Stress awareness month with Ruth Cartwright

It’s Stress Awareness month! If you haven’t seen my post here about Stress Awareness month and the stress awareness takeover, then go and check it out so that you can see what is going on! 

I am Ruth Cartwright and I blog over at www.craftwithcartwright.co.uk. Where I try and help women become Modern Homemakers, so that they can feel happy with their work / life balance.

I am fun loving mum to two boys. A part time teacher and a full time tea drinker.

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1.)     Do you suffer with stress frequently or occasionally?

In the past I did suffer with stress frequently. Since then I have change jobs and I get stressed a lot less often.

 2.)     What sort of things cause you stress? 

Work for me was the most stressful thing, I had a boss who was a bully and I was under constant pressure to improve grades for students. Teaching is not a profession to go into if you want to avoid stress!

 3.)     Does anything in particular make stress worse for you? 

Lack of support at work from colleagues made my work life almost impossible, I was so stressed at work that I used to come home and cry for hours. Thankfully my husband has always been so supportive. It was him that eventually encouraged me to leave the job.

 4.)     Does stress have an impact on your physical health?

When I’m stressed I tend to get tension headaches. At one point I was signed off work due to them and I’m sure they were all down to stress.

 5.)     What do you do to alleviate stress?

I talk to my husband, he’s great to just listening and letting me get it all off my chest before giving a few sensible pieces of advice.

6.)     Do you think more needs to be done to raise awareness of what causes stress and the impact it has on us and those around us? If yes, what would you do or like to see done?

I see every day the impact stress is having on my fellow teachers. More needs to be done to support the mental health of teachers. Support rather than further and further demands on them would help.

 7.)     Do you have any tips for anyone dealing with stress?

Find someone to off load onto. If that doesn’t help, getting outside in the fresh air and sunshine can really help me to forget some of the things that have been weighing me down.

Thanks Ruth! If you want to see more about stress awareness then please search ‘stress awareness’ to read all the posts throughout April.