Managing Stress
Stress is the body's natural reaction to challenging or demanding situations. It's a normal and important part of life because it helps us stay alert and motivated when things get complicated. But when stress lasts for a long time or gets too much, it can hurt our health and well-being.
In this week’s episode I interviewed Certified Life Coach, author and the owner of HER Beautiful Mind, Brenda Colter.
Stress can cause many physical and emotional symptoms, such as tiredness, trouble sleeping, changes in appetite, irritability, trouble focusing, and difficulty keeping track of time and responsibilities.
And, chronic stress can also make it more likely to get heart disease, high blood pressure, or diabetes.
Stress can also hurt your mental health, making it more likely that you'll experience mental distress and anxiety. Unfortunately, it can also make existing symptoms of mental health problems even worse.
“Coaching works because it’s all about you. When you connect with what you really want and why - and take action - magical things can happen.”
- Emma-Louise Elsey
Managing stress is a key part of staying healthy and happy in general. Effective ways to deal with stress can help you deal with the challenges and demands of everyday life and improve your physical and mental health. Working with a life coach can be an effective way to help you figure out what is causing your stress and come up with ways to manage it.
Life Coaching
Life coaching is a type of professional coaching that helps you set and reach personal and professional goals. A life coach can help you figure out your strengths, values, and goals, and they also help you devise a plan for reaching your goals. Life coaches can help you with career development, personal growth, and stress.
Working with a life coaching can support stress management because it helps you figure out what causes stress and how you can better manage it. You can learn more about how you think and act and learn new ways to deal with stress and improve your overall health.
Some of the possible benefits of life coaching for managing stress are:
Better communication skills: Life coaches can help you learn how to talk to people in a way that improves relationships and reduces conflict, two things that can cause a lot of stress.
Time management and organization: A life coach can help you figure out tasks and responsibilities and prioritize them. They can also help find ways to manage your time better and feel less overwhelmed.
Mindfulness and relaxation techniques: Life coaches may teach you techniques like meditation and deep breathing to help reduce stress and improve your overall health.
Setting clear goals and picturing the steps needed to reach them can help you stay motivated and focused on your goals, which can help you feel less stressed. The benefits of life coaching for stress management vary from person to person, depending on your individual needs and goals. However, working with a life coach can give you the skills and tools to deal more effectively with stress.
Life Coaching for Stress Management
A life coach can be an effective ally in helping you figure out what's causing your stress and develop ways to manage your stress better.
Identifying what causes stress. A life coach can help you figure out what situations or events cause you to feel stressed. This can be caused by external events or situations, like work or family obligations. Or by internal things, like negative thought patterns or unhelpful behaviors.
Learning ways to deal with stress. Once the root causes of stress have been found, a life coach can help you find ways to deal with them. This could mean using techniques like mindfulness and relaxation, time management and organization, or training in how to communicate more effectively.
Setting goals that can be reached. A life coach can help you set realistic goals that can be achieved as a way to deal with stress. This could mean breaking down big goals into smaller, more manageable steps and giving yourself a deadline to finish them.
By working with a life coach to figure out what causes stress and how to deal with it, you can get the tools and support you need to deal with stress effectively and improve your mental and physical well-being.
Working with a Life Coach
More and more evidence suggests that life coaching can help people deal better with stress. For example, a study in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that people who took part in life coaching reported considerable improvements in their ability to deal with stress, sense of self-worth, and overall health.
And a review of research on how well life coaching works published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that life coaching can be a valuable way to improve well-being, including stress reduction.
So, how can a life coach help with stress?
First, they can support you with creating a plan of action. Most of the time, stress and anxiety decrease when you have a plan and feel more in charge and control of your life.
Creating a Plan of Action with Your Life Coach
Here are some of the things that may be part of your plan to help you reach your goals:
- Clarity and focus. Setting clear, specific goals can help give you direction and focus, which can be especially helpful when dealing with stress. A life coach can help you figure out what your goals are and make a plan for how to reach them.
- Motivation and accountability. Having a plan of action and a coach to keep you on track with their stress management goals can be invaluable. A life coach can help you stay focused and motivated by providing support and encouragement.
- Breaking down big goals. Goals for managing stress are often complex and scary to get started on. By working with a life coach, you can break down your goals into smaller, more manageable steps, making them feel more attainable and less overwhelming.
- Keeping track of progress. A life coach can help you keep track of your progress and change your plan of action as needed. This can be especially helpful when dealing with stress because you can clearly see your progress and make any changes you need to your plans.
Tools and Techniques
Mindfulness and relaxation techniques, like meditation and deep breathing, can help you deal with stress and improve your overall health and well-being. As part of a plan to deal with stress, life coaches may teach you to be more mindful and relaxed. These techniques can be done anywhere and at any time, which makes them easy to use daily to deal with stress.
Life Coaching and Organizing Yourself
Time management and organization skills can help you deal with stress and improve your overall health and well-being. Giving you a sense of control and structure, these strategies help you set priorities and make life feel less overwhelming.
Create a task list: Making a list of things to do can help you prioritize your responsibilities and stay on top of them. It can also give you a sense of accomplishment when you finish a task.
Set deadlines: Giving yourself deadlines for tasks can give you a sense of urgency and help you stay on track and focused. Just be mindful of your daily schedule, so you don’t add unnecessary pressure with deadlines and cause even more overwhelm.
Prioritize tasks: Putting tasks in order of importance and deadlines can help you focus your time and energy on the most critical tasks. Be sure to add time for self-care into your tasks.
Use a planning app or calendar: A planning app or calendar can help you stay on track and organized. It can also help you figure out and plan how to use blocks of time to get things done quicker.
You can better prioritize tasks and feel less overwhelmed when you use good time management and organization skills. Feeling in control of tasks and the daily flow can help improve stress.
Better Communication to Reduce Stress
Good communication skills are a big part of dealing with stress and improving overall well-being. In addition, training in communication skills can help you improve your relationships and reduce arguments, which can be significant sources of stress in your personal relationships.
Visualizing Your Goals
Setting goals and visualizing them can be powerful ways to keep you motivated and on track with your goals. In addition, these techniques can help you deal with stress in particular because they can give you a sense of direction and purpose and keep you motivated and on track.
- SMART goals are clear, measurable, attainable, relevant, and have deadlines. By setting SMART goals, you can make sure your goals are clear and doable, which can help you stay motivated and on track.
- Visualization is making mental pictures of what you want to achieve using your imagination. Your brain cannot tell the difference between what you are visualizing and what is a lived experience, so by picturing your goals, you can guide your mind toward your goals.
- You can also use affirmations, or positive, affirming statements, to help you keep your goals and beliefs in mind.
- And finally, setting rewards for reaching goals can keep you going and make you feel like you have accomplished steps along the way to your bigger goals. Give yourself credit for all your successes!
The Takeaway
Life coaching can help you deal with stress in several ways. First, a life coach can help you figure out what is causing your stress and how to deal with it. They can also help you get better at talking to people and managing your time. A life coach can teach you techniques like mindfulness and relaxation to help you deal with stress. And they can help you set goals and see them in your mind to keep you motivated and on track to reach them.
By working with a life coach to figure out what causes stress, you can learn the tools and receive the support you need to improve your overall health and happiness. Research shows that life coaching can be an excellent way to deal with stress and improve your well-being, especially when combined with other ways to deal with stress, like mindfulness training.
A life coach could be a great choice if you're stressed out and looking for ways to manage better. There are a lot of qualified life coaches out there, and it's essential to find the right one for you. Some coaches focus more on business and corporate issues. Others may take a more spiritual or self-improvement-focused approach.
Look for a coach with relevant experience and training, and ask about their practice and what you can expect from working with them.
Most life coaches now have online sessions that you can join from the comfort of your own home. This is especially important if there is no life coach in your area or you are dealing with mobility challenges. In my experience, online coaching can be just as effective as in-person coaching.
Working with a life coach can be a great way to manage stress and improve your overall well-being.
