The following piece was contributed by Catriona Kirwan from Catriona Kirwan Coaching. Catriona is a high impact personal coach and the Evolve Marketing team were delighted to both speak to her and get her thoughts on stress in our lives. To get in touch with Catriona and learn more about what she does and how she can help you, please visit her website or send her an email at catriona@catrionakirwancoaching.ie.
Below, Catriona speaks about how we can better recognise if we are in a stressed state in our daily lives.
“Very often when we spend a lot of time in a state of flight or a stressed state, we begin to normalise it and ignore the signs. It is important, therefore, to regularly check in and ask ourselves if we recognise any of the signs here.
- Shallow breathing, from the tops of the lungs only.
- Increased heart rate.
- Tight muscles especially around the neck or shoulders or jaw clenching.
- Our digestive system can feel a little off leading to stomach and bowel symptoms.
- A feeling of tiredness a lot of the time but still not being able to sleep well.
- Reduced immunity which often leads to continually picking up minor illnesses.
- When in that state of fight or flight, creativity and problem-solving skills are reduced. Our ability to think on our feet is diminished so trying to work like this over a long period of time, is counterproductive as our productivity is vastly reduced.
- What we need to do at that point is walk away from the desk and try some breathing exercises or go out for a short walk or try a short meditation.”
