3 Strategies to Manage Stress During Change & Transition
Do you struggle during times of transition? It can be easy to feel thrown off balance as things change in us or around us.
Perhaps you start to feel stressed, uneasy, anxious, or overwhelmed. You might find yourself trying to maintain control: efforting, resisting, doing more and more, sleeping less, and getting more and more depleted. Or you might find that you feel stuck, indecisive, or even immobilized in the face of change. These are both stress responses in the body; signals that you are out of balance internally.
Transitions can bring an erratic energy and can challenge our inner sense of stability and security. Our brain is a survival based organ and it likes to maintain a sense of homeostasis, which means it likes things to stay constant. Some of our brains cling to that more strongly than others. And yet change is a constant. Day to day, week to week, season by season, year by year. We age daily; relationships, jobs, finances all fluctuate; our interests may shift; and certainly our needs change with time, just to name a few. We have both internal and external changes every day.
As I sit here writing, I’m aware of change all around me: The season of fall is starting. Leaves are starting to change color, some are dropping. Daylight is shorter and temperatures are shifting from hot to cool erratically. I also have a birthday soon, reminding me that time is advancing. These are all transitions, and I notice them inside and out. I notice my energy varies more frequently. I still have the fiery energy of summer on some days, and feel the fatigue, slowing and quieting of fall on other days.
How we approach change can make a huge difference. Our internal response, which takes place in our mind and body (our nervous system) determines how stressful we experience it.
We often approach change by either resisting or allowing. Resisting amplifies our experience of stress, while allowing can help minimize our stress response. We can follow the wisdom of nature to help ourselves embrace change and orient to allowing; flowing with change rather than against it. For example, the deciduous trees release their leaves to maintain balance through the winter. They don’t resist the shifting of the season, but rather gracefully allow their leaves to drop, helping them store energy.
Here are a few strategies to support yourself, and to encourage allowing, during times of change and transition.
Tune into your perspective. What are your thoughts?
We don’t have a choice about many of the things that change around us. But we do have choices about how we respond to change. Bringing awareness to our perspective, to our inner narrative, is essential. This can make all the difference in terms of how we experience change, which can inherently be stressful. And yet, there is always opportunity in change as well. Change opens up space for something new.
Ask yourself: Am I allowing or resisting this opportunity? Tuning into how you feel will likely give you that answer!
Resistance often brings with it feelings of: doubt, insecurity, anxiety, stress, fear, irritability, and fatigue.
Allowing brings with it: openness, flexibility, curiosity, inspiration, creativity, eagerness, neutrality, acceptance, and maybe even joy!
2. Breathe and take time outs
It’s easy to get caught up in the frenetic energy of stress. Counter stress by taking mindful pauses. Your brain will tell you you don’t have time, but you do! And taking pauses to breathe will help you be more effective with your time and energy. Try this: Take 60 seconds to breathe deeply and orient yourself to your surroundings. Using the senses can help with this. What do you see, hear and feel? Taking short mindful breaks, where your attention is on what’s in front of you in a neutral way, can really help decrease the stress response in the body. Try this a few times a day. The more stressed you are, the more often these pauses are needed.
3. Remind yourself that you’re safe.
This may seem silly, but if your nervous system is feeling stressed, it may see change as a threat. Try putting your hand on your heart and just saying, “There there, you’re safe. All is well. We’ve got this.” The physical contact can be soothing; and gentle words of being your own ally are a wonderful form of self support, both of which create internal safety and lower the stress response.
I hope these strategies help you embrace the shifting of the season, and the ever changing life in and around you. As always, I celebrate you and your journey. And I remind you that you’re not alone. We are in this together!
Fondly,
Mari