Our “stress bucket” is a metaphor for how we manage stress. The idea is that the fuller our stress bucket, the more those negative anxiety-related symptoms start appearing. The stress bucket can be filled up by things like work, relationships, finances, and health problems. Generally speaking, any negative thoughts are likely to add to the stress bucket.
If our stress bucket gets too full, it can lead to physical and emotional problems associated with anxiety. These problems can include headaches, muscle tension, sleep problems, digestive problem, excessive worry, loss of libido and depression … as well as all sorts of other symptoms.
It is important to remember that everyone’s stress bucket is different. Some people have a larger stress bucket than others, so some people are better at managing stress than others. Some people manage their lives with high amounts of stress everyday; whereas others find it difficult to cope with even a small amount. It is not important how big your stress bucket is. However, you do need to learn how much stress you can cope with while still living a happy and productive life.
In order to avoid the symptoms of anxiety, we all need to lead our lives according to the size of our stress bucket. If we find the stress bucket is too full, we need to make adjustments to our lives. These adjustments can be big (like changing jobs) or small (like cutting down on social media use) – and it all depends on what is creating the stress in the first place.
It is useful to learn techniques for reducing stress. Generally living a healthy lifestyle – eating healthily, getting enough sleep and exercising and so on – all these will help.
I recommend to people that they get to know what their capacity for stress is, and adjust their lives accordingly. If you have difficulty doing this on your own, you can seek help through therapy or medication. If you want to give hypnotherapy a try, do contact me for a chat.
References
Articles on the Stress Bucket
https://mentalhealth-uk.org/blog/the-stress-bucket/
https://www.hey.nhs.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/OHC_StressBucket.pdf
Photo by Riin Aisent on Unsplash
