Articles and Resources
Stress Reduction: Categorizing Your Self-Soothing Activity Collection
In addition to Coordinating the Cascade and Rock Creek Women’s Resource Centers, Rebecca and I (Kiera) each regularly teach a section of CG 145: Stress Management. Winter 2022 Offerings are listed in that section of the Newsletter. We wanted to offer a moment of self-reflection around stress in our lives.
When we talk about stress relief, we often think of what we can do to calm ourselves down in the moment we are experiencing stress feelings. We often pick an activity from our mental and/or physically documented list such as deep breathing, taking a slow drink of water, snapping a rubber band against our wrist, and/or a visualization meditation. These activities we do on our own to help ourselves are called self-soothing activities. Building up your collection of self-soothing activities is such a helpful stress management strategy.
Let’s be real for a second though: some stressors can’t be mitigated by even the most skilled deep breathing practice. We experience so much in our daily lives depending on our identities and social locations. In the moment, not every self-soothing activity in our collection fits perfectly with a situation or physical/mental manifestation of stress. It can be helpful to understand the unique ways that certain stressors manifest for you individually, the why of the stressor, how it shows up in your body and what helps.
- What is one of your biggest stressors? Is it school? Finances, work, family, traffic, health concerns, a friendship, or intimate relationship?
- What are the most common ways that stress shows up in your body physically and emotionally? Do you become tearful, irritable, or do you shut down? Do you stop sleeping, clench your jaw, or does your heart hurt?
- Do you notice that your stress response looks different depending on the stressor? For example:
- Unable to sleep the night before a test
- Become tearful when having difficult conversations with partners
- Notice you are irritable when you think of managing your bank account
- Clench your jaw in traffic
Recognizing these stressor-specific responses in advance can be helpful for a multitude of reasons but for this exercise in knowing ourselves, it can help to know which self-soothing activity to try before, during, and after.
What are your favorite self-soothing activities? Which stress responses do these self-soothing activities mitigate? Which big stressors do these stress responses usually pair with?
For me, I experience tightness in my chest when speaking up in a large group setting. It helps me to really focus on my breathing before, during, and after the stressor. It also helps me to take a drink of water before and during if I notice my chest tighten back up. The stress I experience when I think I can’t pay a bill on time. When it comes to finances, my stress response is to avoid it. That is an entirely different set of self-soothing tools.
Want to share yours or talk to someone at the WRC about stress? Contact us. If we can’t help, we will help you find someone who can!
Outreach and Advocacy Project Resource Share: Students Guide to Radical Healing
My name is Hayley Hayes (she/her). I am originally from Boise, Idaho, and am currently living in Northeast Portland with my partner, our puppy, and our cat. My passions include cooking, being in the sun and water, and working in the anti-violence field as part of a greater goal of dismantling sexism and challenging a society that overwhelmingly says “we don’t believe you.”
I’ve had the honor of working alongside survivors of relationship and sexual violence through 24/7 crisis lines, emergency shelters, and hospital response for the past 7 years or so. In my current role as a confidential advocate here at PCC, I work to meet students who are experiencing this type of harm where they are at through safety planning, connection to resources, emotional support, and more based on whatever students identify as helpful to them.
The resource I am sharing is a wonderful tool created by students at the University of Las Vegas which was created with the belief that everyone has an innate capacity to heal from trauma, and deserves to know that what happened isn’t your fault, and there are tools out there to support you. Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all for healing, but I hope this resource can help send the message that your trauma is valid. The holidays can be a tough time for many reasons, so if you find yourself needing a break or something to occupy your mind, take a peek at this resource and know that you are not alone.
Student’s Guide to Radical Healing
If you have experienced harm resulting from intimate partner/dating violence, sexual violence, harassment, or stalking, or have questions and want to talk to someone, you can contact confidential and privileged staff and advocates through the Women’s Resource Centers and Outreach and Advocacy Project. Hayley is one of them!