National Stress Awareness Week

One of our core values at Red Balloon is wellbeing, especially mental wellbeing. Because we focus so much on improving the mental wellbeing of our young people, we want to highlight that today begins International Stress Awareness Week.

According to ISMA, “International Stress Awareness Week is a major annual event focusing on stress management and campaigning against the stigma associated with stress and mental health issues.”

At Red Balloon, we know how harmful mental health stigmas can be and are sharing our thoughts on the conversation IMSA is starting about stress and mental health.

How we can all help people who face mental health challenges

We all feel stressed at times. We can feel stressed over little things, big things and everything in between. It’s important to recognise when you are stressed so that you can alleviate some of the mental burden that has been put upon you.

Especially in our fast-paced and chaotic world, stress is all too common. Mild, short-term stress might help you complete a paper before the deadline, but long-term, chronic or very intense stress is detrimental to our mental and physical health.

Recognizing and acknowledging stress is incredibly important. If we don’t acknowledge we’re stressed it doesn’t mean we’re not experiencing the stress; it usually means it’s just impacting us in an unchecked way – we might snap at people we care about, make rash decisions or do impulsive things.

If you notice that you’re often stressed, face intense bouts of stress or your stressful periods last a really long time it’s important to make some adjustments because this could contribute to poor mental and/or physical health as well as impacting your work and quality of life.

Making adjustments to lower your stress is not weak and does not mean you are incapable of dealing with difficult situations. In fact, recognising stress and making adjustments leads to better dealing with difficult situations and making more sound decisions, all while being mentally and physically healthier.

When we leave stress unacknowledged and unchecked it can contribute to depression, anxiety, anger issues, substance abuse or other mental health conditions, as well as affecting your sleep, skin, muscle tension and other physical manifestations like headaches or stomach problems.

At Red Balloon we want all of our staff and students to be the happiest and healthiest versions of themselves. This creates the best conditions for learning, working and living! We don’t think experiencing stress is bad, in fact, we think it’s quite normal. But we want our staff and students to have the tools to recognize it and alleviate or cope with it in healthy ways.

For more information about coping with stress, IMSA has helpful resources.

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