I nearly missed it — but Stress Awareness Month is too important not to talk about.
There seem to be days, weeks and months which commemorate all sorts of things these days and April is no different. I found out just yesterday that April is ‘Stress Awareness Month’ and this is something that I wanted to mark, and apologies that I’m late to this.
Why am I featuring this on my blog this week? Stress is something that affects us all, impacting both physical and mental health, relationships and our daily lives. According to MIND, Stress is how we react when we feel under pressure or threatened. It’s not always a problem, but sometimes it can be.
How stress shows up — and it can look different for everyone
It can show up at different times in our lives, and can look very different for each of us. For example, it may make you feel angry, anxious, overwhelmed or worried. It can also have physical manifestations, such as difficulty breathing, panic attacks, sleep problems, chest pains and existing physical health problems can get worse. For me, I tend to find that I get terrible shoulder and back pain, like I’m carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, and I can also develop hives, which need a course of antihistamines to treat the physical symptoms, but I still need to address the emotional ones.
This Year’s Theme: #BeTheChange
The theme of this year’s Stress Awareness Month, is #BeTheChange and we are encouraged to start with ourselves – looking after ourselves, managing our stress and causing a ripple effect of wellbeing.
Where to go for more information:
I encourage you to check out the website and to start your own conversations about stress https://www.stress.org.uk/stress-awareness-month-2026/
And if you have any tips on how you manage your stress, I’d love to hear them.