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We know that high levels of stress in an individual can have a negative impact on our health and wellbeing massively.

From the more mental side effects, such as feelings of overwhelm and anxiety, to the physical side effects of insomnia, shortness of breath, loss of libido, headaches, low energy levels and the resulting effects it may have on our eating and drinking habits.

The potential health impacts are huge, with stress said to be a risk factor to high blood pressure, gastrointestinal problems, obesity and generally reduced immune function all round.

Re-frame What Stress Is And What It Means

However, I first want to reframe how we think of stress... and say that stress is unavoidable, sometimes useful and often a sign that we are trying really hard at something that is important to us.

I believe that our capacity to handle stress is like a muscle and the more we expose ourselves to stress... and handle it successfully... our ability to handle it will increase over time. Often within our personal lives, our professional lives or our sporting endeavours, we will often try to push ourselves further and increase our expectations of ourselves. This inevitably increases the levels of responsibility we take on and ultimately increase the pressures we place on ourselves, whether that be buying the new house, getting the dog, starting the family, pushing for the promotion, starting the business, entering the race, setting yourself lofty goals... These are all awesome things... that will often be extremely rewarding and pleasurable yet almost always results in increased stress for a period of time!

My point being... that we just need to make sure that we realise that some stress is normal, stress is welcomed and if we're completely stress-free... we're probably not growing and developing at a fast enough pace. 

We simply need to ensure that we are not exceeding our current capability to handle stress (not by too much, anyway!) If that is the case, we need to approach the problem from 2 ways:

1. Increase Your Capacity To Handle Stress
   
   Firstly we need to look at what we can do to increase our capacity to handle stress. This is often done by focusing on the other pillars of performance: improving the quality of our sleep, ensuring we are well hydrated, improving our eating habits and getting enough exercise. If you feel like these other factors are your current limiting factor regarding your ability to handle stress, then you should focus your energy there.
2.  Reduce The Amount Of Stress You Are Under
   
   The other way to approach this problem is to actually look at how you can reduce the load of stress you are under currently. That may mean coming up with a plan to finally tackle the big tasks that are in front of you, or delegating some of them, deciding to not do something as well can take pressure off, or more often than not, the best strategy may simply be having a conversation with someone and asking for their help!

Look At Your Stress Management Tools

Finally, I believe everyone should also have strategies in place for when we feel stress levels rising. We all already will have these ‘coping mechanisms’ , the question however is this strategy something positive or something negative.

I.e. If someone has a goal of getting in great shape but they turn to alcohol every time they’re stressed, then they may benefit from looking at getting a new stress management tool.

I’m a believer that we should all have two forms of ‘release’;

Firstly we should have a ‘hard’ form of release, normally something strenuous, which for most of us will be exercise or sport.

This is a vehicle in which we can ‘release’ some of the stress.

Secondly, we want to have a preventative measure that is calming. This wants to be something that is restorative, that removes us from our current situation and puts us in the moment fully immersed in something else for a short period of time, so their brain can have a bit of time to itself.

Some examples of this can be going to the cinema, taking a hot bath, having a facial, reading a good book, dancing, it could be gaming, yoga, swimming, going to see live performances, whether that's music or theatre. You get the picture… anything that puts you in the moment and takes your mind off whatever is stressing you out.

Follow the below steps to manage your stress, so you can master your body:

1. Reframe what stress is and what it means.
2. Increase your capacity to handle stress
3. Reduce the amount of stress you experience, if needed
4. Have a HARD physical release, i.e. your training in the gym
5. and finally, find your restorative release that gives you some head space