in this video I'm going to share with you three tips to stop stress if you
like what you hear give the video an up thumb so that I know I'm on the right
track okay so stress is our body's way of adapting to changes in our
environment if you'd like to know more about how stress affects us you can
watch my video how stress affects us but in essence it is it's a helpful response
and it's one of the reasons that we are so successful as a species because
stress enables us to adapt to changes in our environment which ultimately enables
us to survive so we don't want to get rid of stress completely but we maybe
want to have more control over it okay so to do this we need to start by
understanding what changes stress from a helpful experience to an unhelpful
experience and this is basically when our minds get involved and our minds
kind of create an exaggerated sense of danger so that extra stress hormones
adrenaline and cortisol are pumped into our body and those are the hormones that
over time if we have too many of them causes problems for us okay so the first
tip to stop the stress it's about dealing with our minds now the way that
our minds kind of exaggerated the sense of danger is by doing two things firstly
by overestimating the horrible thing that's going to happen or that we are
predicting is going to happen and then underestimating our ability to cope
with it so we need to deal with both of those thoughts to stop stress let's
start with the overestimating disaster one now this mostly happens when we
muddle up possibility and probability so most things are possible but you've got to
ask yourself the question how likely is it so get hold of that disaster that
you're predicting that horrible thing that you are thinking about
and think about using your previous experience how likely is it to happen so
how many times has it happened before in this situation versus how many times has
has it been okay one of the most common things people worry about is job
security so I'm going to lose my job so let's use that as an example so I'm
worrying I'm gonna lose my job so you need to ask yourself the question how
many times have I actually lost my job maybe maybe it's never maybe it's once
let's say it's once okay so in this situation I've lost my job once but many
many many many many more times things have kind of worked themselves out that
makes the probability or the likelihood of me losing my job in this situation
reasonably low I don't know I'm not particularly good at maths but let's say
0.05% that is a low probability and becoming aware of
quite how unlikely the disaster is to occur signals to your brain oh maybe
there's not actually that much danger here
so we can release a little bit less of that stress hormone okay so the second
thought that we need to deal with the second thought that's kind of turning
stress from helpful to unhelpful is that tendency to underestimate your ability
to cope to deal with that basically just you need to make a plan so this is the
disaster that I'm facing how would I deal with it
what personal resources do I have who have I got around me that I could call
upon and write your plan down and read it through because this again will
signal to your brain actually there's not that much danger here
because I've got a plan and less of the stress hormone will be released into
your bloodstream and you will feel less stressed okay so the second tip is to
try and get that part of your body that that is releasing stress hormone to
switch itself off so that is the sympathetic
nervous system so we need to find a way of switching of your sympathetic nervous
system which is also sometimes called your fight or flight system one of the
best ways and this is backed up with research or by research to switch off
your sympathetic nervous system is by equalizing your breath so making your
in-breath the same length as your out-breath so try that with me quickly
now so sit comfortably close your mouth because actually breathing in and
out through your nose is another good way of switching off your sympathetic
nervous system just close your eyes for a minute and inhale through your nose for
the count of 3 1 2 3 and exhale 1 2 3 and again inhale 1 2 3 and exhale 1 2 3
ok open your eyes now play around with that a bit if you found that quite
comfortable to do maybe extend it to the count of 4 and maybe even 5 the
length of your breath will very much be dependent upon how much deep
breathing you do and how fit you are but you can build it up and a slightly
longer in-breath and out-breath is going to work better or more quickly it's
going to switch off your sympathetic nervous system more quickly
ok so tip 3 this is an interesting one because it's surprising how instrumental
we are in creating stressful environments for ourselves we're all
kind of pre-programmed or or hardwired wired to create a familiar environment
for our ancestors it had a survival advantage or a survival benefit because
it was easier to stay safe in an environment that is familiar now
evolution is a is a very slow process so we've kind of
retained that tendency even though it's kind of less relevant to the way that
most of us live our lives so to deal with this you kind of need to become
aware of it aware of what you do how you create a stressful environment
for yourself so maybe it is that you take on too much maybe you struggle to
say no maybe you're kind of always a bit distracted so you're running late or
maybe you're making promises that in reality are almost impossible to keep so
once you've noticed what it is or worked out what it is that you do to create a
stressful environment for yourself monitor it over a period of time see if
you can notice any patterns who are you more likely to do that with when are you
more likely to do it because thinking about what we do in this way helps us to
take a step back a little bit and over time this helps us to consider or start
to see even different options that are available different ways of behaving
that would create a less stressful environment for ourselves okay I hope
that that was helpful if it was give me an upthumb so that I know I'm
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now thank you for watching enjoy the rest of your day and hopefully I will
see you really soon