JOY LANGLEY. - NAVIGATING STRESS;HOW TO FIND CALM DURING STRESSFUL TIMES

A Trigger Book

Published by Welbeck Balance

An imprint of Welbeck Publishing Group

20 Mortimer Street

London W1T 3JW

First published by Welbeck Balance in 2021

Copyright Joy Langley, 2021

Joy Langley has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners and the publishers.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

US eBook ISBN: 978-1-78-956275-0

UK eBook ISBN: 978-1-80-129045-6

Typeset by Lapiz Digital Services

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Note/Disclaimer

Welbeck Balance encourages diversity and different viewpoints. However, all views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this book are the authors own and are not necessarily representative of Welbeck Publishing Group as an organization. All material in this book is set out in good faith for general guidance; no liability can be accepted for loss or expense incurred in following the information given. In particular, this book is not intended to replace expert medical or psychiatric advice. It is intended for informational purposes only and for your own personal use and guidance. It is not intended to diagnose, treat or act as a substitute for professional medical advice. Professional advice should be sought if desired before embarking on any health-related programme.

www.welbeckpublishing.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joy Langley has worked for 15 years in the UK as an accredited BACP psychotherapist. She uses cognitive behavioural techniques (CBT) to support clients with issues around stress, anxiety, depression and overwhelm.

She offers online courses and face-to-face workshops, using recognised psychological tools and strategies to help you understand what triggers your stress and how to manage it.

She has worked with MIND for over five years, working with adults suffering from long-term mental health distress.

For more information, worksheets, templates and checklists, please visit:

www.joylangley.com/books/navigating_stress

www.stopfeelingstressedout.com/books/navigating_stress

facebook.com/groups/stopfeelingstressedout.community

www.linkedin.com/in/karenjoylangley

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES

Navigating Loneliness

Navigating Panic Attacks

Navigating Sleeplessness

To the synchronicity in the grand universe that took my only (larger than life!) 23-year-old son Riaz Jaye Kamat from this earthly plane because of bipolar, so I could evolve into the person I am today passionate about suicide prevention, mental wealth for men, and finding ways to protect the human spirit.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Have you picked up this book because you are feeling overwhelmed? Maybe you are worried about feelings of exhaustion, demotivation and anxiety; perhaps you feel you are experiencing burnout or simply that uncomfortable physical and emotional sensations are starting to scare you. It is most likely that you are under stress.

We all experience stress even the best life can be stressful. We usually associate the word with negative experiences. An intimidating boss or co-worker, petty arguments with family, unpaid bills piling up, political changes that affect your community, feuds with neighbours, job redundancies and more all these are external stressors on our lives. But we also have internal stressors: illness, anxious negative thinking and overwhelmingly powerful emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger, worry, doubt and panic.

If your ultimate goal is to understand, reduce and manage stress, you have come to the right place, because thats what this book is going to help you to achieve. If you are hoping to find a magic Zero Stress Pill in these pages, I am afraid you need to go to the fairy tale section because you might find it there with the unicorns and fairies. But if you come with an open mind and the mindset that you can reassess your attitude to stress and how you deal with it, then read on because I can help.

The raw truth is that it is impossible to have a stress-free life and, in fact, that wouldnt be altogether a good thing, as I will explain. Our bodys stress response is instinctive and, you may be surprised to hear me say, a pretty smart biological mechanism. It is part of what is commonly known as our fight-or-flight mechanism, assessing threatening situations and taking appropriate action to protect us.

At best, stress is a motivator that helps us get things done, achieve our goals, know when to ask for support, and help us avoid overburdening ourselves. At worst, it goes into overdrive and makes us so conscious of all the stressors in our lives that we become unable to cope with them.

What I aim to do is to help you recognize the stress triggers that are personal to you, and track the physical, psychological and behavioural reactions you experience as a result of those triggers. Being able to track your unique stressors allows you to achieve a number of benefits. If you work through the text and exercises in this book you should be able to:

identify the unique stressors in your life, both external and internal

learn how you react to those stressors, physically, mentally and behaviourally

understand how to lessen those triggers to avoid hitting your stress tolerance level

implement strategies to deal with your stress symptoms when they occur.

Using the practical strategies in this book, you can formulate a healthier, fresher mindset that will allow you to cope more confidently with everyday problems.

Stress Is Not the Enemy

You might have heard expressions such as stress can kill you, and perhaps you believe it to be true. But viewing stress in this way is not helpful. Stress is a natural and essential part of life. Sorry, its not going away any time soon. In fact, stress has great value. It is being over-stressed that is the problem.

What we need to do is radically rethink how we deal with stress and find a more responsible perspective. We need to make friends with our natural biological response, get to know it and learn to manage it so that we stop viewing stress as the enemy within and start to befriend it and respect it. We need to understand its good points and learn to manage the bad so that stress is no longer in control we take back control in order to instil a sense of calm confidence that we shall build greater resilience, tolerance and coping skills.

What Is the Stress Response?

At the heart of understanding stress is knowing what it is, why it is important and how it works. Stress is perfectly normal. We all experience both good and bad things in our lives; the stress response is simply the bodys instinctive way of identifying what might genuinely be life threatening.