Cultivating a practice of being in touch with yourself will allow you to notice how stress is impacting you and provide space for you to make empowered and nurturing choices to transform the stress before it gets out of control . To support you in making this a practice , put an alert on your calendar throughout the day to encourage regular mindful pauses .
2 . Manage Your Stress
When you notice that your stress is creeping up , take a short break to nurture yourself and intentionally allow your nervous system to recover . Create a self-nurturing practice list including activities that help relieve stress . This list may include taking a short walk , moving your body , breathing intentionally , stretching your muscles , using positive affirmations , naming three things you are grateful for , setting a boundary , playing music , and / or calling a friend for support . The more you manage your own stress , the less other people ’ s stress will overwhelm you and the more you will be able to help to create a more peaceful environment from the inside out . You have the power to bring your grounded energy to whatever you are doing and improve the situation .
3 . Embrace Joy
Joy is the antidote to overwhelm and exhaustion and helps to transform stress with ease and grace . Take a moment to think about what brings you joy . Remember it can be a small thing like enjoying a lovely cup of coffee or tea , sitting outside in the sun , watching the sunrise and / or sunset , spending time with someone you love , allowing yourself to laugh with wild abandon , thinking about what you are grateful for , doing something inspiring or creative , or simply smiling and allowing your cares to float away for the moment . Now that you have identified what brings you joy , how could you schedule that in your day to fill up your reserves regularly ? Scheduling joy is a powerful way to prioritize your health and wellbeing and to make an intentional decision to transform stress and thrive .
4 . Recognize Success in Small Ways Each Day
Our overflowing “ To Do ” lists can create so much added stress in our days feeding our unrealistic expectations of ourselves and the feeling that we have never done enough . You can transform this stress by getting clear about what success looks like and starting to acknowledge your efforts and the steps you have taken every day . Instead of focussing on your “ To Do ” list at the end of the day create a “ Done ” list . Acknowledging yourself is a deeply nurturing practice that helps you cultivate resilience and focuses your brain on what is going well instead of what is not . You can deepen this practice by including gratitude after you acknowledge each small success .
5 . Connect in Community
A really powerful self-nurturing strategy to transform stress is to find ways to cultivate a sense of belonging and community regularly . Knowing that we are not alone and that other people are there to support us can give us hope and inspiration . Finding communities where we can be our authentic selves and ask for help is healing and supportive . We have the power to create self-nurturing communities where we encourage each other to transform our