Stress Awareness

The experience of stress and anxiety is hardly ever a fun one. Both anxiety and stress can lead towards sleep disturbances, feeling tense/nervous, physical discomfort, difficult concentrating, and many other symptoms. While we are always in search for ways to “make the anxiety go away” I’d like to encourage you to take a moment and see if there is space to befriend anxiety/stress. Often by changing the meaning we attribute towards a sensation, feeling, or emotion we can start to change the way in which we work through our relationship with that feeling.
Anxiety is a biological function created to keep us safe. Without anxiety we wouldn’t be looking both ways before crossing a street, it propels us to study a little more for that test we are dreading, it keeps us alert and makes us aware of the potential risks around us and encourages us to figure out how to navigate through problems. Stress is usually informing us that something in our lives needs to change, letting us know of an unmet need. Both anxiety and stress are ways in which our body is trying to tell us something!

Instead of meeting the feeling of stress and anxiety with disdain perhaps you can try something new. Ask yourself “What is my anxiety trying to tell me?, “What do I really need in this moment?” Taking a moment to start to tend to these feelings versus pushing them away can give you the opportunity to work through them differently. Everyone experiences anxiety and stress at some point in their lives. If the anxiety you are feeling begins to impact your daily life it is important to reach out and get the support you need. By talking about anxiety and stress more openly we can begin to normalize the experience so that yourself and others can get the support needed.

Created by:
Christina E. Ojeda