Hello! I’m Catherine and I blog over at Pushing the Moon. It started as a family lifestyle blog but now that my children are both at school I’ve tried to move away from the family element as much as possible – although they do occasionally, and only if they are happy to do so, pop up on the blog and my Instagram profile.
You can find me here:
Blog: Pushing the Moon
Instagram @pushing_the_moon
Twitter: @pushingthemoon
Facebook: Pushing The Moon
1.) Do you suffer with stress frequently or occasionally?
More frequently that I’d like to admit, if I’m honest. I’m being treated for anxiety at the moment, and that has forced me to take a good look at what elements of my life cause me stress.
2.) What sort of things cause you stress? Work, family, parenthood – no right or wrong answer, it can be anything.
To be honest it can be the smallest, most inconsequential, thing that can cause me the most stress. It just depends on how able I feel I can cope with the day when I wake up in the morning. What would normally be the easiest of school runs – the one where you got your shit together the night before where uniforms were laid out, bags packed etc – could turn into the most stressful 30 minutes of my week for the tiniest reason. And then in return – there have been occasions where I should be so stressed because even the most together person would feel like their world is crumbling in on them, yet I seem to sail through it and almost thrive on it. But put me in that same situation a week later and I might crumble. There really is no rhyme or reason to how stress affects me.
3.) Does anything in particular make stress worse for you? For example, workplace pressure or lack of understanding from friends/family that stress is a real mental health issue.
Yes. For me it’s noise and feeling like I’m not being given space to just breathe. I find the more stressed I get the noisier my environment seems to become (two rambunctious kiddies will do that!) and it brings on a brain fog that stops me from being able to think clearly.
4.) Does stress have an impact on your physical health?
Yes, very much so. If I start to feel like I described in the previous question then unless I can push through or find some space for myself then recently those moments of stress have turned into full blown anxiety attacks.
5.) What do you do to alleviate stress?
If at all possible I try to get a little bit of time to myself, and if I can go out into the fresh air to do it then even better. Going to the gym has also really helped me this year.
Other ways I try to alleviate stress is to try and prevent it from happening in the first place. I need to feel like I’m in control – or least feel as if I have my shit together just a little bit. I’ve written extensively about my love for Bullet Journaling – it has helped me to feel more organised, which in turn helps to reduce the stress somewhat.
Although, I have to admit that when I started suffering with this bout of anxiety I stopped journaling. I just couldn’t bring myself to even open my bullet journal. I did something similar when I was diagnosed with PND several years ago – I stopped blogging for 18 months or so. And it’s something I really regret, as I feel that writing about the depression and stress I was going through then may have helped me considerably.
I’m starting to feel much better in terms of dealing with my anxiety, so I have just started to use my bullet journal again, and it’s really helping me to feel more in control again.
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?
Yes, Absolutely. Stress can be the trigger that leads to so many other mental health issues. More needs to be done to push the conversation about stress into the open – even nowadays it’s seen as a sign of weakness to talk about your mental health. This needs to stop.
7.) Do you have any tips for anyone dealing with stress?
There are so many different things you could do which could help. Try to take some time just for yourself. Read. Use an app like HeadSpace to help calm your mind. Get out into the fresh air. Exercise. Drink a really nice glass of wine. Watch some trashy tv. Bullet journal. Bake. Turn your phone off – step away from social media for a couple of hours (this really does help!) But the thing I think helps most of all, once you feel ready to do it, is to just talk about it.
