Ways To Manage Stress Used By Psychologist
Small amounts of stress are good for us and help us to get important things done, but too much stress, or chronic stress, is extremely unhealthy according to CNBC Make It. Chronic stress can lead to anxiety, a weakened immune system, and high blood pressure.
Allison Chase is a psychologist that has over 20 years of experience and just like everyone else she also experiences stress.
“I, too, am a very real human being. The good news is I am able to tune into what is happening and hopefully how to deal with it, but I am definitely impacted by stress, anxiety, all those things just like everybody else is,” Chase says
Chase has many tools she’s collected over decades that she uses to manage her stress. These are 4 of her strategies.
1. Breathing Exercise
When Chase starts to feel overwhelmed she makes sure to become mindful of her breathing. “I really do work on trying to calm my body down because stress has physical effects on our body, everywhere. It impacts us,” she says.
2. Get the right amount of sleep
Sleep is super important for our mental and physical health. Chase ends her own day at 9:30 p.m., which sets her up to be well rested and productive the next day.
She starts to wind down at around 6 p.m. by cooking dinner and eating with her husband. She then watches mindless TV for about an hour, being mindful of when she’s going to bed so she can lower her screen time before she sleeps.
3. Make joy a priority
Each day Chase does at least one thing that she enjoys. She says that it doesn’t need to be something grand, it just needs to be something that makes her happy.
“Even if it’s making a phone call to an old friend or sitting down and doing something that makes you happy like getting a chance to read a blog article or listen to an audio book, take a walk, any of those kinds of things,” Chase says.
4. Take breaks
Chase says when she notices that she’s becoming “more irritable and not as calm in my approach to things, it’s usually an indication that [I] need to take some time.”
In these moments she makes sure to take breaks and uses her vacation time.
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