Counseling Techniques For Stress And How Counseling Helps

I truly hope that you are having a terrific day. I want you to give yourself one simple gift this year. Give yourself SELF-CARE. This gift is your way of engaging in stress-reducing techniques. Counseling techniques for stress aim to reduce symptoms connected to depression and anxiety. Such as reducing stress, feeling overwhelmed, or being on edge.

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Santos Counseling Practice In Greensboro Personal Therapy For Anxiety And Depression

Reducing Stress Starts With You

Treat yourself to ice cream, camping trips, long walks, or one too many spa days. Right here and now. Think about “better yet” – jot down on that savvy phone of yours 5 ways that you can truly give yourself self-care. Don’t be shy. You deserve it. You work hard, you’re patient, dedicated, beautiful, smart, and so much more. Treat yourself.

The secret to truly investing in yourself is to understand that there is a scary monster waiting on the other side “if you do not treat yourself”. You see, the thing is – if you continue to work hard and push yourself over and over it’ll come to a sad crashing end. You may experience stress, worry, or anxiety.

You probably have experienced a little bit of what I am talking about. People that love you. Your kids, friends, and those that care about you – want you to be as close to 100% as possible. Because if you aren’t… that “little monster called stress and anxiety” will get you and take over.

5 Counseling Techniques For Stress

1. Treat yourself with kindness.

Treat yourself to whatever it is that you may want. Treating yourself literally means that you find some activity or thing for you. Below are a few examples:

For parents: Mothers and fathers you may find that treating yourself means a mini-vacation without the kids. Drop your babies off at a relative or local daycare for a few hours. Go out to a local Starbucks or even a day spa. When you are there, please do not think about your child. They are okay.
For 9-5 workers: Use one of those PTO days you have been saving. Or after work do something that you desire to do but are typical “too busy for”. The options are endless. I really want you to find something that will bring a smile and a sense of relief to your face.
Kids-Tweens- Teens: Give yourself a break from schoolwork. Treat yourself to an hour of video game time or a delicious bowl of ice cream.
Take a much-needed nap. You are not too old or too busy for a well-deserved nap. Wake up revitalized and focused.

Self-care is a very important part of your life and should be something that you are implementing each and every day. Once you have achieved a desired level of self-care you should feel less burden/stress from previously stressful activities – such as work or obligations.

2. Learn to create a healthy balance

Do you remember back in elementary school or throughout K-12? You like so many other students had a calendar or some sort of syllabus that you lived by. Since the day that you stepped into school, teachers have trained you to stick to some sort of schedule.

Schedules help create balance as they provide a tool that allows you to dictate where to invest your time and energy.

3. Slow Down

The items on the to-do list can wait another five minutes. I’m sure that you have some that can even wait another day or week. An effective way to reduce stress is to give yourself the gift of slowing down. You can do this right now. Start by focusing on your breathing. Take a deep inhalation through your nose. Hold it for a moment. Now release the air through your mouth. That’s it! You got this. Slow down.

4. Practice Mindfulness

The practice of mindfulness is connected to being in the here and now. This means that you are able to focus not on where you need to be later or what needs to get done tomorrow. But instead on what is happening this very moment.

I’ll walk you through an exercise.

I want you to look around and find 5 items that have more than 3 sides. Keep looking until you find all five. Okay, you found them. Wonderful. It’s not rocket science. Mindfulness simply requires time and commitment.

This is an effective research-proven strategy to help with reducing stress and managing anxiety, and depression.

5. Create a support system

A support system is your inner circle. The people that you can lean on for support and who are able to lean on you as well. The weight of stress at times can require more than one shoulder to bear its weight.

I strongly encourage you to find a healthy support system that can be there with you.

How can I create a healthy balance?

Below are a few recommendations that can help reduce stress in your life and create happiness.

Add a schedule to your phone with reminders that vibrate or ring.
Each morning review and edit your physical or electronic schedule.
Reward yourself for small and large changes.
Sync your schedule with your partner or a friend that can help you remain motivated.

To book your first counseling appointment call 336-663-6570

For more supportive reads on self-care check out the resources below: