International Stress Awareness Day

Stress is defined by the National Health Service (NHS) as “the body’s reaction to feeling threatened or under pressure”. Whilst stress is something we all feel at times, and it can act as a motivator to achieve our goals and aspirations, being too stressed can lead to changes in our mood, our behaviours and indeed our day to day lives.

The first stress awareness day was in 1998, and since then it has grown from one day of raising awareness on stress, strategies to overcome it and tips on recognising the signs of stress within ourselves and those around us. Now it is an event organised by the International Stress Management Association (ISMA) and has grown to a week-long yearly occurrence.

As a company, Morris Living has the privilege of helping our customers choose the perfect style of furniture for them when it comes to individual preferences on style, comfort, colour and finish.

However, for many of our customers, their purchase from Morris Living is an essential one, as they require a riser recliner chair to act as a mobility aid after a life-changing event or diagnosis with a chronic condition. Customers include those with arthritis, COPD, Parkinson's, dementia, diabetes to name but a few.

The wellbeing of our customers is really important to us here at Morris Living, and so we felt it was only right to speak out on International Stress Awareness Day.

Whilst stress can occur for any of us for a variety of different reasons, we are using today to reach out to our customers who are feeling stressed in their everyday life, and perhaps looking for some guidance. The following tips aren’t ground-breaking by any means, but sometimes it is nice to be reminded about the things you can do to gain back control.

 Tip 1

Introduce exercise into your daily routine

Whether it's a walk with the dog or a CrossFit class, being active can help you to refocus your energy and clear your head. Whilst the NHS states that exercise alone will not make your stresses disappear, it can be a great way of reducing them and giving you a productive way of rechannelling that stressful energy.

 Tip 2

Plan plan plan!

Often our lack of preparation can lead us to feel stressed. Break up your to-do list into small and manageable tasks so that they don’t feel as overwhelming. Some personal favourite tips include writing my to-do list for the next day before I leave work, laying out my clothes for the next day so I don’t need to worry about what goes together and using useful apps like Google Calendar to input important meetings and tasks.

Tip 3

Deep breathing exercises

Breathing work that is often used in exercises such as yoga has been proven in studies such as this one, to positively impact “anxiety and perceived stress”. The NHS website has a brilliant step by step on breathing exercises for stress, which you can access here.

We would like to note that this advice should not take priority of that from a medical professional and if you feel like stress is impacting your work, your relationships and your ability to live your day to day life, please speak to your doctor.