Managing your feelings
There are resources and strategies to help you calm down, relax, and help manage stress, anxiety, or depression. Sometimes there isn’t a way to get rid of these feelings and there aren’t immediate solutions, but you can find ways to deal with them.
Avoid blaming yourself, being pushy, or judging someone who is going through mental distress. Some general tips:
- understand what you can and cannot control: if it’s a difficult assignment, you can learn how to plan your time better. If it’s someone in your whānau falling ill or an angry customer at work, know that this isn’t your fault.
- learn what triggers stress or anxiety so you’re prepared to deal with it in the future.
- take time to look after yourself: maybe it’s daily walks, turning off your phone for a few hours, setting aside time to relax by listening to music, seeing whānau, or getting enough sleep.
- participating in a community activity that can help you enhance your connections to others, build confidence in yourself, or feel a sense of belonging, such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
You can also try different ways to relax, such as meditation, mindfulness techniques. They’re often recommended by those who have been through the same feelings, but if you find that something isn’t working for you, know that this isn’t your fault.
Some resources include:
- Five ways to wellbeing: The Mental Health Foundation’s list of tips to help enhance your wellbeing
- Small Steps: a site with small digital tools for self-care techniques and ways to learn about your mental wellbeing
- Dear Em: a safe space and list of mental wellbeing resources for young women in Aotearoa
- Health Navigator: a guide on how to practise mindfulness
- Anxiety NZ: general resources for self-help and information about anxiety
- Depression NZ: information and resources, including self-tests and self-help for depression and anxiety
- All Right?: provides general resources on mental wellbeing and health
- Te Kaha: focused on helping rangatahi take care of their whare tapawhā