LIFE & HEALTH CHALLENGES
Stress
Have you noticed yourself feeling a little stressed or overwhelmed lately? Maybe you’ve been struggling to get a restful sleep, or you’ve noticed some changes in your appetite.
If you’re feeling stressed and are finding it difficult to navigate back to a sense of peace, we can make a profound difference in your life.
What is Stress?
Stress is an essential part of our lives. It’s the fight or flight response when a challenge arises. It’s not necessarily a bad thing and small amounts of stress could be quite helpful to meet a challenge or deadline as it could help to stimulate productivity, energy and creativity.
However prolonged periods of stress can be quite damaging to both our physical and mental wellbeing, especially when we feel like we have little or no control.
Symptoms to look out for
Everyone experiences and responds to stress differently. What one person finds stressful, might feel like a walk in the park for another person. There are several factors that influence the way in which we respond to stress like our cultural upbringing, personality, physical environment and the support network we have in place.
Here are some common signs of symptoms of harmful stress:
- Headaches, aches and pains
- Disturbed sleeping patterns or oversleeping
- Fatigue
- Upset stomach/diarrhoea
- Muscle tension
- High blood pressure
- A weakened immune system
- Feeling overwhelmed or out of control
- Feeling anxious or worry
- Difficult concentrating
- Lack of motivation
- Loss of appetite (undereating) or increase in appetite (overeating)
- Feeling moody or irritable
For more symptoms of stress, see Toolkit below.
Immediate help
- Call 000 if your life is in danger
- For crisis support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14
- Speak with your GP or other trusted and qualified health professional
- Beyondblue website contains many useful forums and resources
Toolkit
Some of these practices can help you to calm your mind and improve your wellbeing and can be found on our toolkit page:
- Keys to help you sleep better
- Meditation practices
You may also find some of Petrea King’s Podcasts useful to listen to.
Wellbeing resources
- Wellbeing books Including Your Life Matters by Petrea King – a guidebook for life
- Meditations including Be Calm, Sleep, Learning to Meditate
Related articles
- Befriending Stress
- Workplace stress – what helps
- Managing stress – what helps. Part 1
- Managing stress – what helps, Part 2
- Dealing with Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD)
Online courses: Befriending Anxiety, Beyond Burnout and Healing Sleep
Our Self-Paced On-Demand Online Courses – Befriending Anxiety; Beyond Burnout and Healing Sleep – are delivered over 4 video modules and provide practical, positive and easy-to-follow guidance and advice. They encourage and help you to identify and implement strategies to build your resilience, and to incorporate these into your own personal plan for each course.
Befriending Anxiety, Beyond Burnout and Healing Sleep courses cost $99 each (or $250 for all 3) and include:
- 4 self-paced Video Modules
- Integrated workbook with reflective questions
- Personal Plan template and guide
- Additional resources – research and links
- Downloadable meditation MP3s
How Quest for Life can help
If you’re feeling stressed and are finding it difficult to navigate back to a sense of peace, we can make a profound difference in your life. Quest can help through our residential programs, online courses, and workplace workshops.
- Our 5-day residential Healing Your Life program provides you with a wealth of practical skills and strategies for overcoming stress in a confidential and safe environment.
- Our Self-Paced Online Courses – Befriending Anxiety; Beyond Burnout and Healing Sleep – provide practical, positive and easy to follow guidance and advice. They encourage and help you to identify and implement strategies to build your resilience, and to incorporate these into your own personal plan for each course.
Quest for Life knows how to help: our internal research results show that participants feel better after attending a program and that this improvement increases over time. On our programs, you’ll be nourished, educated and supported to create an environment for profound healing.
If you would like help to manage your stress, fill in the Contact Form below and one of our Program Advisors will be in touch to answer your questions or to ascertain the most appropriate program for your needs.
“It was great to pause from my regular, hectic life. I feel a sense of calmness. I feel soothed and present. All the facilitators and support staff were caring but never invasive. They are very aware of participants needs and respectful of our stories.”
– Serena
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