April is "STRESS AWARENESS" Month

vlog by Sara Dugas

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Hi I’m Sara Dugas. I’m curious, are you aware with what’s happening when you’re stressed? And while you keep on going with life, experiencing stress at its extreme? Have you become sick or experienced health challenges? And that could become chronic? It has happened to me.

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April is National Stress Awareness month. ODSC has invited me to guest-vlog about how we manage stress in our everyday life.

Too often we go on with our lives feeling stressed and not realizing it...until we crash. Do you know what your stress look like? What do your stress look like?

I encourage that you to take the time to notice with what’s going on when you experience stress.

When you know what your stress look like, then you can develop a plan.

This is critical to avoid crashing and/or becoming sick.

Sometimes when stress becomes too much, we turn to unhealthy ways to manage stress symptoms.

How can we manage stress in a healthy way?

Stress is unavoidable, it’s part of human experience. It is important to become more aware of what is “healthy” stress vs “unhealthy” stress.

This is also important part of this awareness as you develop your own plan to manage your stresses.

For me, I have a plan for when I become stressed.. I self-practice my time with yoga and meditation.

Take time to list the stress symptoms you experience: physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Few examples of stress symptoms could include the following: sleepless nights, not taking care of self’s own needs like eating and drinking water,

Communicate with your supporters such as your doctors, families, and friends. Let them know you’d want them to remind you to take the time to do stress-free things such as going for a walk. Build a good plan. There’s many wonderful ways to de-stress like, an all time favorite…Yoga and Meditation :)

Yoga and Meditation: this purpose to take time to PAUSE. You have the power to do that for yourself! Take time to check in with yourself. Observe with what’s going on with you right now in your inner-world. Too often we forget to breath. When we experience stress, we tend not to breathe and have enough oxygen for the brian and then the body become stiff and tight during time of stress.

At the very moment we notice stress happening, we must familiarize with it for next time and invite our support tools including breathing practice. Allow it to be easy.  

The more you know what’s causing you to feel stressed out, the more you develop a deep compassion with yourself.

Stress happens! Keep it a center point that it is all about giving yourself a permission (self-empowered) to develop a good plan to manage the stresses in your life.