Why Managing Stress is Essential When You're Not Stressed

I had a conversation with a client today, who is dealing with A LOT on their plate at the moment. It seems like a DAILY occurrence that we ALL have SOMETHING that is causing a great deal of stress and energy drain right now. 😞 It's a reminder to all of us, that PREPARATION and PRACTICE are two things that help us when these inevitable "storms of life" hit hard!

PREPARE yourself

We're odd creatures us humans. Many of us don't bat an eye when someone suggests we set money aside for our future, right? We tell our kids to practice their favourite sport so that they learn and adapt to game situations/skills necessary to improve and play at their best, don't we? Yet with health, we tend to brush off that PREPARATION. Instead, we wait until we're thrown directly into whatever "#$%^ storm life throws at us" before we realize how we are lacking any means to MANAGE our stress that's raining down on us. It's like rather than trying to prevent a fire in our home by ensuring electrical is not faulty or anything else is unsafe, we instead IGNORE these issues and once the house catches on fire, then we turn the hose on to try to put it out.

(How do you think that will work out?... It makes no sense right?)

The time to PRACTICE stress management strategies (what works for YOU, what doesn't work for YOU) is NOT when life is in high gear, but when things are going pretty smoothly. THAT is when we can PREPARE and PRACTICE our tools and strategies! When we wait until we're stressed, we're already NOT thinking clearly and we feel drained. The idea of trying ANYTHING new feels IMPOSSIBLE. And with good reason! But when we're NOT feeling the weight of life, we have patience, clarity and energy to put towards figuring out what strategies work for us and HOW to implement them when the "#$%^ show" begins.

PRACTICE, learn and experiment

We (you faithful Zen Blog readers/followers) know that there is absolutely NO one size fits all answers in health. So assuming there's "one way" to manage our stress is just putting up a brick wall for yourself. Practice with a strategy for a while. See how you feel. Discover how easy (or not) it is to implement into your days. Experiment with it for a while. Do it REGULARLY.

Consistently practicing over time, allows your stress management tools/tactics to become a norm for you. YOU become used to practicing whatever your chosen strategy is. It becomes a habit. Then, when "life happens" you need to think WAY LESS about how and what to do .... Because you're ALREADY doing it.

A common mindset to break free from

We don't just see this in the stress realm of life; it's everywhere with health...

🫣 We do physio/rehab exercises AFTER an injury - rather than preparing our body to REDUCE the risk of injury & shorten recovery time if/when injury does occur

🫣 We try to FORCE a new way of eating, FULL BLAST, once we discover a health concern - rather than gradually, over time implementing new nutrition habits that help REDUCE our risk of concerns

🫣 We try to make drastic changes to our sleep habits after MONTHS/YEARS of feeling exhausted and unhealthy - rather than learning to practice small habits that allow us to NOT feel that way most days

🫣 We ignore or "wish away" ailments, concerns, aches or pains - rather than addressing lifestyle habits prior to things getting to this point and/or immediately dealing with something vs "waiting it out"

Our abilities to strengthen our resilience in life is PREPARING and PRACTICING for whatever life may throw our way, WHEN WE FEEL GOOD... NOT when we are overwhelmed, injured or something similar.

***IMPORTANT REMINDER***

Stress management looks DIFFERENT for EVERYONE. You don't "have to" meditate, journal, take Epsom salts baths, write poetry, paint, walk in the woods etc... if YOU don't WANT to. Especially if YOU find that one or all of those things actually CAUSE you MORE stress. All of these things are helpful for some people, YES, but they're FAR from the "only tools" to utilize.

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One of the common answers to "What do you do to manage stress?" when I ask clients this question is; "Nothing". Usually after some silence. This rolls over (negatively) into all other aspects of our deep health over time, and it is a CLEAR reason why so many of us are burning out, exhausted, stressed etc... You CAN'T manage something if you have no means to do so.

'Coach D' is a Sleep, Stress Management and Recovery Coach... and a human. I get it!! And I can help have those conversations and discussions to HELP YOU discover strategies and tools to manage STRESS when it's high or low. Just reach out and let's have the conversation!