Self-Care Tips To Protect Yourself Against Stress

April is Stress Awareness month, and it serves as a good reminder of the impacts of stress on our lives. It’s important to take the time to look after ourselves and put measures in place to protect ourselves from stress and its effect on us.

Stress, especially from the workplace, is a big factor in mental health issues like anxiety, depression and burnout, as well as physical health problems. It’s important to identify what is causing our stress and learn to take steps to reduce it.

We’ve put together a few self-care tips to help you protect yourself against stress, and achieve a better work-life balance.

Keep moving

When we are stressed, our body is expecting to have to carry out some kind of physical activity (fight or flight), so one way to keep your body balanced is to give it what it wants, and get out and about for a run, a walk, or a quick workout.

Take control of your time

Time management is a really important technique to manage your stress. When you don’t manage your time correctly, you become overwhelmed and stressed and your productivity suffers. Long-term stress is greatly reduced when you have a direction and structure to your time, even when it feels like you’ve got too much to do.

Don’t be a slave to technology

We’re more connected than ever before, and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that this is a huge cause of stress for many people. Technology is a constant part of our lives, we’re constantly checking our phones, our emails, our messages. These constant interruptions can take a toll on our relationships and can prevent us from ever really disconnecting from work. It’s important to take time away from our screens to disconnect and protect ourselves from burnout.

Learn how to say no when you need to

It can be difficult to say no, we’ve all felt that pressure to say yes to a last minute request that we really don’t have the time to deal with, and this can be a huge cause of stress. But when we take too much on, we end up overwhelming and harming ourselves. It’s important to start to say no when you need to, and without feeling guilty. We can’t do everything, and when we try to, that’s when we’re at risk of burnout.

Stay Hydrated

When we’re stressed and under pressure, our body needs as much support as it can get, and that includes the most important nutrient, water! When we’re dehydrated our energy levels are lower, and we feel more tired, so as simple as it sounds, make sure you’re taking good care of yourself by drinking enough water.

Some of these things may just seem like common sense, but it’s all too easy to let things slide and stop looking after ourselves properly, so a reminder to prioritise your mental and physical health can be useful. 

Simple things like staying hydrated, sleeping well and giving yourself regular breaks to clear your mind can be essential to helping you protect yourself from stress and avoid burnout.

Click here to check out our previous blog on how to disconnect when working remotely.

And click here for more resources on how to deal with stress.