When we are facing a lot of stress, be it because of changes that go on throughout the day, or life in general, it can be hard to remain resilient. The constant battle and the constant pressure will wear you out without fail if you don’t take care of yourself! Looking to build up that stress tolerance? Here are a few ways you can, along with some reminders to be patient with yourself.
Slowly Turn the Boat
Stress and the things that we have to handle on a regular basis are going to cause stress hormones to be released. There are mental factors that come into play, and other factors, such as hormonal and physical factors, as well. This is where you have to keep in mind that with stress, you have to slowly turn the boat.
What this means is that as you deal with stress, you have to alter your perspective, find the silver lining, and start taking on practices that are going to relieve stress from the body. However! You can’t do this all at once, and that’s where the imagery of turning a large boat comes into play.
Keep Healthy Practices
In any stressful situation, the most common thing to drop off the map first is the healthy practices you may already have in place. This is a huge red flag for stress and building resilience. One of the ways that you build resilience is by keeping the healthy practices that allow your body to process cortisol and other stress hormones (but most importantly, cortisol).
Good Sleep Schedule
The first thing, if you don’t already have it, is a regular sleep schedule where you are getting at least seven hours of solid sleep. Solid sleep means not tossing and turning against the struggles of the world or resting your eyes. This is actual sleep with full REM cycles that help you get the deep sleep that you need.
Move Your Body
For at least thirty minutes a day, you need to be moving your body outside of what you may already do for work. This isn’t gentle movement (unless that is what your doctor recommends). You need to be sweating and getting the toxins out of your body. If you can invest an hour, that’s even better, but make sure you aren’t doing cortisol-activating actions because that will just compound the stress instead of mitigating it.
Invest in Self-Care
Historically speaking, self-care is one of the most ignored aspects of stress management and building resilience. Ten minutes. That’s all it takes to destress, and this can be through wearing a face mask, investing time in journaling, taking care of your faith, or even jumping into a nice hot shower really quickly. Remember, just ten minutes of self-care a day will help build your resilience!
Add Things Slowly
While this isn’t always possible, it is important to remember that when you are adding stress into your life through changes, jobs, hobbies, and what have you, you have to take it step by step. Resilience and handling stress do not happen overnight. This is something that takes time and directed attention to your mind and your body.
Unexpected Events
One of the biggest ways that we lose resilience and stress tolerance is when we suddenly get an overload of stress that comes out of nowhere. Unfortunately, and not to sound blase, this is part of life. You have to learn how to redirect the stress.
Sometimes this means taking a day off to journal, go for walks, meet up with your support team, have a conversation with a therapist, or anything that helps you keep your head on straight. Understand that this is a case-by-case basis and something that you have to take a day at a time.
Visualization and Positive Reinforcement
It may sound ridiculous, and at one time, I thought so too. But, there’s a point in building stress tolerance and resilience where you have to develop your sense of positive reinforcement and positive visualization.
For most humans, it is our tendency to be doomsday viewers instead of a positive Polly. In this article by Aequil, there are plenty of resources to help you build stress tolerance, and my favorite is their reference to building up your visualization.
So What’s the Answer?
The answer is, there are many answers to how to build stress tolerance and resilience! But the biggest thing to look at is how you are building your patterns and baseline self-care. Are you paying attention to what your body needs? Are you taking care of your mental health?
It will always seem like a lot to manage, and it is. But it is worth it to build up your tolerance through self-care, staying active, and mitigating stress as much as you possibly can in a safe and responsible manner.
