The importance of making time for yourself throughout the year cannot be over emphasised. In this article, Diabetes South Africa looks at ways to de-stress your life. By Romy Toussaint.
The first thing that comes to mind when you think of de-stressing is usually the thought of going away on holiday – maybe sitting on the beach or soaking up the scenery at a game reserve, but, mostly, it’s waiting for your annual leave.
But is that enough? Racing through the year to get your annual leave – allowing your days to be wished away, while your personal needs and your health are neglected or put on ‘hold’. But then, your leave arrives and so does that holiday and before you know it, it’s over! Did you get to relax? How many days into the holiday did it take to actually relax?
The truth is you shouldn’t only relax while on holiday, you should be finding ways to slow down regularly throughout the year. Relaxing equates to giving yourself time – time to put your feet up, time to unwind, time to de-stress and time to be in the moment. So, when you do have that well-deserved break at the end of the year, or whenever you can take it, it will be a wanted holiday, not a needed one! You’ll arrive less stressed, and you won’t have the pressure of having to de-stress and you can just enjoy it.
You may ask how do you give yourself this ‘time’ throughout the year? Firstly, you need to find your stress trigger – what is it that stresses you out the most? What area is the toughest for you? What is your common stress denominator?
You might not be able to change what stresses you out, but you can change how it affects you – you can change the time you give it, take control of what you can and be aware of not giving too much time to what you can’t control.
Then you need to figure out what activity de-stresses you the most, and when you do find it make it a priority!
About the author: Romy Toussaint is a teacher, trainer, mentor, coach and entrepreneur. She has specialised in the sporting industry for over 20 years and is a qualified NLP practitioner and life coach, and a T3 certified Apple trainer.
