You can make it happen!

Over one fifth of us have been off work with stress and that’s due to work related stress, causing anxiety, feeling of being under pressure.

All sorts of things can cause stress from work as I’ve mentioned, not to mention bereavement, money worries, family conflict and so on.

How do you manage your stress?

Do you feel under pressure?

What works for you?

Often during times of holiday or at weekends, you may have had a chance, a moment to think about your life and how you manage it.

An extra day break from the normal daily routine sometimes gives us time to stop and really reflect on our everyday lives and take a chance to assess just what we can do to reduce the pressure.

Stress affects our bodies in so many ways, high blood pressure, heart disease, central nervous system to mention a few and that’s before we’ve even started on the whole emotional side of how it affects us.

Exercising outdoors has a great benefit to relieving stress as we know so congrats on already taking positive steps.

It is super important for us to recognise when we are stressed and try to take measure against combating it.

Please do take a moment and off load.

Make a list of your main stressors and share with your nearest and dearest – they might not realise how you feel and may be able to help you come up with solutions on how to support you that you may not have thought of.

If it’s too much to share your inner most stresses, grab a piece of paper and mind-map ie put your biggest stress in the middle of the page and scribble down how it makes you feel together with possible solutions.

Plan time out for YOU. (yeah right, I can hear you saying!) It doesn’t have to be a month long sabbatical although that would be nice,

Book yourself a morning at the weekend on the golf course or out for a coffee (!) with a friend.

Invest in a glossy mag or a good book that you’ve been recommended and take a moment to read.

Plan time doing things you enjoy with the people you love.

Meditate or start yoga

I hear all the time that people just don’t have time but you’ve heard me talk about “sharpening the saw” but enough is enough now. You;ll always find an excuse to get on and do something else rather than focus on YOU.

The time is now to take stock and focus on what you want – what you really, really want.. See what I did there?

STOP the talk of “I’ll get fit when….”

STOP the talk of “I’ll be able to get started on my healthy eating plan when….”

STOP the talk of “I’ll take time to look after me when….”

Take time for you NOW and you’ll be surprised how much better you’ll feel and how much more productive you’ll become.

Before I go, I’d love to hear your favourite “me time” things you do to relax and sharpen the saw, let me know.

Best wishes