Today is National Stress Awareness Day, a day promoting knowledge about stress, best practices for stress management and well-being! Demelza's own Counsellor Jennie Purr put together her top tips for managing stress.

Today we recognise National Stress Awareness day, a day that aims to raise awareness on the cause of stress and strategies to manage it. What causes stress? There are many different reasons that we feel stressed, some everyday stresses include having a poor work/life balance, financial difficulties, burnout through emotional overload or juggling too many roles in your life. 

On top of the everyday stresses for Demelza families there are extra pressures that come with looking after a child with additional needs or a sick child. Many families may still be feeling the impact of the last few years of the pandemic as it meant for many they have needed to shield to keep vulnerable children safe and may not have had family or community support due to social distancing measures.

Top six tips

Meditate

Guided meditation, this is a great way to distract yourself from the stress of day-to-day life

Exercise

Regular excise and a healthy diet... some foods like bananas actually help combat stress by lowering your cortisol.

Limit time online

Limit social media & screen time

Take deep breaths

Practice taking deep breaths to help calm you down if you are feeling stressed

Connect with others

Connecting with others can help you to release any built up tension, stresses or worries and enable you to take a different view on worries you may have had

Talk

Talk to someone about how you feel, whether that is a friend, family member or a counsellor

For more information on stress and how to manage it, visit www.stress.org.uk