With a global pandemic, racial injustice, political unrest and climate change concerns, we are surrounded by uncertainty and we don’t know what life will look like in 6 months or in a year or two.

But it’s down to each of us, it is our responsibility to find the resilience to take this in and move forward, and we must all realise that stress management and self-care are no longer a luxury – they have become a necessity.

So here is the third tip in my “Rise and Grow in Uncertain Times’ series.

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Tip 3 – Avoid stress contagion

Stress can be contagious.
Simply watching someone else tense up can trigger the release of the stress hormone, cortisol, in our own bodies.

To address your stress and avoid its spread:
• List your 3 main triggers for feeling highly stressed
• Write down 2 or 3 small changes that can make a big difference to your stress levels
• List your 5 early warning signs that you may be becoming highly stressed
• Identify 3 stress busting activities and incorporate them into your routine.

And finally, stop thinking about how stressed you are: we can have meta-stress – where we stress about being stressed.
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Stay tuned for more tips next Saturday!