H.A.L.T. How to Cope with Stress

HALT


Stress is a part of everybody’s life. The question is, how well do we cope with it? There are a lot of strategies to cope with stress. This video covers some tools to not only cope with stress but to prevent being stressed in some circumstances. 


You may have heard of the acronym H.A.L.T. before. If you have, please comment on how following the strategy has helped or how not following it has increased your stress. Halt stands for the following: 


H = Hungry: When we are hungry and not eating healthy, we are more prone to the effects of stress. It is not uncommon to be more “cranky” when we are hungry. Help yourself deal with or prevent stress by eating regularly and eating healthy. 


A = Angry or any intense painful emotion such as depression, anxiety, worry, fear etc.: When our emotions are intensified, we usually end up reacting to situations and not responding. It is important to learn effective emotion regulation skills when dealing with stress. 


L = Lonely: Having a lack of connection or positive support in our life can make coping with stressful situation much more difficult. We may have a lot of people around us, but if we do not feel a connection with them and supported by them, life challenges can be much harder to bare. Work on strengthening the important relationships in your life. 


T = Tired: Lack of sleep and or lack of quality of sleep can deeply effect how we handle the stress in our life. Sleep problems effect more people than we realize and it really can create more stress in our lives. Be willing to change your sleep patterns if you are not getting the sleep you need. 

Questions to Consider: 
1. How has being imbalanced in any of these made it more difficult to cope with the stress in your life? 
2. Which one(s) could you be more balanced in? 

Challenge: 
Choose the one you struggle with the most and set a goal to do better in that area.