January 17, 2021
  • Homepage
  • Life
  • Work
  • Offers
  • Travel
  • Home
    • Latest News
    • Featured News
    • Editorial
    • Lamp Archive
    • Lamp 2020
  • Professional Issues
    • Research
    • Education
    • Career
    • Registration
    • Students
    • Public Health
  • Specialities
    • Mental Health
    • Aged Care
    • Midwifery
    • Emergency
    • Drug and Alcohol
    • General
  • Workplace Issues
    • Ask Judith
    • Workplace News
    • Unions
  • Social Justice & Action
    • Climate Change and Environment
    • Community Campaigns
    • Member Stories
  • Life
    • Work
    • Offers
    • Travel
  • Conferences, Scholarships & Research
    • Jobs

Top Advertisment

Life

Life

5 healthy tips to help manage stress

Lamp Editorial Team
|
May 28, 2020

Health coach and yoga instructor Kirsten Scott shares her top tips for helping to manage stress.

Stress occurs when you perceive that demands placed on you — such as work, school or relationships — exceed your ability to cope. Some stress can be beneficial, producing a boost that provides the drive and energy to help people get through difficult situations. However, an extreme amount of stress can have health consequences that affect the immune, cardiovascular, neuro-endocrine and central nervous systems, as well as taking a severe emotional toll.

Untreated, chronic stress can result in serious health conditions including anxiety, insomnia, muscle pain, high blood pressure and a weakened immune system. Research shows that stress can contribute to the development of major illnesses, such as heart disease, depression and obesity.

However, by finding positive, healthy ways to manage stress as it occurs, many of these negative health consequences can be reduced.

Here are five healthy techniques that have shown to help reduce stress in the short and long term.

Take a break from the stressor

It may seem difficult to get away from a big work project, a crying baby or a growing credit card bill. But when you give yourself permission to step away from it, you let yourself have time to do something else, which can help you have a new perspective or practice techniques to feel less overwhelmed. It’s important to not avoid your stress (those bills have to be paid sometime), but even just 20-minutes to take care of yourself is helpful.

Exercise

Exercise benefits your mind just as well as your body. We keep hearing about the long term benefits of a regular exercise routine. But even a 20 minute walk, run, swim or dance session in the midst of a stressful time can give an immediate effect that can last for several hours.

Smile and laugh

Our brains are interconnected with our emotions and facial expressions. When people are stressed, they often hold a lot of the stress in their face. So laughs or smiles can help relieve some of that tension and improve the situation.

Get social support

Call a friend, send an email. When you share your concerns or feelings with another person, it does help relieve stress. But it’s important that the person whom you talk to is someone whom you trust and whom you feel can understand and validate you.

Meditate

Meditation and mindfulness help the mind and body to relax and focus. Mindfulness can help people see new perspectives, develop self-compassion and forgiveness. When practicing a form of mindfulness, people can release emotions that may have been causing the body physical stress.

In these trying times, while we focus on looking after others, it is critical not to forget to look after ourselves!

Try some yoga with Kirsten below.


This article was written in partnership with FitFinder, the first marketplace for all health and fitness instructors.

Kirsten Scott is a Bondi-based holistic health coach, certified yoga and meditation teacher, and Lululemon ambassador with a passion for all things wellness. She is a former professional dancer having represented South Africa at 6 World Championships.

If you would like to learn more about how to take care of your body, or organise a full session with Kirsten, simply go to:
https://www.fitfinder.com.au/trainer/kirsten-scott

For your first session, use the code Nurse50 to receive $50 off your first session to give it a try!

Related Posts

“Give yourself permission to check in with yourself”: a personal trainer’s advice

21 days ago

5 stretches to get you through those long shifts

26 days ago

5 tips on exercising safely for nurses and midwives

Today

Middle Advertisment

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Reader Interactions

Cancel reply

Advertisement Area Single Article

COVID-19 Information

  • Public health employees
  • Private health employees
  • Aged Care information
  • Student information
  • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
  • Support available due to COVID-19

Trending

  • A new permanent visa pathway for nurses under Work
  • Championing education for COVID-19 under Aged Care
  • ‘Like a piranha’: how midwives’ descriptions of breastfeeding affect women’s attitudes under Midwifery
  • Aged Care information on COVID-19 under Aged Care, COVID-19
  • Pandemic fight needs more staff under Aged Care

Footer Content 01





Footer Content 02

The Lamp is the magazine of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association. It is published bi-monthly and mailed to every member of the Association.

Footer Menu 01

About

NSWNMA
Careers
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy

Footer Menu 02

Contact

Contact Us

Footer Menu 03

Advertising

Advertising

Copyright © 2021 NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association. Authorised by B.Holmes, General Secretary, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, 50 O’Dea Avenue Waterloo NSW 2017 Australia.
Design and Development by Slant Agency