Collection: Mood Support

Get active:

Any form of physical activity can act as a stress reliever, no matter how fit or unfit you are. Physical activity increases the release of endorphins which helps to enhance your sense of wellbeing. Activities such as walking, jogging, gardening, house cleaning, biking, swimming or weight lifting can help to refocus your mind on your body's movements providing a good stress reliever.

Eat a healthy diet:

Incorporating a variety of fruit and vegetables and whole grains in your diet will help to provide essential nutrients for your body to absorb and utilize to provide support in stressful situations.

Avoid unhealthy habits:

Unhealthy habits such as alcohol consumption, smoking, overeating and using illegal substances are habits that can harm your health and should not be used as a coping mechanism to deal with stress.

Meditate:

Meditation can help to restore a sense of peace, calm and balance to your mind and provide stress relief. Guided meditation, guided imagery and visualization are some of the forms of meditation that can be practiced anywhere. Deep breathing is often a technique used in meditation to bring a sense of relaxation.

Laugh more:

A good sense of humour can lighten your mood and help you to feel better. Laughter aids in calming down your stress response and influencing positive changes within your body.

Connect with others:

Social connection with others can help to provide support and offer a distraction from current stressful issues. Being isolated when stressed is often the choice made but in the long term, this does not provide any benefit on your stress load.

Assert yourself:

Learning to say no and delegating work can help manage your stress load as it takes off the extra pressure of a busy schedule and allows you to plan better and prioritize your needs.

Try yoga:

Yoga involves controlled breathing exercises, which helps to achieve peacefulness of body and mind and provides relief from stress and anxiety. Hatha yoga is a good stress reliever as it is slower pace with easier movements.

Get enough sleep:

The quality and amount of sleep you get can affect your mood, energy level, concentration and overall functioning. Although too much stress can make it difficult to sleep, it is important to create a good sleeping routine that can help you to relax.

Keep a journal:

By keeping a journal and writing down your thoughts, it can help to release any built up emotions and reflect on how you feel, therefore providing a form of stress relief and comfort.

Get musical and be creative:

Listening to or playing music is a good stress reliever because it can provide a mental distraction, reduce muscle tension and decrease stress hormones. Other hobbies such as gardening, sewing and sketching etc., can also provide another focus other than stress.

Seek counselling:

If stress becomes too overwhelming to cope with (excessive worrying, trouble carrying out daily routines or meeting responsibilities at work, home or school) and self-help tools are not working, it is recommended to seek help from a trained professional such as ​​professional counsellors or therapists who can help you identify sources of your stress and learn new coping tools.

Research on exercise and reducing stress has mainly focused on aerobic exercises. It has been found that people feel calmer and more relaxed when completing 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise and this effect can last for several hours post exercise. Studies have shown that exercise improves the way the body handles stress because of changes in the hormone responses and neurotransmitters in the brain such as dopamine and serotonin that affect mood and behaviours. A recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise per week or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic exercise per week can improve the way the body handles stress. Breaking exercise into two 10-15 minute sessions can also help combat stress throughout the day. Although further research regarding resistance training still needs to be done to confirm if it has a positive effect on reducing stress levels, resistance exercise can offer a time out from one's stressors. The recommendation is 2 to 3 days of resistance exercise to target all of the major muscle groups performed at a moderate intensity of 8 to 12 repetitions.

When a person suffers from long term or chronic stress, this can result in wear and tear on the body causing physical, emotional and behavioural symptoms to develop.

Physical symptoms include:

• Aches and pains
• Chest pain or a feeling like your heart is racing
• Exhaustion or trouble sleeping
• Headaches, dizziness or shaking
• High blood pressure
• Muscle tension or jaw clenching
• Stomach or digestive problems
• Trouble having sex
• Weak immune system

Emotional symptoms include:

• Anxiety or irritability
• Depression
• Panic attacks
• Sadness

Cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands, is released when you are stressed. This hormone is responsible for regulating your metabolism and sends your body into fight-or-flight mode, temporarily pausing regular bodily functions and slowing your metabolism. High levels of cortisol can also cause cravings for sweet, fatty and salty foods making you more likely to snack on these high calorie foods which leads to weight gain. Excess cortisol levels also decrease testosterone production in the body which may cause a decrease in muscle mass and slow down the burning of calories.

Anxiety disorder is a type of mental health condition where a person may respond to certain situations with fear. An anxiety disorder goes beyond the normal nervousness and interferes with your ability to function. People with anxiety often overreact when something triggers their emotions and cannot control their responses to certain situations.

Physical signs experienced may include sweating and a pounding heart beat. Other symptoms may include the feeling of nervousness, panic and fear.

As the body is preparing for “fight or flight” mode, cortisol is released. The release of this hormone can cause physical symptoms such as difficulty breathing, tense muscles, rapid heart beat, trembling, pain and bloating in your abdomen.

A heart attack and panic attack may share similar symptoms but key differences need to be noted to distinguish between the two.

Heart attack:

• Squeezing pain and pressure in the chest
• Sudden onset during or following physical activity (e.g. climbing the stairs)
• Pain that radiates to the arm, jaw or shoulder blades
• Pain and symptoms that get worse over time
• Shortness of breath
• Near fainting
• Sweating
• Nausea and vomiting

Panic attack:

• Increased or racing heart rate
• Sudden onset or onset during extreme stress or anxiety
• Pain that gets better over time
• Symptoms that resolve within 20 to 30 minutes
• Shortness of breath
• Sweating
• Tingling in the hands

It has been found that deep breathing helps to alleviate anxiety. Deep breathing is defined as the conscious act of taking slow, deep breaths. Inhaling air through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. When you breathe in, blood cells take up oxygen. As oxygen moves through the body, carbon dioxide is created and transported back to the lungs and released when you exhale. When people experience anxiety, they tend to breathe faster and this can affect the way oxygen and carbon dioxide is processed by the body. Increases in heart rate, breathing rate and blood pressure may occur. Deep breathing can activate the body's parasympathetic response which prevents these increases and returns the body back to a relaxed state.

If a person's anxiety starts to impede their ability to enjoy life, interact at school, work or any social environment or causes problems at home, it is time to seek professional help. It is important to encourage the person experiencing anxiety to make an appointment with a mental health provider. Important signs to look out for are when the person experiencing anxiety becomes socially withdrawn or isolated, has persistent negative thinking, feeling fatigued and tense in the body, inability to to turn off thoughts leading to sleep issues, medicating with substance abuse and panic attacks.

Stress symptoms affect not only your body but your thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Common physical stress symptoms include headaches, an upset stomach, high blood pressure, chest pain, problems with sex and sleep. Emotional stress symptoms include depression, panic attacks, anxiety and worry. Stress that is not dealt with can also lead to many serious medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

Common stressors that can lead to high levels of stress include high pressure work environment and jobs, financial difficulties, overcommitting to family and work related responsibilities, conflicts at home or work and not taking time out to relax.

Stress can be classified as short term or long term stress depending on what changes occur in your life. Short term stress can last for a period of minutes to hours, while long term stress or chronic stress persists for several hours per day for weeks or months.

The following risk factors may increase your risk of triggering anxiety:

Trauma: Children and adults who endure abuse or experience a traumatic event are at higher risk for triggering anxiety disorders.

Stress due to illness: Having a serious illness can trigger anxiety, especially if you are concerned about your treatment, future and financial burdens with hospitalization.

Stress buildup: A build up of a big event or smaller stressful situations can trigger anxiety such as a death in the family, work stress and financial worry.

Personality: People with certain personality types are more likely to be prone to anxiety such as perfectionists, having a timid nature and those who want to be in control.

Other mental disorders: It is often common for people who have other mental disorders such as depression to also have anxiety.

Having blood relatives with an anxiety disorder: Anxiety can be inherited from family members who have experienced this condition as well.

Drugs or alcohol: Frequent use, abuse or withdrawal of substances can cause or worsen the symptoms of anxiety.

Anxiety is classified as a type of mental health condition affecting up to 30% of adults at a point in time in their lives. Anxiety disorders are treatable and those suffering from this condition can still lead normal productive lives.

Feeling anxious sometimes is normal and part of life, however when these feelings are intense, persistent and there is constant worrying and fear about everyday situations, then this is more likely an anxiety disorder. This disorder often involves, repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reaches a peak within minutes. It's important to reach out to a mental health care provider to help confirm a diagnosis.

Extreme anxiety is not a clinical term or diagnosis, it is the way that people can describe the subjective experience of severe anxiety or an anxiety disorder. This includes extreme feelings of fear or anxiety that are out of proportion to the actual threat or irrational fear about different situations or objects.

Experiencing anxiety is common symptom during menopause and can make you feel tense and fearful. Anxiety can occur due to the estrogen and progesterone imbalance that occurs during perimenopause/menopause. This imbalance causes symptoms of anxiety, depression, irritability, mood swings, tense muscles and sleep disturbances.

The following foods should be avoided to reduce anxiety:

• Caffeine (coffee, tea and energy drinks)
• Sugary drinks and foods (cakes, chocolate and sweets)
• Processed foods (chips, biscuits, frozen foods and ready-made meals)
• Foods high in trans fats and saturated fats (fried foods, red meat, full cream dairy and baked goods)

Foods high in B vitamins which can help with the metabolism of cortisol (beef, chicken, eggs, fortified cereal and nutritional yeast).

Foods high in omega 3 which helps to reduce inflammation, therefore also lowering cortisol levels (anchovies, chia seeds, mackerel, salmon, sardines and fresh tuna).

Magnesium rich foods which help to relax the body and mind, reducing inflammation and metabolizing cortisol in the body (avocados, bananas, broccoli, dark chocolate, pumpkin seeds and spinach).

Foods rich in protein contain amino acids that help produce key neurotransmitters in preventing and treating anxiety and depression (almonds, chicken breast, eggs, lean beef, lentils, peanuts, quinoa, tuna, salmon and shrimp).

It is believed that regulating the gut microbiome (good and bad bacteria in the gut) may ease anxiety as the brain and the gastrointestinal system are closely connected. Certain foods may help to regulate and promote good gut health (greek yoghurt, kefir, kimchi, kombucha and sauerkraut).