Chilima Sianyeuka, Student Support and Wellbeing Manager (Mental Health and Wellbeing) was one of our speakers at a recent Astrea Does Desert Island Discs event. During the panel discussion, Chilima talked about self-care and managing stress, and we asked her to write a blog post for Astrea.

While some of us are more resilient than others we all have our limits. We all have a threshold, there is a limit to how much stress we can manage before it starts to affect our mental wellbeing. This threshold and how much we can carry is referred to as the Stress container by Mental Health First Aid England. Stress fills the container and eventually as we experience more and more stress the container overflows.

Some people may have quite a large container due to developing good coping strategies, experience of managing competing priorities etc. Some people may have a slightly smaller container and feel more overwhelmed when stretched. When your container overflows you may find yourself feeling tired, on the brink of tears often, you may have difficulty concentrating or just general feel overwhelmed.

However, it is not about just being able to cope with large amounts of stress. It’s about identifying ways to manage the often competing priorities in your life. One way this can be done is by identifying stressors or potential stressors and developing healthy coping strategies.

Starting with the stressors, what on this list do you need to do? What is really important? Rate them from 1-10 on a scale of importance/urgency? Chances are if it is a below a 5 it can wait another day or week. You might want to think about your approach to this stressor? Reframing is a technique that can be useful to help you think about the stressor from a different perspective; can you see how the task you thought of as stressful will help you grow or be of service to someone else?

Another reason your stress bucket filling up and overflowing is because you do not have a tap; also known as self-care or coping strategies. A blockage or plug in your stress container. When your life mainly consists of all work and no ‘me time’ it can be difficult to not feel depleted. There are a number of things we can do to energise ourselves and de-stress from what can sometimes feel like a rat race. Whether it’s something physical like dance, watching a binge worthy series or a weekly catch up with friends, it’s worth taking the time to explore what nourishes you.

Talking to a professional can also be a way of emptying your stress container. I often hear people say ‘things have to be really bad for you to talk to a professional’. This is not true and being proactive is the best way to approach this. Talking to someone can be a really helpful way to explore your thoughts and feelings and offload. There are so many options for support these days, most organisations including UCL have an Employee Assistance Programme. There are a number of low fee organisations for counselling and plethora of helplines and online options.

Stress is often a trigger for more serious health problems so it is important it is managed well to minimise the impact it can have on your life and your ability to thrive!