Self-Help Tools

Take Action/ Ask for Help!

Get proactive

  • Read about your symptoms
  • Find available resources
  • Talk with someone about what’s happening

  Engage a professional

  • Don’t overlook your employer resources
  • Talk with your general practitioner
  • Call helplines or follow advice

Follow advice

  • Don’t ignore the advice provided
  • Don’t talk yourself out of it

Establish Boundaries

  • Listen to your gut
  • If you don’t respect your boundaries, don’t expect others to respect them
  • Get good at saying “NO”

Make Connections

Perils of Isolation

  • Start to lose your social skills
  • Start to overshare
  • Become less collaborative
  • Leads to depression

  • Start a gratitude journal

  • Start your day with a gratitude list

Expand your Spirituality or Consciousness

Meditation

Prayer

Nature

Research in Spirituality and Health

  • Mortality: People who have regular spiritual practices tend to live longer
  • Coping: Patients who are spiritual utilize their beliefs in coping with illness, pain, and life stresses
  • Recovery: Spiritual commitment tends to enhance recovery from illness and surgery

Exercise (Activate the Parasymathic System)

  • Running/Hiking/Walking
  • Swimming
  • Dancing
  • Playing a Musical Instrument
  • Yoga
  • Painting / Creating Art
  • Gardening / Working with Hands
  • Golfing
  • Cooking

Help Others

In a 30,000 person study on the effect of stress over 10 years on the rate of death, people who believed that they had a very stressful year and that stress was harmful to their health had 43% higher risk of death than those who did not.

A related study showed that the effect of stress on death rate was completely offset where people were regularly helping others.

Acceptance

ARTICLES