Mindset toolkit - Stress Edition

Introduction Welcome to the MindSET Toolbox, a specially selected offering of tools to help you deal with the emotional challenges of your daily life.

This is the ‘Stress Edition’ that we have put together for Stress Awareness Month, but we want to go beyond awareness and help change behaviour.

At Body & Soul we use these tools on a daily basis and MindSET has become our way of sharing these with a world that is under increased stress over the last year.

As we transition out of lockdown, it is very important to be mindful of ourselves, our needs and to better manage the stress we face. It is easy to disregard the “normal” stress we feel from our jobs or school, traffic, relationships nances and more. We push through in “survival mode” until we feel burned out, exhausted and often resentful.

In the next few pages, our therapists, staff and members of the community share with you a range of practical approaches to change your relationship with stress.

Our advice is: ‘Don’t wait ‘till you break’ – these tools can help you deal with distress and overwhelm, but also prevent you from reaching that point.

Contents MindSET toolkit: 3 Mindfulness tools to put you, not stress in the driving seat Get your MindSET: ‘Hints and Tips for riding the wave’ When stress becomes DISTRESS: Self-soothe & TIPP skill Wellbeing wisdom

MindSET Toolkit: 3 Mindfulness tools to put you, not stress, in the driving seat A quick Stress Pep Talk...

Stress isn’t always a bad thing; it can be handy for a burst of extra energy and focus, like when you’re playing a competitive sport or have to speak in public. But when it’s continuous, it actually begins to change your brain. Madhumita Murgia shows how chronic stress can affect brain size, its structure, and how it functions, right down to the level of your genes.

> link here <

Tool #1: Mindfulness of Breath

MindSET has endless numbers of mindfulness techniques that can train your attention and focus on the present moment. Our brains are wired so that if they are focused on a task, we are unable to be anxious or depressed! Our breath is the one ever present tool that we can use to bring ourselves back to the here and now.

> link here <

Tool #2: The How Tool

Whether we meditate, focus on our breathing or do sudoku, it isn’t just what you do that matters, it’s HOW you do it. These 3 skills in one prevent you falling into traps that push your stress levels right up!

Join Darryl and the team work through each of them in turn and tell you how you can revolutionise HOW you go about your day.

> link here <

Tool #3: Balancing Doing & Being Mind

In our world of back to back Zoom meetings and returning to work, it’s easy to become caught up in the whirlpool of doing, doing, doing. It’s the ‘hamster wheel’ mind where we disregard what is going on with our emotions. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the ‘sofa mind’, just being in the moment and not thinking about getting anything done, just appreciating the moment we are in. It’s not hard to see the pros and cons of both states of mind, but stress and overwhelm can come sooner or later with both. Watch our session to help you begin to find the balance.

> link here <

Get your MindSET! ‘Hints and Tips’ for riding the stress wave These tools are like your surfboard to ride the emotional waves of life. Emotions, like waves, will just keep washing up every few seconds of the day. We can be dragged along with them or we can gradually learn to stand up, balance and ride them out. Join us every Monday for our very own emotion surf school! > Link here < 1. Compartmentalise We need to focus on one thing at a time, and to recognise which thing to focus on. Imagine you are juggling 2 balls and then someone chucks in an extra ball. Every extra ball will make it feel all the more tricky.

When we get stressed and anxious our minds go ‘offline.’ The trick is to do one thing at a time and work steadily through the ‘To do list’.

2. Break the pattern Break the pattern - healthy rest breaks are important.

Take little breaks and look after yourself and plan them into your ‘to do list’! Have a wander around - go into your garden, or outside for a quick walk. Sit down and do a 2-3 min breathing exercise. All you need to do is just focus on your breathing.

3. Traffic lights If you feel the stress building up, think of this traffic lights scenario:

4. Don’t get attached to judgements and negative thoughts When we’re under pressure, we get caught up in judgement, overthinking, and unhelpful internal critical thoughts. Negative judgmental thoughts such as “ahh I can’t cope with this!” trigger stress in the body which starts a fight or freeze response and cortisol starts to build up.

5. Replace Your Thoughts with New Thoughts Think about things in the past that have gone well. What can you draw upon to manage the situation that you are in right now?

“Watch your , they become your ; watch your words, they become your ; watch your actions, they become your ; watch your habits, they become your ; watch your character, it becomes your .”

- Lao Tzu

When stress becomes DISTRESS Tools to help you deal with without making the situation worse Under the most stressful situations, or when we are emotionally vulnerable, our emotions can go through the roof. At these moments, our logical brains can go off-line and we can get stuck in fight and flight mode where we are at risk of emotionally fuelled, impulsive behaviour. This is not the time to start asking ‘Why is this happening?’ or ‘How can I solve this distressing situation?’ – it’s time to use our body’s own physiology to emotionally re-set ourselves and get our brains back into a state to think and problem solve.

Self-soothe & TIPP

Wellbeing wisdom

“Trying to be a perfectionist brings increased stress and hinders performance.”

-T. Whitmore Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the “right” thing to do. It also improves your mood because it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23 percent.

–Travis Bradberry

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.

–Viggo Mortensen

You may have a million desires to be in other places, doing other things, but you are not there, you are here.

-Zen proverb When you find yourself stressed, ask yourself one question: Will this matter in 5 years from now? If yes, then do something about the situation. If no, then let it go.

–Catherine Pulsife

Once you accept, truly accept, that stuff will happen to you and there is nothing you can do about it, stress miraculously leaves your life.

–Srikumar Rao

In times of life crisis, whether wild fires or smoldering stress, the first thing I do is go back to basics … am I eating right, am I getting enough sleep, am I getting some physical and mental exercise every day?

–Edward Albert

>

the Share

love

er furth

< here