Doctor Doni

How to Deal with Stress – without Stressing Yourself Out

Dr. Doni Wilson tells how to make changes to your daily routine gradually, so you dont make stress-related issues even worse.

stress, dealing with stress, how to deal with stress, how to de-stress, stress relief, vitamins, exercise, meditationWe live stressful lives and, as regular readers of this blog will know, it is stress that lies at the heart of most chronic health problems. As such, my personal philosophy of wellness is that by addressing stress we improve our overall health. For many people though, the thought of addressing the stresses in their lives can in itself make them feel more stressed. When you already have an extremely busy schedule, with little time for yourself, and you already feel under the weather and that life is getting on top of you, it can be difficult to even think of doing the things that could reduce your stress such as:

Dealing with Stress – Common Challenges

From listening to my patients, I have learned there are three main reasons why they find it challenging to integrate stress reduction into their lives. Which one sounds like you?

  1. Making the choice to prioritize yourself
    Taking care of yourself, putting yourself first can sometimes feel selfish – especially if you aren’t used to prioritizing your own needs. And yet, if you don’t take care of you, you won’t feel well enough to be there for others. If you struggle with this, it can help to think through what is important to you and about your health goals – you may want to refer to my suggestions on how to set health goals. Aim to align the activities you do and the choices you make on a daily basis so they are consistent with achieving your vision for yourself. One possibility is to include, “Feeling good so I am more able to enjoy my loved ones” as one of your goals.
  1. Feeling too stressed to add anything new
    The paradox is that it is when we are most stressed that we need the most support to help us recover from stress. Yet that is when we find it most difficult to change things to make them better. So instead of being hard on yourself or giving up, I suggest you try quick and simple techniques that you can integrate even while stressed. I’ll talk more about them below.
  2. Getting motivated to make grand changes, but then falling off the wagon again and again
    We don’t want to throw every possible lifestyle change into your daily routine all at once, because that is likely to be so overwhelming you’re less likely to stick to them – and that will prevent you making real progress. Finding ways to give yourself stress relief amidst your usual daily activities, and in some cases making just one small change at a time, is the secret to feeling better gradually over time.

How to De-Stress, Even When You’re Busy

Practitioners, including naturopathic doctors, can find it challenging to help you to deal with your stress. Often this is because they too are stressed and have several tasks on their to-do list for your case, these tasks may include research, ordering tests, and writing up recommendations. So to help you both out, here are a few of my favorite ways to de-stress even with a busy schedule (I call them stress remedies) – you could choose one to try out this week and see how it goes. If it goes well, choose another one to add next week:

Learn As You Go

As you try these stress remedies, notice how you feel so you can learn from your body’s experience. Here’s how I look at it. Every time things go “wrong,” I see it as an opportunity to learn so we can adjust for next time. Then, as you master these Stress Remedies, you’ll be more ready for the next steps your practitioner suggests.

So when you start to implement these changes, start out slowly and carefully, and note how you do. By focusing on one new area at a time, it allows you to put your whole focus on your initial health concern – in this case, stress – and, in this way you’ll be preventing yourself from feeling stressed by your stress recovery.

For more help with de-stressing without stressing more, I have a few resources for you:

Notes for Practitioners:

Try discussing these initial stress remedies with patients during their first appointment or provide them in written form so they can read them and begin to apply them before their next appointment. Having these basics in place will help your patients integrate any next steps you recommend more easily.

Be a role model for your patients by implementing stress remedies for yourself and sharing what you learn with them. Patients will be very inspired to do what you do.

Discuss your overall plan with your patients so they can see the big picture without feeling they have to do everything at once.

To stay in touch and find out about a course I’m developing specifically for practitioners that will support you to implement this approach in your practice, click here.

–Dr Doni
1st August 2016

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