How Can Resilience Reduce Stress and Anxiety?

There can be no doubt about it the last few years have been an incredibly stressful time for many and with so much looming on the horizon, you may be wondering about how to increase your resilience to stress and anxiety for 2023.

Globally, there has been a pandemic, war, talks of recession, rising energy, fuel and food bills and a general sense of uncertainty, so it is no wonder that many people are starting to feel stress and have anxiety levels rising as we start to approach 2023.

So many of the factors that are causing this rising stress and anxiety among people are totally outside of their control. This means that to get through the current situation we all need to have high levels of resilience to make sure that we can live without facing too much stress and anxiety.

When we are prepared for periods of stress it can make it easier to get through, the preparation is all important, especially when it is with circumstances outside of our control.

When we have circumstances within our control it is much easier to manage the stress that we may feel as a result. Our resilience to stress when it is outside of our control can be much harder to achieve. Therefore we need to look at ways to build our resilience to different types of stress.

What is resilience?

Resilience is both the process and the overall outcome of a situation that you are facing. Resilience means having the mental and emotional ability to deal with demanding situations and adjust to them.

Regardless of what life throws at you, it is your ability to get back up and carry on without falling into stress and anxiety. Someone who remains calm in challenging situations can be said to be resilient, they are the people who can face life’s problems and challenges head-on and don’t crumble.

How to Increase Your Resilience

Being resilient is a learned skill set that comes over time. We all face situations in life that put us in places we would rather not be in. How we handle and adapt to them depends on the levels of resilience that we have and that we have acquired over time. Resilience is a skill set that we can hone and improve upon with time. The more life throws at us the larger resilience we are able to produce.

Being resilient doesn’t mean that you will never suffer from stress and anxiety, it just means that you have the tools to deal with the situations when they come up.

Resilience is a skill set that is important to acquire, as those who are lacking can quickly become overwhelmed by life and circumstances outside of their control. People who become overwhelmed easily can find themselves turning to other more destructive coping mechanisms such as alcohol or drugs to cope with their lives.

There are numerous ways in which to develop resilience and strategies that people can use to help them cope better in life such as;

Identify indications of stress

Identifying the areas that can cause you stress or anxiety is one of the first tips you need to take. When you know what your triggers are and how they happen, you can start preparing yourself in advance for such situations, thus building up resilience to them. You may find keeping a journal incredibly helpful as you will start to see the direction that your thoughts go in certain circumstances

Have crystal clear goals

Knowing where you are going and what you are doing, is another way to avoid stressful situations appearing. When you leave everything to the last minute or chance, there is always going to be the potential for stress and anxiety to appear.

Set your goals and plan so that you always know to a certain degree what you are going to be facing.

Recognise the stress triggers

There are always going to be certain triggers that cause some people to stress, whether that is to do with their home life or work life, when they show up it sets a chain of events in motion that cause stress to appear. Knowing what these triggers are, can mean that you either start to avoid the situations completely.

If you can’t it can at least give you the time and space to mentally prepare for them.

Take up a form of exercise

One of the simplest and yet most effective ways to build resilience is to exercise. Exercise works on so many levels. It releases feel-good endorphins into the body, giving you a natural high and reducing stress. It also helps to tire an overactive mind and aids in having a good night’s sleep. Exercise will also make you feel better about yourself and produce many positive feelings in the mind, helping to push away thoughts of stress and anxiety.

Don’t be hard on yourself -

When circumstances happen in life, don’t be hard on yourself. Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes, it is all part of being human after all.

When something happens that didn’t go to plan, instead of stressing and being hard, just chalk it up to experience and move on.

Once something has happened, it can’t be undone so stressing and beating yourself up isn’t going to change anything. Move forward, it’s the only road you can take.

Keep yourself organised to reduce stress

The busier we are, the more stress and anxiety can show up in our lives. Keeping organised and on top of life is a great way to reduce stress. Having a well-organised calendar can make sure that you never miss appointments.

Having paperwork filed so it is always to hand when you need it and phone numbers and contact details all stored so that they are there whenever you need to reach someone are all ways of keeping organised.

Become more spiritual

The lives that we lead can all produce stress levels. Social media overload, pressures to look and live a certain way, and too much news media exposure, can leave us stressed and hankering after lives out of our reach.

Becoming more spiritual in our approach to life, being more grateful and concerned for others, and living a simpler life can all help to reduce stress levels and build resilience.

Be sure to make some time for yourself

We all need time to ourselves to decompress and recharge our batteries. No matter how wonderful the other people in our lives can be, they do at times cause us stress and anxiety. Taking some self-care time and doing something just for you is a great way to reduce pressures in your life.

Immerse yourself in your interests

Interests and hobbies are the perfect way to take your mind off circumstances that can cause stress and anxiety, The simple pleasures of reading a book and listening to music, whatever it may be can transport you to a place far away from your day-to-day stresses. Over time this is a great tool to use whenever you feel stress levels beginning to build and as a way of alleviating them.

Avoid becoming socially isolated

Having people around us is a great way of lessening stress and anxiety. The comfort and support that other people can give us are vital to our mental well-being. Try to not exclude people especially if they offer help and support.

Sleep well to reduce stress

Sleep is a wonderful tonic for mental and physical health, The more sleep you get each night, the more your mind and body can cope with what life throws up.

Developing a good sleep-wake cycle that you stick to will do wonders for lowering stress and anxiety.

Face your problems head-on

Sometimes, it is all too easy to bury our heads in the sand and hope that problems will just disappear. They never do and invariably, with this attitude, we make them worse. Learn to face your problems head-on and deal with what life throws at you.

Have a daily sense of purpose

As tempting as it is to drift through the day, having a sense of purpose and meaning in life will reduce stress and anxiety. Developing a daily routine and sticking to it and having something to get up for and work towards will give life meaning and purpose and will fill your life with activity to prevent stress and boredom from taking over.

Allocate some time to enjoy nature

Being in nature is wonderfully restorative. Breathing in the fresh air and experiencing the calming and restorative effects of nature can put a different perspective on everything. Try to allocate some time every day to this.

Be optimistic towards the future

No one knows what is going to happen in the future and so instead of looking forward and seeing only the negatives, face the future with optimism.

Don’t dwell on what has happened in the past, that has gone and certainly don’t bring that with you into the future. Plan a life for the future that you want, that you will love and that will excite you.

Garner support from those around you

Having a great support network around us can always help when times get tough.

If someone reaches out to help you, take it, and never be afraid to lean on other people if they offer you their support. just thank them, take it and celebrate that you have people willing to be supportive when you need it.

Change your perspective to potentially stressful events

The quote by Wayne Dyer sums this up perfectly; “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change” Instead of seeing stress see success, and reimagine stressful situations to ones that don’t cause you stress. Sometimes what is needed most in life is a change of perspective.

Examine your diet for stress-inducing food

Far too much of the food consumed today causes stress. What you put into your body, directly affects what happens in your body.

Feed your body with food that is going to help it and enrich it. Avoid food that is processed or has too much sugar in it, this is never going to be good for you in the long run.

Look at the funny side of life

Laughter is so often seen as the best medicine and it certainly is when it comes to reducing stress and anxiety. Many of us are far too serious in life and take everything to heart.

We need to inject more humour and laughter into our lives. Live for the moment and enjoy it.

Cultivate determination to deal with stress

Determination in life can overcome many obstacles and setbacks. When you are determined to achieve something you set your mind in a positive direction and so the likelihood of you getting the result you want is much higher.

Talk to a Coach or Health Professional

If you find it too difficult or daunting to try to build resilience on your own then working with a professional can help. They have the tools, knowledge and experience to help you to work through the thoughts that you have and to help you to reach the other side.

Final thoughts

If you are looking for ways how you can increase your resilience to stress and anxiety, then the tips here are ideal ones to follow. Often it is about making lifestyle choices that are going to serve you better, eating and sleeping well, exercising and spending time with people you love.

Whatever way you choose, remember it takes time and effort to build up resilience but it can be done and it can change your life in a good way. If you would like to work with a Coach on building resilience, then click the link controlling stress and anxiety with coaching.

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