How to support stress relief: use links between thoughts, behavior, feelings

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What is CBT?

The Psych Central mental health site notes “Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) “is a type of evidence-based psychotherapy used to help treat a wide range of physical and mental health conditions including: depression, anxiety and chronic pain.”

Dr. Caroline Norman, PhD writes about how much anxiety and stress can impact our mental and physical health, and the quality of our life, and provides suggestions based on CBT.

Here are some excerpts from her related article Five CBT Stress-Busting Tips For Spring.

Symptoms Of Chronic Stress

There are a number of symptoms that we can look out for to identify chronic stress.

Physical symptoms can include headaches, difficulties in sleeping, muscle and joint pain, and a weakened immune system leading us to catch viruses such as colds or flu.

Emotional symptoms are often irritability, lack of focus and concentration, withdrawal from friends and family, anxiety, or low mood.

Behaviours related to stress can include excessive alcohol intake, smoking, gambling, shopping more than usual, and dietary changes such as over or under-eating.

If you do notice any of these signs or symptoms of stress then it can help to seek professional support from your doctor, alongside using the self-help techniques explored below.

Five CBT Stress-Busting Tips For Spring

CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) works by helping us to understand the links between our thoughts, behaviours and feelings.

For example, if we think of a meeting with our boss as overwhelming then we’re likely to feel stressed about it and engage in unhelpful behaviours such as not sleeping the night before.

However, if we see the meeting as a challenge, we can rise to rather than as overwhelming then we may feel more relaxed, sleep better and perform better.

The situation is the same, but our thoughts about it are different and have different outcomes for us.

Here are some CBT tips to help you to spring-clean your mind this season and to support you to manage stress differently: