Stress Awareness Month - April 2024
April is Stress Awareness Month, a campaign aimed at raising awareness of stress on our wellbeing, ways to reduce stress and improve mental health.
Little By Little
This year, the theme for Stress Awareness Month is Little By Little, A Little Becomes A Lot. This is the idea that taking small steps towards self-care each day can help to improve mental health over time. See attached the ‘build your own mental health house’.
What is stress?
Stress is the body’s response to increased pressure. Pressure can come from a range of sources such as work, home, education, illness, money or life-changing events for example. The causes of stress vary from person to person.
Stress can cause many different symptoms that can affect how you feel physically, mentally, and how you behave. Find out about symptoms of stress here.
Stress container
We all experience stress to some degree. Some stress can be good, it can push us to work hard. But too much stress can make us feel overwhelmed, and prolonged stress can eventually lead to problems. The stress container is a way to visualise this. Above the bucket are clouds – the things that cause you stress. These rain into the bucket and gradually fill it up. You release stress by doing things you enjoy or that help you to stress less. See attached Mental Health UK worksheet.
Resources & support:
MHUK - Stress Container Template
SAM - Building Your Mental Health House
Mind Tyneside and Northumberland
At the start of each week in April, we will be sharing information about stress and ways to reduce stress to improve mental health and overall wellbeing.
Information from Natnaree Kaewhin, Health Improvement Practitioner, Public Health and Community Services, Northumberland County Council
