When you’re looking down the barrel of a school midterm report or a major work project, finding inspiration should be easy. You’re on deadline, after all! But the urge to procrastinate strikes us all, and often at the worst times.
Procrastination takes many forms, and leans on avoidant traits that end up harming us in the long run.. Here are the main reasons we procrastinate — and how to stop. Continue reading Why We Procrastinate (and How to Stop)
If you’ve hit rock bottom before, you know how much it sucks…and you probably want to make sure you never get to that point again. Maybe you remember the warning signs you felt the last time, and now you’re sitting here thinking, “Oh crap, I feel a breakdown coming on!” Well, that’s your sign that you gotta protect yourself and prevent that nervous breakdown from actually happening.
Unfortunately, it’s not so effective to just sit around and wish rock bottom away. When we feel ourselves declining, we have to be proactive and take steps to make positive changes and pick ourselves up — before the worst actually happens. Here are 6 ideas to get you moving in the right direction.
Continue reading 6 Ways to Make Positive Change Before You Hit Rock Bottom
To be stressed is to be alive. And however uncomfortable it makes you, it is a universal feeling that is a part of the imperfect human experience. Stress saps your energy, causes fatigue, and increases negative thoughts that can contribute to anxious feelings. Fortunately, there are ways to build up a healthy response to stress that can even reverse the uncomfortable feelings over time.
The most basic and important way to mitigate stress is by taking care of yourself. It may sound simple, but your mind and body are connected in powerful ways and by maintaining your physical, emotional, and mental reserves, you can actually prevent and manage stress.
Stress has been a part of the human experience since the dawn of consciousness. It’s an instinctual reaction to perceived threats, originating as humans made their way up the food chain. Gone though are the saber-toothed tigers and growling bellies of our ancient past. Our new threats are red bubbles with numbers in them, and politically-charged talk radio over hour-long commutes.
Prolonged stress takes its toll. Over 70 percent of Americans report experiencing physical and psychological symptoms caused by their stress. Productivity loss and health care related to stress costs employers close to $300 billion annually, according to the same American Psychological Association study. Stress has reached epidemic proportions, and how to cope with, or manage modern stress has become a literal “billion dollar question”.
In honor of “Stress Awareness Month”, Talkspace asked our therapist community and co-workers to share their favorite ways to de-stress.* We hope you discover some beneficial new stress management solutions!
Feeling stressed out lately? If so, we’re not surprised.
According to a 2015 American Psychological Association study, 24 percent of Americans experience extreme stress on a regular basis. A similar study in 2017 found that 63 percent of the U.S. worries about the future of the country, 62 percent about money, and 61 percent about work, and stress levels have been steadily increasing over the last decade.
Life is stressful. Work can be demanding, family life can be taxing, and so can our relationships, finances, and health-related struggles. Just turn on the news or open social media and your blood pressure is apt to rise. Really, there are so many things that can be triggers for stress, and we all experience our fair share of them on a daily basis.
Equally stressful is when we watch our partners suffer from heightened periods of stress. It can be upsetting to witness and can even create tension within our relationships. Perhaps the most difficult part is that we desperately want to help, but often feel bewildered about what the best approach might be.
Continue reading 6 Things To Do When Your Partner Is Stressed
The following is intended for readers 18+
While it’s likely that the concept of masturbation was a source of stress when you were younger (because when you’re 11 it’s easy to believe masturbation can, indeed make you go blind), solo sex is great for your health. In fact, the mental health benefits of masturbation are so bountiful that I’d go so far as to claim masturbation is self-care.
If you’re not already masturbating regularly, you might want to add it into your routine (Ugh! What a horrible chore!) Aside from making you feel great, masturbation is great tool for de-stressing. Not convinced yet? Here are some ways masturbation helps you calm down.
Continue reading 5 Reasons Masturbation is Great for De-stressing
Stress is a natural part of everyday life. We’ve all experienced sweaty palms, a racing heartbeat, and a boost of adrenaline in a stressful situation. This primal instinct to protect ourselves from threats or danger originated long ago with our ancestors, and it continues today.
Obvious stressors present themselves at key turning points in life — a death in the family, or a significant life change like a move or new baby. But there are also stressors that can live under the radar, undetectable by our conscious mind. Having gone unnoticed, these stressors can initiate an extended “fight or flight” response that can have serious consequences for your health.
Since I was a boy, my body has been extremely sensitive and reactive to both physical and emotional stress. When my parents announced we were moving away from my hometown, my muscles tensed up so much I could barely use the bathroom for many days. Eventually I learned these health issues were a combination of a rare muscle tension condition and psychosomatic symptoms from my depressive-anxiety disorder.
Because my body usually felt like a car that had driven hundreds of thousands of miles — parts constantly requiring maintenance, always creaking, sputtering, or breaking down — I became a master of self-care. I spent hours every week making a conscious effort to heal and recuperate. This lifestyle was the only way for me to survive and function well enough to graduate from college and find employment. Whenever I neglected proper rest or pushed myself too far, new symptoms arose. Continue reading 7 Self-Care Tips for When Stress Affects Your Body
Tuesday in September. I remember what a beautiful day it was. It made everything else that happened seem all the more surreal. I had woken up to go to my first day of grad school at NYU’s uptown Institute of Fine Arts. On my way out the door I turned on Howard Stern, talk radio being my low-tech burglar deterrent after a recent break in of my Bronx apartment. Someone had called in about the first plane crash. Howard didn’t know if it was a joke and neither did I. I turned on CNN and saw the second plane crash. And then I headed out the door to the subway. It was terrible, but the towers were still standing and I didn’t want to be late on my first day. After all, the city kept working when the Trade Center had been bombed years earlier.
I got as far as 86 St. on the 5 train, everyone talking about what was happening. But, from there, the MTA was sending all the trains back uptown, so I got out and walked south, the sky a clear and perfect blue, marred only by black clouds of smoke to the south. As I walk I heard the radios of parked cars, the 1010WINS news station dopplering as I passed each car. The first tower was down. Continue reading Tuesday in September: The Lingering Effects of 9/11