habits

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The phrase “control the controllables” gets thrown about a bit in all kinds of different circles. Football teams adhering to their roles, training hard, following the process, essentially controlling what they can control. It’s a phrase that is applicable to so many areas of our health and wellbeing. For example, you may be a poor sleeper, but you can do everything you can to try and improve your sleep, making sure it’s dark, not watching tv or working on your laptop right before bed, having a warm shower and making sure the room is cool and quiet. If those things don’t help you sleep better after a week or two, you can then take it to another level, are you eating or drinking anything prior to sleep? Are you not able to shut off your thoughts of the day or what you need to do tomorrow? Maybe you could target a specific exercise plan to promote sleep. The point is – there are usually quite a few things that we can control, but there will usually be some that we can’t.

The wind changes direction every other quarter and gives the other team another 50 metres per kick, there may be a baby in your house that needs constant attention throughout the night. Some things you can control, some things you can’t.

 

Controlling what you can control

Our cause of stress can often be based on things that we have absolutely no control over. Other times the stress comes because there are things that we potentially could have influenced, but have not done so for one reason or another. 

 

Lifestlye health

We used the example of sleep above as being an area that we can have a reasonable amount of control over. Other lifestyle health factors such as what we eat, how often we exercise and move, and even what we weigh, are also areas that we have a fair amount of control over. And each of these areas of our health are major contributors to our ability to regulate key hormones that will help us to feel good, strong, resilient to some of the stresses, and more energised to take them on.

These are things that you can control and will make a significant difference to your overall health and wellbeing.

 

Understanding your triggers and reaction

Another area you can control that will make a significant difference to your stress management, is understanding what some of the key stressors are for you, and how your body and minds reacts when you are experiencing them. Taking the time to understand what each of these looks like for you can be a foundational tool in helping you negate many of the challenges stress presents.

Whether the stress is work, relational, financial, or just circumstantial, it can often be very helpful to analyse the feelings. Often a person or a situation can represent a slightly different underlying cause of the stress. Knowing what the root cause is will help you to identify possible stress early and help you build strategies for managing the situation.

 

Support

We often look to help when we’re already in a tough place. A simple but effective strategy is to actually maintain support even when things are going ok. This will not only help you be less likely to feel isolated in your stress and anxiety when it comes, but will likely make it a less occuring issue as well. Make sure you are being that support for others as well.