Do you have a stress toolbox? A whole collection of tools and strategies to help you when you feel stressed and overwhelemd?

If I was to ask you: what tools do you have to manage your stress, what would you say?

Would you immediately be able to list a range of strategies?

Would you think of 1-2 things and stop?

Or would there be total crickets?

So often, clients come into my private practice for help managing their stress (and good on them for getting help!). One of the first things we talk about is how their current coping skills are, because if you are struggling with stress I can pretty much guarantee your skills aren’t up to par at the moment.

And you know, the common answers are either:

1. I don’t I have any ways to manage my stress, or
2. I have XX that helps, but nothing apart from this.

Now, sometimes people actually do have a lot more coping skills than they ever realised, and by going through the different categories that should be in their stress toolbox they can start utilising them more.

But if you are reading this and you feel like you mainly rely on 1 or 2 ways to cope with your stress, I want you to consider the following:

What if you’re in a location/situation/around people where you can’t use your main stress management tool?

This becomes a big problem, right?

Yet it is super common! Think about it.

If your main way to cope with stress is to go running, what if it’s raining? What if you’re at work? Or if you are at a social event? What if you’re injured?

You can’t just go jogging in those situations, leaving you with no way to manage the rising stress.

Listen, chronic stress and burnout are major problems in our society. And developing a toolbox of coping strategies to manage and reduce your stress are KEY.

For more details on why you need a stress toolbox, check out my full video.

And for my top 5 tips to manage your stress, download your free guide: 5 essential steps to manage your stress.