5 areas that influence your stress tolerance and tools to help you manage.

Stress is a physical and mental response which comes with being human, and this may come as a surprise when I say for good reason.

Stress can be beneficial to us, with a positive response which is to motivate in times when we are proposed with a challenging or unfamiliar situation. Shifting us into high alert when needed. Although when stress persists over a long period of time the effects can be harmful to our mind and body, presenting health issues.

 Here are 5 areas that can assist with your stress tolerance along with tools to assist you.

 Community
Being connected and supported by a community is a huge stress diffuser. Find your support network.
Action:
~ Find your support network and ask for help. As much as we like to think we can, we can’t do everything on our own as sometimes there are other factors at play such as; boundaries, beliefs, environment. Reach out to a counsellor, psychologist, family member or friend.

 Attitude:
Optimistic people tend to embrace challenges, have a sense of humour and are solution oriented: accepting change is a part of life.
Action:
~ Challenge your thoughts. Are these stressful thoughts subconscious beliefs? Are they helpful to you and are they really true?
~ Implement mindfulness into your day to allow you to create headspace.

 Preparation and Action
Notice stress starting to creep in? Take this stress as a sign to prepare. Use it to your advantage to prepare and act, rather than leaving items pending which normally may cause you stress.
Action:
~ Can you forward plan and prioritise tasks?
~ Can you otherwise prepare to accept and surrender that the situation it is out of your control.

 Back your “go getter” self
Call on your motivational self and give that inner critic the flick. When we dial into our confident, motivated self we can see that we've got this. We can also notice that challenges are here to serve a purpose.
Action:
~ Check in with yourself and what feels right for YOU and nobody else.
~ Set yourself boundaries.

 Awareness and Response
Being consciously aware of when you're stressed allows you to know when to implement techniques to manage stress, and respond from a place of calm rather than reacting in a state of panic.
Action: In addition to all the above actions (as awareness is needed first to implement any technique) the following can also be helpful.
~ Emotional freedom technique (tapping technique). This is a technique used in holistic counselling focused on the meridian points and can be learned to use on yourself. 
~ Somatic and mindful movement.

Keep these areas and tools handy but remember to always seek professional help if your stress becomes overwhelming. If it doesn’t go away even in the absence of a stressor there may be other factors involved such as belief systems causing anxiety.