“Stress can be defined as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. Stress is a natural human response that prompts us to address challenges and threats in our lives. Everyone experiences stress to some degree. The way we respond to stress, however, makes a big difference to our overall wellbeing.”
World Health Organization
This week is International Stress Awareness week and in 2025 the focus is on workplace wellbeing.
According to the Burnout Report 2025, a staggering 91% of UK adults reported experiencing high or extreme levels of stress, with significant implications for mental health and workplace dynamics. The Stress and mental health at work report by the HSE in 2023/24 found that an estimated 776,000 workers in Great Britain suffered from work-related stress, depression, or anxiety and 16.4 million working days were lost due to this, accounting for 46% of all work-related ill health cases. AXA also reports that work-related stress costs the UK economy £28bn a year.
So with these alarming figures in mind, what can we do to help manage stress both in and out of the workplace?
A useful tool in the management of stress are the ‘R’s of coping’. These are often known as the 5 R’s or 6 R’s but there are slight variations depending where you look. These steps generally follow the same principles to help with stress management and we are going to look at the basic framework:
Recognise / Rethink
The first step to managing stress is to recognise how you’re feeling. It’s easy to brush off your feelings, particularly if they are negative, but by examining your thoughts, beliefs and stressors it helps you recognise what you are dealing with.
Think a about what triggered the feelings, whether they are just temporary or if they are a deeper longer-term problem. It can also help to recognise any physical symptoms that accompany these thoughts such as pain, tension or digestive issues.
Relax / Regulate / Release
Once you have recognised your feelings you can now focus on physical strategies to relieve them and ease any tension they are causing.
This can include breathing techniques or meditation to calm the mind, massage to ease muscle tension, gentle exercising like swimming or yoga, and walking in nature to take in some sunlight and fresh air. Any activity that promotes calmness will help, and those that involve reflection such as journaling or talking to a trusted friend or therapist can also help to clear the mind.
Reassess / Reframe
After the initial steps or recognising your thoughts, regulating your emotions and putting measures in place to relax, it’s a good time to reassess the situation and identify the stressors in your life.
Think about what has triggered the stress – is it unhealthy relationships? Over commitment to tasks, work or social events? Was it a particular event or situation or something that has been happening over time?
Think about whether the stress was a ‘heat of the moment’ reaction and how you may cope differently if that happened again.
Reframing how you dealt with something can help to tackle it in a different way in the future. For example, if you had a challenging task at work, could you see this as a learning opportunity and evaluate how you might do it differently in future? If you had a problem in a relationship or friendship, take a step back and try to see it from the other person’s point of view. Does it make you feel differently?
Once the initial emotions have lessened and you have spent time relaxing and clearing your mind, it makes reassessing your thoughts and feelings easier, which then helps with the next step.
Respond / reorganise / reduce
Now that you have assessed what caused the stress and identified areas in your life that could be changed to minimise future problems, it’s time to respond and take steps to prevent stress arising again.
For example, can you improve your time management to prevent having to rush in daily life or meet tight deadlines at work? Look at how you can prioritise tasks to create a more balanced and manageable schedule. There may be simple steps you can take to make daily life easier such as preparing things for your day the night before so you are starting your day in a calmer and less rushed way.
If you have identified that you are over-committing in your work or personal life, is there anything you can cut back on? Remember it’s ok to say no to things to protect yourself.
If you have unhealthy relationships that are draining you or causing stress, think about how you can navigate these. Perhaps it’s a one-sided friendship where you seem to be putting in all the work to maintain it. Can you take a step back from them if they are not fulfilling you, or set stricter boundaries?
Planning your response to stress triggers can help lead to better outcomes and prevent hasty responses to stress triggers.
There are many different strategies for coping with stress but regularly working through these steps can help you to effectively minimise stress in your life and cope better when you are faced with a stressful situation both in and out of the workplace.
Managing stress is essential to enable you to lead a more balanced and happier life, protect your physical and mental health, improve your relationships and promote a better overall sense of wellbeing.
If you would like help with relaxation, have a look at our holistic treatments page, or check out our upcoming workshops. You can also learn about how bio-frequency may be able to help with your holistic wellbeing here.