Taking what the Weather throws at you!

If you have children who are school age, at some point in their education you will get caught on the school run during a rain shower! That happened to me yesterday, it wasn't "just a bit of rain" it was monsoon style biblical downpour!

It got me thinking, what happens to us in life when we get caught in a storm. Do we make a run for cover, or stride out and face the day? I suppose it depends on how well we are prepared. As the saying goes;

There's?no such thing as bad weather,?only unsuitable clothing.

Alfred Wainwright

As we enter the middle of Stress Awareness Week, we need to ensure we are fully prepared for the stresses we may face during our working and non working lives. When something comes out of the blue how we deal with that will benefit how we move forward.

I am a great believer in being prepared (yes I was a Girl Guide!) but I also served with two Search and Rescue teams and that really is an eye opener into when a normal day turns into something extraordinary.

Here my top tips on how to cope with the unexpected stresses in life, and why we should start now to counteract them.

Plan Ahead

Getting a plan in place, make sure you diary events that are coming up and highlight the ones you know may trigger your anxiety. If you know they are approaching, it will give you the opportunities to implement stress relievers before hand. This could be planning the route ahead of time, writing a list of what you need to take or knowing who you will be meeting.

Try some self help techniques

If you practice some self help techniques before you are stressed, you will be prepared and know how to do them when you become stressed or are in a stressful situation.

The NHS have some great CBT techniques which can be found here which if you start putting into place now could help.

Little bites

When you look at a task and it seems far too large, it is easy to just walk away and put it to one site. This type of procrastination will only add to your worries as the task remains. If you break the job down into smaller tasks, yes your to do list may have grown but the tasks are less daunting and soon you will have achieved the bigger task. I talk about this in greater detail in my Three Ways To Boost Your Productivity post.

Get out and active

Being active boosts your mood, it burns off any excess unhelpful energy and allows you to focus on the positives. As we head into winter and the weather is turning, it is all to easy to sit at home in front of the TV and just veg. But even a five minute walk around the block or to the shop or around the garden will give you the boost mentally as well as physically.

It's Good to Talk

In modern life, we are more secluded particularly since the various lockdowns over the last few years! Plus the embarrassment some feel about talking about stress, hopefully with weeks like this one when stress awareness is highlighted it be comes less of a stigmata about talking to others. If you do not feel you can talk to someone you know, there are plenty of organisations about who offer free advise.

Being prepared for the worst, makes it easier if it does arrive, but also if it doesn't then you have not wasted your time in preparing as the techniques you've learnt along the way will have helped. Who knows you may be facing a challenge now which previously you would have considered the worst but the techniques in place just make it a blip!