Hey there everyone and welcome to the ZEN ZONE, where we take time out each Friday in April to zoom in on stress management information, resources, and strategies.
Last week we looked at basic information about what stress is, and resources to integrate wellness supports into our daily lives. This week, we’re following up with another question: where does stress come from?
The short answer is, stress can come from different sources, and we all experience it differently. According to the Canadian Medical Association, this includes:
Physical conditions: fatigue, exhaustion, insomnia, pain, illness, substance use
Psychology and emotions: anxiety, depression, feelings of helplessness/lack of control
Personal circumstances: financial, relationship, family needs and/or disruptions
School and work: schedules, workload, complaints
We can see from the list above that sources of stress are common. The key is to stop stress from crossing from “helpful” into “unhelpful” — check out the CMHA video below about keeping stress in check.
You can also have a peek at the wellbeing suggestions for the 30 Day Challenge and add new ideas to your calendar for this week! One of the wellbeing suggestions is also a strategy from the Canadian Medical Association website: manage stress by increasing FOCUS, which means slowing down the flow of information. It can be helpful to identify times where you’re not consuming social media or news. If you’re interested in doing a digital detox, you can use this assessment at the start and at the end to see if things change for you!
