25 Apr Want a Secret Advantage?

This month is all about giving you an edge. A leg up. A secret advantage.

April is Stress Awareness Month and we all could probably use a little help (therapists stress out too ya know!)

So we did some digging to find the most cutting edge, hot-off-the-press, research-based tools that crush stress like nobody’s business.

The most crucial part of dealing with stress is understanding what it is and what it’s not. Stress is triggered by our responses to things that occur in our lives. Not the things themselves.

Try these tips to increase your mindfulness, activate your skills, and feel better.

1. Listen to your body. What are your body’s warning signs for stress? Some of the classic signs are racing thoughts, clenched teeth, tight fists, muscle tension, headaches, stomachaches.
2. Use a go-to relaxation strategy that can be done anywhere to reverse the impact of stress on your body. Visualization is a great skill and it’s like a mini-vacation for your body. Here’s how you do it. Imagine you are somewhere relaxing (real or imagined). Turn up the volume on your senses. Think about what your seeing in bright vivid color. What do you feel on your skin? Do you smell anything? Taste anything? Hear anything? Let yourself marinate in that scene for a few minutes and you’ll get a massive payoff. Your heart rate will normalize, muscles release their tension, mind becomes calm, thoughts become clear.
3. Sometimes the things that stress us out are ongoing. No. End. In. Sight. For these, your go-to strategy will be Radical Acceptance. This is a term that means you are acknowledging reality because fighting it only intensifies your emotional reaction. This doesn’t mean you agree with it, but you give up on efforts to change the situation because all it does is deplete you of energy needed in other areas of your life. How you do put it into practice? Try something simple like avoiding out-loud complaints about the issue.

Happy coping from your therapists at Starr,

Talia, Nicole, Arielle, Chelsea & Caitlyn