smaller chunks can make them so much more manageable and this can decrease stress because it is more achievable and every little task done is one more step till the overall task is complete which boosts your mood every step of the way.

It is also important to not burn out, the more you work the less energy you have and especially if you work too hard then you will become more and more stressed because you are pushing yourself to work more and more when you necessarily want to. Each day you need to plan how much you want to do each make sure its manageable and achievable, but also if one day you don't feel like doing anymore then take a break don't push yourself to make you more stressed and down about it.

Having breaks can also massively relieve stress, doing work and only work each day everyday can get boring but also stressful because there's nothing there you enjoy. Having 15 to 30-minute breaks to do some exercise or watch a tv show can massively relieve stress and also helps you to relax because you are not just doing the thing that's making you stressful. Regular exercise can brighten your mood massively because you are getting rid of these negative emotions including stress by exercising and you feel better about yourself. Exercise can actually calm you before you actually have done the work thus relieving abit of stress of your shoulders.

Relaxing is another way to stop yourself from stressing, many relaxation techniques can help to de-stress you after a long stressful day. Meditation, deep-breathing, and yoga are all relaxation techniques which enables your bodies relaxation response to be activated. You don't want to feel restlessness because this not only increases stress because you can't relax and so using these techniques even including listening to music can massively de-stress you and your minds.

When you feel stressed like many other chapters talking to someone can massively help. Talking to someone can help you because they may be able to help you with the stressful situation, sometimes you don't think about how to solve a task and having someone there who can help you will help you stress less because you've got someone there to calm you down. Working together to complete a task can mean your workload is halved and so you feel less stressed but having each other's opinions and ideas about a task allows you to complete this task even better than before and a lot more effective.

Confidence is also linked with stress you often feel stressed because you feel that you can't get the task done. Increases in self-confidence and self-esteem means you believe in your ability more to be successful in most situations and so when stressful situations come about you will be less stressed and a lot more relaxed because you believe in yourself.

Let's look at an example of stress we will all face in our lifetime and that's exams and applying how we can manage stress in this situation can boost our performance. We all feel stressed about exams because we want to do well, we don't want to mess up and there's a lot of revision to do to remember everything. To help the stress of an exam I'd advise create a revision timetable so you can effectively revise each subject you have in enough time so that you don't stress about not having enough time to revise each subject effectively. Making sure you have sufficient breaks between revising will help you relax and not let boredom creep in. Finally, revising in the way you find the most effective and best for you can help you feel less stressed as doing a revision method you don't find as good or helpful will make you feel more stressed.

Stress can also be made worse by a unbalanced diet of food, processed food can contribute to stress symptoms but having a balanced diet of lean proteins, vegetables and foods containing omega-3 can relieve symptoms as they can increase energy and make you feel better. As well as this having enough sleep helps you to have enough energy for the day and an energised mindset, so you are ready for the day and to tackle the situation. This therefore reduces the stress you feel each day.

The main message for this chapter is the we all are stressed and finding technique to keep you less stressed is key, there are all methods that can keep you calm but finding the one that suits you is essential. Being less stressed is another step to improving mental health.