In these ongoing times of COVID-19, we continue our search for safety. Safety for our health, our physical and mental well being. For most safety is found through the elements of clarity and control. And unfortunately, neither one of those two elements are readily available at the present time. 

The result is anything from a sense of unease right through to severe stress and anxiety. Unease, stress and anxiety will always remain with you until one of two things happen.

i. You consciously do something to remove the stress, anxiety and emotional upheaval.

ii. You ride it out and wait until old man time allows the tension or emotional distress to eventually dissipate.

The period of how long stress and anxiety last obviously depends on several things. First, the enormity of the burden, two if it is continually being reinforced and three what you actually do to remove or reduce it.

But are you in a position to read the signs?

Do you:
1. Know and understand the areas that can and will cause you anxiety and stress 
2. Know what to do to avoid those areas. 
3. Understand and recognise your own individual signs of stress e.g.
-Sleepless nights
-Teeth grinding
-Lethargy
-Short-tempered
-Lack of focus or concentration

Of course, there are certain things you will encounter in life that you cannot avoid, and hopefully, the majority of these will be positive experiences, but what about the ones that are not?

I think it would be fair to say that we know and understand that stress, anxiety and emotional unease is not ideal. But what do we do to remove it?

Once again, horses for courses. It is really up to you, but it needs to be understood that there are some ways to do this that are significantly better than others. 

Here a few commonly used methods to release anxiety and stress:
-Good nutrition 
-Alcohol
-Exercise
-Communication
-Family and friends
-Withdrawing
-Relaxation
-Sport
-Hobbies
-Drugs
-Religion
-Meditation

Make sure the technique that you use to cope with and or remove stress isn’t going to cause you further problems but in a different way. Ensure that your coping strategies bring benefit in ways that have no adverse side effects or create additional ongoing issues for you.

The removal of stress, anxiety and emotional unease is something that you must do for you.

And by doing so, you are going a long way to making sure that in all the right ways and for all the right reasons…

The Journey Continues!