Stress is something we all encounter throughout our life and can have a major impact on your emotional, physical, and even spiritual health. At Delaware BEST we are always looking for resources to help emphasize Self Care. Self Care is pivotal for making sure you are taking care of yourself and not just those around you. Apart of Self Care is maintaining your stress, doing activities you enjoy, finding ways to keep up with your emotional and physical self. Check out the article and resources below from Stress Management Society. Their website has resources, guides, and even consultations. We all deal with stress in some capacity, lets be there for each other!

Stress Awareness Month 2024: Combatting Stress in an Age of Information Overload

The theme #LittleByLittle highlights the transformative impact of consistent, small positive actions on over-all wellbeing. For Stress Awareness Month 2024 we, at The Stress Management Society, want to emphasize how even the smallest steps taken each day towards self-care and stress reduction can yield significant improvements in mental health over time. We encourage you to focus on making manageable adjustments to your daily routine. While the impact of small actions on their own may seem little, the cumulative effects of these habits can end up being profound!

How to take small steps towards big change:

The time spent on these activities does not have to be long. A lot of us don't have the time to engage in these activities every day while trying to juggle personal and professional responsibilities. However, the power of these activities is evident even if they are engaged in for just 10-20 minutes of your day. For example, research into mindfulness and meditation highlights the transformative effect it can have on reducing stress when engaging in it for just a short period of time. A 10-minute mindfulness meditation session can effectively reduce stress and anxiety through a sense of relaxation, calmness, and improved emotional regulation [8]. The benefits of adopting this habit can be incredible in such a short period of time. Research has found that just 10 days of guided meditation can reduce stress by 14% and irritability by 27%, while three weeks of use can lead to further stress reduction [9]. 

Here are some interesting reports dealing with stress: 

• In the UK, 79% of adults experience stress at least once a month, with 74% feeling overwhelmed or unable to cope at some point in the past year [1].  
• Research from Indeed reveals a concerning trend - 52% of all workers are now battling burnout, marking a 9% increase since before the pandemic [2].  
• Only 13% of employees feel comfortable discussing their mental health openly at work [3]. 
• Stress can lead to bad habits such as an increase in drinking alcohol, eating unhealthily, or smoking, which further exacerbate the negative effects of stress [4].