Looking after yourself
The reality of life is that it can be full of worries and pressures. While lots of stuff that causes us stress is out of our control, there are things we can do to look after ourselves.
Resilience is about how we deal with challenges, cope with stress, and recover from distressing situations. It’s sometimes called ‘bounce-back-ability’. You are probably more resilient than you think, and there are simple things we can learn to help us get through life.
Recognising worries
Being more aware of when we aren’t feeling great makes it easier for us to do something about it before things get too bad. When we’re not feeling good we might experience the following:
- Emotions including feeling low, stressed, worried, down, anxious, angry, scared, or irritable
- Physical sensations including your heart racing, butterflies in your stomach or feeling sick, breathing quickly, headaches, tense muscles, sweating, or feeling tired
- Thoughts that are racing, or constant worrying. Thoughts like, ‘I can’t do it’, ‘I’m useless’, or ‘Nobody likes me’
- Behaviours (the way we act) including avoiding things or people, snapping at people, eating too much or too little, sleep problems, using alcohol or drugs
These are all completely normal things to experience, and noticing them means you can take steps to improve things.
Look at the following pages in this section for ideas about how you can feel good.