Dealing with stress

I am focusing on stress treatments at the moment and cannot emphasise enough the importance of monitoring your own stress levels and taking steps to reduce prolonged stress.

It’s so easy to ignore physical symptoms – tiredness, headaches, digestive upsets and racing heart – and also the impact on our mental health – compulsive worrying, inability to concentrate, ‘no room in our heads’ for interaction with others.

So do please set aside time to take stock of how you’re feeling and to make plans to take care of yourself. Identify what you personally need to help you relax, be it exercise, settling down with a book, turning off phones and tablets so you have the evening or weekend to yourself.

If you find it hard to relax by yourself, maybe you would benefit from a massage or other physical treatment or a session of calming hypnotherapy to help you zone out once in a while.

Remember the maxim, ‘Self-care is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation.’