15 Healthy Coping Mechanisms to Try Today to Help Manage and Decrease Stress When Your Life is Chaotic
Hey there! Happy 2022! I hope your year is off to a great start!
With the New Year comes plenty of well-meaning intentions, goals, and general busyness. While I am a supporter of working hard towards your goals and creating a life that is fulfilling, joyful, and has a positive impact on others, I find we can sometimes become lost in pursuing these goals, which eventually causes burnout. This can be applied to any type of goal - whether you’re wanting to score a promotion at work, run a 5k, save up for a special vacation, or work on your relationship with food and your body, burnout can happen with anything. Many times it is not even the actual act of working towards our goals that causes burnout but all of the other stressors and to-do lists of life that leave us feeling exhausted, frustrated, and overwhelmed. We forget that in order to have the energy to work towards our goals our bodies require time to physically and mentally rest and rebuild, whether that be from working towards the goal itself or from the stress that every day life can bring.
Now, I fully understand that this is often difficult to do - especially when your drive and motivation is at an all-time high or you have a million and one items on your to-do list. However, as with most aspects in life I am a supporter of using prevention rather than reaction strategies as I have found them to cause less stress in the long run and potentially put a halt to problems before they have the chance to occur. Figuring out how to relax and manage stress on a daily basis while still working hard and living your life can allow you to prevent the dreaded burnout in the future. Making time to relax each day will allow your body and brain to take a break, regroup, and keep your cortisol levels in check, allowing you to keep on crushing it!
So, what exactly can you do to manage stress and relax on a daily basis? I’ve provided a list below with a few different ideas that will hopefully help get you started.
Already have an awesome stress management routine? Be sure to share your ideas in the comments below or tag @a.helpingofhealth on Instagram so that we can add them to the list!
Until next time,
Aubrey, RD
