Stress Management during Pandemic

Nowadays, stress is one of the factors that affects the quality of life of many.

Stress also has been linked to several chronic illnesses and mental health problems.

But how can we cope up with stress in this situation where pandemic arises?

Stress is defined by the Mental Health Organization as the degree to which you feel overwhelmed or unable to cope as a result of pressures that are unmanageable.

Stress is also defined as our body’s response from a traumatic pressures caused by previous life situation or event. Every individual shares different degree of handling stress, may it be the living environment, our genetic make up, or even economic or social circumstances plays a role in our stress. Most of the time, stress is the what we are feeling whenever we experience something that is new to us, something unexpected happened, a life threatening event, or the feeling when we’ve got little to no control over a particular situation.

So I’m here, sharing with you some of my personal stress handling practices that may help you in the long run.

1. Don’t Overthink 

A very easy thing to say but the hardest thing to do. Overthinking is the root cause of our stresses in which I consider as one of our major stressors. It is okay to think at times, but the thing is, we let our thoughts occupy us. We should avoid overthinking when we feel like it is consuming us. I’m telling you, it is energy draining.

2. Sleep

Let’s just spend our time in sleeping instead of overthinking. According to sleep score labs, regular sleep plays a big role when it comes to stress reduction for it restores and calms our body, improves concentration, regulates mood, and sharpens judgement and decision-making. We do and feel better when we are well-rested. On the other hand, it reduces our energy and mental clarity when we are lacking of sleep.

3. Mindful Diet

As a Registered Nutritionist-Dietitian, I advocate mindful eating for it does help control our risks of acquiring certain communicable and non-communicable diseases. It’s not bad to eat a lot of calorie dense food at times, but see to it that you burn it, because you don’t want to be stressed over your weight gain, aren’t you? Cutting off your portions and including fruits and vegetables of color to your diet would be enough and beneficial.

4. Physical Activity

It takes courage and strength whenever we think about exercise and working out this pandemic season. To encourage you, do you know that Exercise is a direct stress-busting activity which helps our brains to produce feel-good hormones? It is not necessary to follow a certain routine when it comes to exercising. A simple walking, to aerobics, and to yoga can act as a physical activity. And it is also advisable to find physical activity that you enjoy and doesn’t make you feel that you are doing it, just like dancing.

And lastly...

5. Believe in Yourself

Self-doubt is common nowadays, even during this pandemic season. We stress ourselves over our cancelled plans due to pandemic. We stress ourselves for our world literally stopped for a while. There is so much than doubting ourselves. We should never hesitate to seek for personal help whenever we feel down, someone who understands us and can relate on how we feel. It will be a relief when we utter our unsaid words instead of keeping them.

On the other hand, making ourselves busy would be a big help than stressing ourselves right in the corner.

We should try new things to entertain and keep ourselves busy, and for us to ignore what makes us feel down. Reading interesting books can be a way, listening to music that speaks to our mind, preparing food that we prefer eating, and so much more.

We should always remember that, it cost us nothing to stress over a thing. But, it costs us a little to destress over it.

Therefore, it takes a lot of effort to overcome stress, but the relief? I assure you. It’s priceless.