Written by Melissa Schoeman and Elizta du Plessis.  

Mondia Corporate Care

18 September 2024

Challenges are part of life. We cannot always choose the type of challenges we are faced with, or the date of their arrival, but we can be proactive and choose how we react and deal with them.

We often seek advice or outlets when we are amid a challenging time.

Imagine going grocery shopping, and only when you reach the cashier, you stop to ask yourself if you have money available in your wallet or in your bank account to pay for the groceries? We don’t, as it is too risky to show up unprepared. So, we usually make sure to take cash or take time to budget and check if we have funds available for the purchase.

Stress management should be approached in a similar way. Its about taking time to ensure you deposit coping skills and positive experiences into your “stress management account”. This account or store gives you a resource to rely on during challenging times.

If we start looking for resources to rely on when the challenge is already there, it makes it so much more difficult to figure out what coping skills work for you, as you are already overwhelmed, and your brain cannot take in new information.

At Mondia Health, we believe in using the 8 dimensions of wellness to establish a “stress management savings account” for yourself.

There are 8 dimensions of wellness:

• Physical: Includes a lifestyle choice to ensure balance and being physically active in some way to avoid preventable diseases
• Social: Making time for healthy relationships, social stability, and peace.
• Emotional: Being aware of your emotions and motives, taking time to develop emotional intelligence.
• Intellectual: Developing your knowledge and skills to live a stimulating life.
• Spiritual: Give meaning and purpose to your life through connectedness with self, others, and a power greater than yourself.
• Financial: Creating a sense of security. Finding ways to life within your means.
• Occupational (work or school): Creating a healthy work-life balance, managing workplace stress, and building and maintaining relationships with your co-workers or peers.
• Environmental: Interaction with nature and being more aware of your personal environment and the impact of it on your mood.

Just like planning your wardrobe and getting dressed every day, we suggest waking up every morning and intentionally planning an activity to promote one or more of your 8 dimensions of wellness.  This will accumulate savings into your wellness savings account.

For example: if you have 20 minutes that you usually spend on or driving, you can stack habits and use that time to invest in one of your wellness dimensions. During that 20-minute drive, you might phone a friend over your Bluetooth car speaker and invest in social wellness or listen to an interesting podcast for your intellectual wellness.

Worst case scenario, if a challenge should surface the following week, you can phone that same friend for support, as they are already filled in on your life. Perhaps the podcast you just listened to had great advice you can now practice.

Personally, I have first-hand experience that waking up 20 minutes earlier, and starting my day with 20 minutes stretching, or planning my day, sets the tone for my entire day.  If something unexpected happens that day, I can borrow some of the calmness from the gentle stretching and day planning from that morning.

Here are a few activity ideas for each dimension:

• Physical: Jogging, Pilates, Stretching, ensuring enough sleep, Eating breakfast
• Social: Spending time with friends, attending social events, phoning out of town relatives
• Intellectual: Reading a good book, listening to a podcast, watching TEDx videos.
• Financial: Budgeting, preparing lunches at home (spending responsibly).
• Occupational: Planning your day ahead of time, drinking your coffee in a peaceful spot
• Environmental: Declutter your desk, take a walk outside, listen to birdsong
• Spiritual: Praying, meditating, volunteer work for a cause you believe in
• Emotional: Reflecting on your day, time for selfcare and keeping a journal.

Stress management is very personal. What works for one person, does not work for another. Make sure you experiment with your 8 dimensions of wellness. Make a note of activities that made you feel lighter and keep it as a ‘cheat sheet’ for ideas to fall back on when life gets tough.

Sometimes professional help is needed to develop your personalized stress management plan, or if your situation is exceptionally challenging. You can reach out for help by contacting one of our national hospitals: https://www.mondiahealth.co.za