Words by Smiley Team
According to the Mental Health Foundation, 74 per cent of adults in the UK have experienced feeling so stressed over the last year that they were overwhelmed or unable to cope. But the good news is that there is support available to combat that stress. To mark Stress Awareness Month, we spoke to best-selling author and founder of the Stress Management Society Neil Shah, about how best to cope with the complex issue of stress.
Today Neil is generally happy and relaxed, this wasn’t always the case. In his twenties, he was trying to hold together a failing multi-million pound IT recruitment business, at which point he found himself on the verge of a breakdown. He was so stressed that he became physically ill.
“I didn’t recognise it as stress at first,” he recalled. “I just felt a very great responsibility to the 35 or 40 people I was working with. I couldn’t think clearly, I was drinking. I just knew I wasn’t coping. So I went to the doctor who wanted to prescribe me medication. I ended up having a breakdown but it was off the back of that experience that managed to face some of my demons.”
After trying a variety of treatments that didn’t work for him, he began exploring ways to heal from stress by himself, which led him to create the Stress Management Society. Today, the organisation works with individuals and companies to reduce their stress and promoting wellbeing.
He explained: “A big part of our remit is to raise awareness around these issues. For us, it’s around looking at trends, how our day-to-day life experiences are changing and finding ways for people to cope with modern-day pressures.”
Stress Awareness Month is a significant period in the organisation’s calendar, especially due to the value of understanding stress.
“You can’t take action till you recognise the situation,” Neil said. “Stress leads to poor mental health as well as physical illness. You’re in a state that requires short term intervention. It’s like when you’re facing a tiger - your body wants to run away. To tackle stress we need to be mindful and change our approach to life. You can do anything mindfully, just by being aware of the sounds of the birds and the leaves and more generally being present in your daily activities.”
Founded in 2003, the Stress Management Society is a nonprofit organisation that helps people build awareness of and tackle stress. Their mission is to create “a happier, healthier, more resilient and sustainable world.”
If you are working to support good mental health and help people to avoid high stress levels, sign up as a member of the Stress Managament Society here.
