The Mental Health Foundation carried out a study that showed 74% of people have felt so stressed they have been overwhelmed or unable to cope. Stress is a necessary part of life (yes really) - appropriate amounts of stress help to motivate us to act.
What is Stress? According to The Mental Health Foundation “Stress is our body’s response to pressure. Many different situations or life events can cause stress. It is often triggered when we experience something new or unexpected that threatens our sense of self or when we feel we have little control over a situation.” Moderate amounts of stress actually help improve your memory and productivity by strengthening the connection between the neurons in your brain. The problems start when the amount of stress outweighs your ability to cope. Often referred to as your resilience and ability to cope with adversity. You know how some people seem to manage a lot of challenges at once and others find even minor stressors just too much? Well, every day we meet challenges that may or may not cause us stress and we will all respond differently based on our experience and levels of resilience. The important thing is to find healthy ways to manage stress before it fills the metaphorical stress bucket in our minds. High levels of stress are linked to an increase in stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol which lead to poor sleep patterns and a lowered immune system. This is often why you might experience upset stomachs, increased anxiety symptoms, indigestion, fatigue and catch every cold bug around! How to Manage Stress Some proven ways of managing stress and improving your overall well being include: All these methods help to reduce the stress hormones - they can regulate brainwave activity, increasing the parasympathetic nervous system (sometimes referred to as your ‘rest and digest’ system) so you feel calmer, positive and able to cope better with whatever life has to offer. Contact us to find out more about how Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help you manage your stress (and reduce your stress bucket!).
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Well as one of those middle aged people Public Health England (PHE) are referring too, I thought I better take a look at how health behaviours are affecting my generation, customers, friends and family. The information from the Health Survey for England is quite alarming, 69.5 percent of the population aged 40-60 (men and women combined) are at risk of serious health conditions due to being overweight or obese. As part of the PHE’s One You campaign – you can undertake a 'How Are You?' quiz to see how your lifestyle behaviours may be impacting on your health. Some of my clients, family and friends who have taken the quiz have been a little surprised with their own health score and are now preparing to make changes to improve their health. The figures provided below represent the prevalence of people aged 40-60 who drink over the Chief Medical Officers' guidelines, who are inactive (less than 30 minutes of moderate exercise per week) and those being overweight or obese. Reference British Heart Foundation National Centre, Weekly News Bulletin, Wed 04/01/2017 16:03 Worryingly the survey data also suggested 83 percent of people have at least one risk factor with more than a third having two or more risk factors.
As fitness professionals, we know how difficult it can be for our clients to change habits of a lifetime. My hope is this campaign can be used by all health, exercise and fitness professionals to help their clients honestly look at their lifestyle and habits and with our support choose to make a change for a healthy future. Like us, do you fit in to the middle age bracket? Are you trying to change some or all of you habits of a lifetime? What are you struggling with most? Leave your comments below for some motivational support. |
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