Mental Hygiene for stress. How to maintain mental well-being when facing stress.

By Wednesday stress levels usually have risen to a point that you wish weekend was here already. Perhaps your stress levels have even been high straight from the beginning of the week or before it started. Fact is, many of us are feeling stressed. It might feel like that stress is an inescapable reality of life. And yes, up to a point it is a necessary and even valuable addition to it. For example, a reasonable dose of stress makes it possible for you to perform better during a test or a presentation. It can also increase the joy of a roller coaster ride by feelings of excitement and joy. In these instances it adds that little bit of extra “spice” into our every day life. Without it life would be boring.

Of course these examples of stress are not what we talk about when we experience problematic amounts of stress. Stress that has built up over time and continuous to rise can become a problem affecting nearly every part of our lives such as our mental and physical health, our relationships and our career. There is no area of our lives in which too much stress can not cause havoc.

In comes Mental Hygiene. Mental Hygiene is defined as “…the science of maintaining mental health and preventing the development of psychosis, neurosis, or other mental disorders.” by the Encyclopedia Britannica. As the the article suggests it is a practice that will prevent mental health complications by pro-actively taking steps to maintain well-being. Mental well-being is not just a lack of disease it is a state during which we can achieve our full mental potential.

So what are steps that we can take to practice “Mental Hygiene” when it comes to stress?

1. Learn to understand when you are feeling stressed. Many of us only realize that they are feeling stressed when the tension influences their behavior and interactions with others. This could mean that you are more emotional than usual or you are lashing out against a loved-one about something minor. It is therefore important to learn to connect with one’s stress levels. A way to become better at understanding stress levels is to regularly check in with it. Regularly ask yourself “How stressed am feeling I right now?”. If you are struggling to remember to do that, set yourself regular alarms on your phone, or mark it as a reminder where you will see it often. Over time these check-ins will become easier and more automatic.
   
2. Understand your “stress behavior”. By checking in with your stress level regularly you will be able to notice behavioral patterns. Are you feeling “snack-ish” when you are feeling more stressed or do you lose your appetite? Do you want to be alone more often, or do you feel lonely? Take note and see if any patterns emerge.
   
3. Use your “stress behavior” as a marker for when you need to balance out stress. An example could be “When I’m feeling like I want to avoid all other people, I should take a moment to do a breathing exercise” or “When I am feeling “snack-ish” even though I have just eaten, I prepare myself a nourishing snack or go for a walk.”. Use your data to come up with actionable rules that follow the “if-then” schema.
   
4. Notice at what time you feel stressed more often. Many of us are not aware of what exactly is causing us to feel stressed. It might be that whenever you are receiving a message from this one particular colleague you feel bad about yourself, which stresses you. Another example might be that you are becoming tense when you are thinking about your to-do list. Once you understand what situations cause you unease, you can learn to deal with them better.
   
5. Conquer or circumvent stress. Once you understand situations that increase stress for you check whether you can conquer or circumvent them. This means that you try to find ways to either feel less stressed during the situation or figure out a way to lower your exposure to the stressors. An example for a helpful way to avoid feeling stressed in traffic during rush-hour is by taking a different route or timing your drive to before or after rush-hour. An example of feeling stressed whenever talking to a difficult colleague is by bundling reasons to talk with the person together, so you won’t have to interact with the colleague as often.
   
6. Find ways to balance out stress. In order to maintain low stress levels we need to regularly find ways to re-set them. It is impossible to always maintain low stress levels, but when we find ways to regularly re-set, or balance it out, we can keep them lower most of the time. This is best done by acquiring self-care routines that balance out accumulated stress. Most likely you are already making use of some strategies, such as exercise, a balanced diet or regular chats with friends and loved-ones. All of these things help to decrease the impact of stress. Independent on what you do to balance stress out, make sure you do something to lower stress daily. This way you’ll maintain lower stress levels over time.

If you are struggling with stress, I hope that these steps will help you in gaining a better understanding of how and when you feel more tense. It is never too late to start learning about your own stress behavior, and thereby taking steps towards a happier and healthier life.

If you would like to get some help starting your journey in this area of your life, you can join 2 Kind Minds‘ relaxation and self-care events or book a one-on-one session. This month (July, 2020) we will give away two, one-on-one, 30-minute long consultations on stress and time management to two followers of our Instagram profile.

Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash