The types of stressors that can specifically be a problem for women include:
Work stress – workplace stress can be related to workload, personality clashes or work morale, and can become an issue if we choose to take it home with us each day.
Parenting stress – whether you have young children or teenagers, parenting is hard work! More and more women are juggling work with parenting which leaves little time in day to enjoy being a parent, and plenty of opportunities to feel guilty. Stop the guilt, know that your kids will survive if your house is untidy, and know that it won’t always feel as busy as it does right now.
Relationship Stress – if you’re relationship is going through a difficult stage, you can suffer with sleeplessness, lack of appetite and other symptoms which are all stress related.
Menopausal Stress – some women find menopause a straight forward transition, while others can struggle emotionally and physically.
Financial Stress – whether through job loss, relationship breakdown which leads to a property settlement or other financial issue, we all encounter financial stress at some stage of our lives. It is important to put any event into perspective. How will you look back at it in 5 years time? It will be but a minor bump in the road
Women can be especially hard on themselves if they feel they aren’t measuring up to the world’s expectations of them, or their own expectation of themselves. At the very least, most women want to feel they are measuring up to the expectations of their families, or of other women in their social network.
For some women stress management involves unhealthy patterns like alcohol, drugs or other built-in escapist mechanisms they have, like shopping, or random sexual encounters. For others, behaviours can border on life-threatening, and in some cases women feel that suicide is also an option as an escape from her high levels of stress, whatever the cause may be.
Finding healthy ways to deal with stress management for women include the following:
- Exercise / Yoga – physical exercise can work some of the held stress out of your body while also releasing endorphins to keep you happier and healthier.
- Meditation – put your stress into perspective, and naturally manage it through meditating.
- Talk to someone – friend or family, or a paid professional to act as a sounding board and let you know that you are not alone.
- Counselling /Therapy Groups or private counselling
- Do something that relaxes you – take a bath, work in the garden, read a book..you decide!
