Stress is something we tend to feel when we are feeling under pressure, worried, tense, upset, sad or angry - often a combination of some or all these.
It's very common and we all feel stressed from time-to-time, in response to the challenges we face in daily life.
We all have different ways of coping with stress and it's important to find coping strategies that work for you when you start to feel stressed, to help you manage this.
If you are feeling stressed, the following resources might be able to help:
Lots of us experience stress when we have to take exams. This might be because you're worried about what grades you're going to get, worried about whether you're doing enough revision, or you may be feeling under pressure from your school or family.
Childline has some helpful advice around dealing with exam stress.
A self help guide from Mood Juice for adolescents on coping with stress.
We know that doing something we enjoy makes us feel good; what we often don’t stop to consider is how this can help us put our worries into perspective. Even simple things, no matter how small, can boost our connfidence, reminding us of what is important to us. Reflecting on the things we enjoy is a good way of starting to feel more in control of our life. It's not about ignoring problems, its about taking time out to recharge and refocus, so that we have the energy to carry on when things aren’t going as well as they could.
FunFocus is an activity to help you see just how important fun can really be!
Our problems and feelings don’t go away when we bottle them up; instead they can become more difficult to cope with, making us feel trapped and lonely.
Opening up and talking about our emotions can be hard, but it can really make a positive difference to how we are feeling. We often understand our issues better when we’re trying to explain them to someone else. It also helps the person we’re talking to better understand us; and they can help by suggesting new and different ways to look at the things that are worrying us.
Think Talk is a mind map exercise that can help you see the choices available to you.