As stress consultants we talk about the ‘stress bucket’ a lot with our clients. Metaphorical ‘stress bucket’ that is. Just imagine that you carry around a bucket which slowly fills up every time that you experience a stressful situation. Maybe you are worrying about something or have other pressures such as financial problems, relationship problems, stress at work, etc…

Everyone has a stress bucket. Some people’s stress bucket is quite large and they find that they can handle a lot of stress, others are smaller and can’t take on so much. Your ‘stress bucket’ is the perfect size for you.

It’s important to have the optimal level of stress in your bucket to be able to function normally and to your full potential. Not enough and you will find it hard to get out of bed in the morning, to be motivated and want to try new things. If you let it fill to the top, it wouldn’t take very much to tip you over the edge and let it overflow, would it?

With a full bucket you are likely to feel burnt out, snappy and irritable, anxious, tired, perhaps down and tearful. This may lead to symptoms of stress such as sleep problems, depression, anger issues, anxiety, IBS, headaches, the list goes on and on.

So, it is important to firstly, recognise when our stress buckets are full and then do something about it……but how?

Well, it’s important to know that we have a natural way to empty our stress bucket, and this is during sleep.

Sleep is a vital part of good health and optimal function during your waking hours. As you get your much needed, revitalizing rest at night, your body goes through various sleep cycles. Each phase of sleep is important and beneficial to your body and mind, but REM sleep is especially fascinating because it increases brain activity, promotes learning, and creates dreams. REM (Rapid Eye Movement) is the lightest stage of sleep where your eyes will move and dart quickly beneath your eyelids. This exercises important neural connections which are key to mental and overall well-being and health.

This is great if you are getting the right amount of REM sleep but too much or too little isn’t going to empty your stress bucket enough. Our brains are so active during REM sleep that it takes a huge amount of energy and we should only be in this sleep state for 20 minutes at a time 4 or 5 times a night. Too much and we wake up exhausted, like we haven’t had any sleep at all and too little and we haven’t had a chance to process any emotional baggage we have been carrying around.

So it’s important to have a healthy sleep routine and also practice positive coping strategies which will help you produce the happy, healthy hormones needed to cope with every day stressors. Here’s some ideas:

Practice meditation or guided hypnosis
Exercise
Socialise
Read a book
Have a bath
Take a break
Learn a new skill
Relax in nature
Get creative
Listen to music

And if none of these things seem to work, ask for help!

It’s finding what works for you. Take five minutes now to reflect on the sorts of ‘leaks’ or positive coping strategies you might already have in your skillset to enable you to empty your stress bucket. It can be helpful to think back to a time when you found something stressful and reflect on how you coped with this. Often, we can underestimate the skills we already have in managing our own stress bucket.

So, find that thing that you enjoy and do more of it, or try something new. This will also help you to cope when times get tough because we all have them and that is part of life isn’t it? But it’s not just about coping, just think how amazing the good times can be!