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A stressed businesswoman with head in hands leaning on desk
Stress can express itself through insomnia, headaches, angst or a sense of feeling overwhelmed. Photograph: Robert Kent Canada Inc./RK Studio/Dean Sanderson
Stress can express itself through insomnia, headaches, angst or a sense of feeling overwhelmed. Photograph: Robert Kent Canada Inc./RK Studio/Dean Sanderson

How to manage stress and prevent burnout

This article is more than 6 years old

Entrepreneur Victoria Walford overcame PTSD and now helps other professionals avoid burnout. She shares her stress-busting tips

A cycling accident 11 years ago left me with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I suffered flashbacks to my accident at work and at home. With the help of psychological treatment, I learned how to manage my condition and went on to launch my own bakery business.

We can start learning how to deal with stress by understanding the situations that act as emotional triggers for us. Emotional triggers affect us all. Yours could be a comment directed at you or a situation you find yourself in that wouldn’t particularly bother another person, but that has the potential to upset you for the rest of the day.

Triggers are created from past experience, often in childhood, and can set off an underlying trauma or feelings of sadness, anxiety or panic. Observing our behaviour in response to a stressful situation usually reveals a recurring reaction, and once we’ve spotted this, we can choose to respond in a different way.

The more stressed we are, the more likely we are to react in the old negative way. By keeping calm we can change our behaviour for the better by allowing ourselves to choose how we want to deal with a situation.

Spot the signs of stress early

When we’re stressed we tend not to pay attention to our emotions in order to avoid feeling uncomfortable. But this is precisely the time we need to listen to ourselves and understand why we are stressed. Emotions are there to guide us and learning to live more instinctively promotes better decision making.

Stress can express itself through insomnia, headaches, angst, anger outbursts or a sense of feeling overwhelmed. Consistent stress leads to anxiety, depression and unwanted habits like drinking too much and over-eating.

Stop thinking and do

If you are feeling overwhelmed and have so much to do that you don’t know where to start, or you find you’re avoiding a task, then stop thinking and do. Write a to-do list, prioritise the order of items and just start. Take one small step after another. At the end of each task, tick it off on your list, reward yourself and start the next one. If you find you’re avoiding a bigger task, break it into smaller parts and prioritise them.

Ditch coffee for tea

Try to do the type of work that will suit how you feel at a given time. If you wake up feeling really tired, re-arrange your tasks so that you start your day doing something less demanding. If you have to crack on with work and you’re a coffee drinker, try opting for tea instead. Tea can reduce the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your body.

Take exercise

The body is built to move, so factor movement into your day. If you find you’ve been glued to your desk for a few hours, get up, walk around the room and move your shoulders. Run errands, or do some exercise. If you don’t like the gym, go for a walk or a run.

Go out into nature

Being near trees and in nature generally can have a positive impact on our mental wellbeing. Try going to work via the park if you can and factor in more “green” time. Go to areas where there are more plants, or even bring plants indoors.

Focus on your breathing

One of the best instant stress busters is to breathe consciously. If you’re feeling stressed, start to focus on your breathing and set reminders in your calendar throughout the day to do this as a way of staying calm. Breathe with your stomach, watch it go in and out while counting to seven. Count the seconds breathing in and out, over and over again until the time is up. If a person or a situation upsets you, start to breathe consciously until the feelings of irritation pass. Breathing like this for longer periods of time is also a good way to re-energise yourself during a mid afternoon lull.

Think about the end goal

Stay connected to your final goal, this could be anything from achieving a target at work to improving a relationship. Writing about it or thinking about what it means to you to achieve it can help you do this.

You also need to remember to be nice to yourself. To effect behavioural change we need to activate the brain’s dopamine pathway. Give yourself time to relax, even when you feel you don’t have time, and recognise and reward your efforts.

Victoria Walford is the founder of Victorious Baking and MySuperSoul, a programme designed to help professionals manage stress.

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