Keeping Grounded During Stressful Times

Stress and overwhelm is a common experience. Whether you are navigating stress related to work, relationships, life transitions, or feeling the weight of political uncertainty - the loss of control can at times feel too difficult to manage. It’s during these stressful times that prioritizing self-care becomes most important, even when the task feels impossible.

Coping skills are an essential part of wellness, and often, it’s hard to know where to start. Here are three tips that might be useful place to start during times of high stress:

1. Plan ways to disengage from stress. 

   Increased stress can bring out different parts of ourselves. For example, if you're prone to anxiety or irritability, you can expect that you will be more vulnerable to more of these dispositions. For example, if you’re prone to anxiety or irritability, expect that you will be more vulnerable to these dispositions. Don’t blame yourself. Instead, plan for ways to disengage when it happens, by, for example, listening to your favorite music, playing with a pet, and hugging a loved one.

2. Practice healthy habits. 

   We may all hear how prioritizing our health can be so important yet in times of stress, we may find it more challenging to do so. This can result in sleep disruption, isolation, and changes in daily routines. Prioritizing health through things such as movement (stretching, walking, dancing, gardening, or housework), improving sleep habits, or socializing can improve your overall mental health and create wellness habits that last beyond the situational stressor.

   

   
   

3. Don’t worry about tomorrow excessively!

   Focus on what you can control now and what you can reasonably plan for. Stressful events play themselves out in stages. Attempting to tell yourself you are going to jump back to normal without working through how to better ground yourself now can set you up for more stress to come.