Stress Awareness – Taking care of yourself

We live in a fast-paced, high-energy, got-to-get-it-all-done society. We often find that we are running from the moment we wake up until the moment our heads hit our pillows. Some of us don’t even stop at that point, staying awake worrying over events that happened in the last day, or things to come in the next. We eat fast, we drive fast, we talk fast. It can be really difficult to slow down.

Being in a constant state of stress can have significant consequences for our bodies, some minor and others quite serious. Everything from irregular periods to heart attacks can be caused by or seriously affected by stress. Stress affects our body’s hormone levels, which in turn affects a variety of functions within our body, including a woman’s menstrual cycle. For a woman, missing a period can be a pretty scary thing, and actually leads to further stress.

“Am I pregnant?”

“Why is my period late?”

“Did I use protection the last time I had sex?”

“Did I miss a birth control pill?”

As questions like these flood a woman’s mind, the stress level rises ever higher.

It is important to have a self-care plan that helps us to slow down and destress on a regular basis, so that we are not in a constant state of stress and carrying that with us every day.

A self-care plan is a set of things that you can do that you know you enjoy and helps you relax. What may be relaxing for one person, could be stressful for another, so you must know yourself and what relaxes you. Here are a few ideas that you can try. Let us know what you tried and how it worked for you or if you have something else you do to destress, share with us!

Self-care ideas:

• Read a book
• Drink Tea
• Journal
• Girl’s night out
• Get a massage
• Unplug from all electronics for an hour
• Exercise
• Write out a list of things you are grateful for
• Paint or draw
• Cook
• Go for a walk or a hike
• Gaze at the stars
• Watch (and laugh at) crazy cat videos