From the moment you wake up, until you lay your head at night, you’re guaranteed to experience stress at some level. Though stress can be a helpful vehicle to drive progress, it can also be detrimental to your health.

Whether it's a personal challenge, work related pressure, or simply the demands of typical everyday life responsibilities like parenting, stress is an unavoidable part of your life.

And what’s also true is that without managing it well, stress has the capacity to take a serious toll on your mental and physical wellbeing. Stress left unmanaged can ruin your relationships and become an obstacle to you accomplishing your goals with any success.

However,...

Everyone is familiar with stress!

In fact, as a result of the hustle and bustle of modern life, stress has established itself as an all too familiar companion. Albeit an unwelcome one.

In this article, we'll dip into the interconnected nature of stress by exploring the relationship between our body's responses to stress and how they interact with our mind.

If, like me, you’ve ever felt incapable of managing stress, or overwhelmed by its weight and impact on your life, you’ll benefit from setting aside time to read on.

By understanding these connections between your body and mind and how they relate to stress, you'll be better equipped to manage and reduce the impact of stress....

Stress is a normal part of life. In fact, if you didn't ever feel stressed, I'd argue you're either a zombie or on a high dosage of something you'd be better off without.

But that said, make no mistake, without learning to manage stress, it can soon turn into a serious problem, especially when it becomes overwhelming or chronic.

When stressed, our bodies release hormones that can have a negative impact on both our physical and mental health.

Understanding the connection between your thoughts, emotions, and stress levels can be a game changer when wanting to manage stress more effectively. 

Why?

Because your thoughts about a situation can have a big impact on how you feel emotionally,...

In overloading our brain we limit our ability to perform.

This is why finding ways to manage how we use our brain and reduce the amount of stress we place on it, is important to our wellbeing and effectiveness.

Each day we’re faced with making thousands of decisions.

Some are mundane, like what cereal to have, whilst others are more serious, like whether to sell our home or undergo surgery.

Decision making is also taxing on our working memory - our ability to hold, process and use new information to guide our behaviour (Hall & Jarrold, 2015).

Similarly, as we use our decision making muscles, our ability to self-regulate and make sound choices reduces.

This results in an...

If you're considering working with a coach, it's helpful to know about the various types of coaching available. In fact, being aware of the types of coaching out there will make it easier to find a good fit.

Lots of people who enquire about working with me in a counselling capacity, also express interest in how I might help them in a coaching context too.

Consequently, I then explain the difference between counselling and coaching before helping them decide the best option for their needs.

Importantly, I first point out that coaching is not counselling. In fact, despite being aware of where they may overlap, in my mind there's a distinct difference...

People decide to work with a professional coach for all sorts of reasons. 

Some come to coaching as they want to gain clarity about the next step in their journey. Others because they feel stuck in their current situation and want to determine ways to move forward.

There are also those who want to accelerate their personal or professional growth and recognise the value of having someone in their corner.

Then others who want to get better at managing stress to improve their wellbeing and relationships, and just need some help in knowing how to get started. 

If you can relate to any of these common reasons, and you’re not currently working with a coach, then...

Though success may typically be attributed to intellect, strategy, talent or even genetics, there's one aspect of high achievement which can easily be overlooked... mental toughness.

But why does it matter? Well, it's true to say that your mind plays a huge role in how you navigate your day to day experiences.

In fact, how you think makes all the difference to how you see the world, yourself, and those around you. Your thought patterns even determine how you respond to and interpret stressful events.

So with that in mind, it's fair to say that if you want to succeed in life, giving some consideration to mental toughness will be in your best interest.

And if you don't...

If you've not yet managed to read, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Dr. Carol Dweck, I'd highly recommend getting your hands on a copy as soon as you can.

Throughout it's pages, Dweck, a Stanford University psychologist, defines two types of mindset; a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.

By her definition, if you have a fixed mindset, you'll believe your abilities are fixed, innate and unchangeable. In contrast, with a growth mindset, you'll believe you're able to improve your abilities with hard work and effort.

Whether in a personal or professional capacity, with these two definitions, it'd be fair to say we'd all benefit from developing a growth...

Our responses to feedback will vary. Some receive and welcome it, whilst others recoil at the idea of having someone else offer a view on an aspect of their life, conduct or performance.

Yet, despite how we feel, or how conscious we are of receiving it, we’re getting feedback all the time.

For example, as children (and in some cases adults!) a subtle glance may indicate where our table manners are below par.

Or on another occasion, we might receive a nod or smile whilst conversing, signalling the likelihood of agreement and affirmation.

Contrast this to someone frowning, wincing or nodding off and you’ll feel the difference.

Believe me, I’ve been there!

In each case,...

Do you ever hear people saying they struggle to set aside time for themselves because they're too busy? Or, how about describing "me time" as being self-indulgent or selfish?

Thing is, these ways of thinking are often associated with self-care. Which for many, can be an unhelpful barrier to taking better care of themselves.

Overview

Self-care is a conscious decision to act in ways that support and promote your health and wellbeing. A holistic approach will likely cover the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of your life.

Though varied, self-care can include more than just those commonly known activities such as exercise, eating well, meditating, and...