The focus of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is Anxiety.
Anxiety is a normal emotion for everyone and can occur at any time, but sometimes it can get out of control and become a mental health problem.
Lots of things can lead to feelings of anxiety – relationships, jobs, exams, travel and money issues to name but a few, and it is really important to try and understand what triggers your feelings of anxiety. It is also important to try and lead a balanced, healthy lifestyle so as to minimise feelings of stress and anxiety.
In order to maintain a healthy sense of wellbeing, we need to balance 3 areas of our life, achievement, connection and enjoyment (ACE). When we get stressed, we usually spend more time doing things that help us achieve, but less time having fun or connecting with others. When we feel depressed, we withdraw and do less, and when we feel anxious, we tend to avoid places or people. If we balance Achievement, Connection and Enjoyment we can remove stress, depression and anxiety from our life.
- ACHIEVE – work, chores, study
- CONNECT – with friends, family, community
- ENJOY – play, fun, pleasure
These activities directly affect our brain chemistry by acting on the release of the key neuro-transmitters for happiness, our natural anti-stress and antidepressants.
- Achievement stimulates dopamine and purposeful activity stimulates serotonin.
- Connecting with other people stimulates oxytocin.
- Exercise stimulates endorphins.
If you can, update the Acronym to ‘BACE’ by adding BODY, and making sure you also schedule exercise, healthy eating, hydration and rest. Write what things you do in each quadrant to see if your week is balanced.
Values Activity
In order to sustain happiness and avoid burnout, chronic stress or fatigue, we must be living a life which is aligned with our values, otherwise we will always feel resentful and frustrated.
To create a life that meets your values, first you need to know what your core values are. This is a simple process which you can return to frequently to check-in with yourself and your routine.
Use the PDF below to write what things you do in each quadrant to see if your week is balanced.
So, this Mental Health Awareness Week try and focus on ACEing your day and help beat those feelings of anxiety.
References
GALLUP – https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238070/women-america-work-life-lived-insights-business-leaders.aspx
GET SELFHELP – https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/ace-activity/
