10 top tips to help cope with stress

Stress is no joke and it can actually make you really ill.

Avoiding stress altogether is easier said than done and most of us will experience stress at some point in our lives. So knowing how to cope with it is the trick. Find out how with our top 10 stress busters.

1. Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the simple practice of being present and paying attention to what is going on inside us and around us. Studies show that mindfulness can help with mental health issues like anxiety, stress, and depression.

When you take out a qualifying life insurance policy with Vitality, you can get a 12 month subscription to Headspace for free.* The app, self described as “your mind's best friend”, can help you practise mindfulness, and much more. Below are just a few other ways you could make use of Headspace:

• "SOS” sessions for if you’re feeling stressed, anxious or panicky
• Mini-meditations to help with quick mental resets
• Hundreds of guided meditations on subjects like sleep, focus and exercise 
  
  

2. Acceptance and taking control

Getting a handle on how your emotions, accepting how you’re feeling and taking control of your stress can look like a lot of different things.

It could be figuring out what triggers high stress levels, seeking mental health support, reaching out to friends and family, or even removing/changing elements of your lifestyle that you know are making you stressed.

3. Stop bottling it up

Opening up to your friends and family just sometimes isn’t enough and if you feel like stress is taking over, it might be time to seek support. If you want to talk to a professional quickly, and you have a life insurance policy, you may have access to free mental health services.**

When you have cover with AIG, you can use their Smart Health services at no extra cost. Mental health support (including up to four counselling sessions) is one of the 6 free additional benefits that Smart Health provides.

4. You are what you eat

Life moves fast and when you’re overwhelmed or stressed, food can feel like a box to tick. But what we put into our body is fuel and it can have a huge impact on our overall health.

However, knowing what to eat, how much of it, and when to eat it can range from person to person. When you take out cover with AIG, you’ll have access to tailored nutrition plans, designed by expert nutritionists, for free. So whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, want to lose weight, or manage your cholesterol, just to name a few - Smart Health could help.

5. Please use your free benefits

Stress can come from multiple different avenues; financial worries, stress about your health, struggles with your mental health.

With modern day life insurance, most of the UK’s leading providers (AKA the ones we work with) offer free benefits when you take out cover with them.

Please make use of these benefits - they could prove more useful than you think. Here’s just a few of the top extras you could get with your life insurance;

• Access to 24/7 free GP appointments, online or on the phone
• Four therapy sessions a year
• Support from personal nurses, for a range of mental health problems
• Help and support from qualified therapists if you’re struggling with issues like trauma, anxiety and depression
  
  

6. Money, money, money!

The past few months have seen the words, ‘cost of living crisis’ rarely out of the news. Finances and money are a huge stress trigger for a lot of people (understandably) but if your financial stress includes life insurance, here’s why it shouldn’t.

When you come to Busy Bee for help with taking out life insurance, we’ll be here to support you throughout your term. Whether this is changing your cover amount to suit your affordability or advising a new type of cover that would better suit your lifestyle - we’re here to help!

7. Try to limit your screen time

Screens are now a part of our lives, whether we like it or not. But constant exposure to screens and devices isn’t good for us, and can affect our sleep and mood.

Plus, being constantly online means you can end up absorbing a lot of negative news, with many getting into a habit of ‘doom scrolling’ (consuming negative information on social media) which can trigger stress, anxiety, and feelings of depression.

Making sure you’re taking breaks from your screen regularly, especially if you use screens for work and being mindful of what you consume on social media are just a few ways to ensure that screen time doesn’t take over.

8. Get active

Being active seems to be recommended as a remedy for everything. But with good reason. Exercising can help pump up your endorphins (your feel good hormones), being consistently active has been shown to improve overall mental health and improve cognitive function.

When you take out a life insurance policy with AIG (one of the UK’s leading life insurance companies), one of the free services you can use to help with are tailored four or eight week tailored fitness plans created by sports coaches and expert nutritionists.

9. Prioritise self care

Putting yourself first and prioritising the little things that make you tick can be a great way to help prevent stress.

Self care can look different for everyone but as a general rule of thumb, making sure that you’re carving out time to focus on just you, is so important and looking after your mental, physical, and emotional health are the fundamentals.

10. Put pen to paper

Old fashioned it may seem, writing things down on paper, with no screens involved can be so cathartic.

You may feel instant relief as you focus on writing down your thoughts and feelings on paper. Whether you turn this into a hobby, use it as a distraction, or even use it as a way to document any patterns - journaling your thoughts could help with stress management.

What if you can’t cope?

There are simply times where you cannot cope, no matter how much you try.

Aside from using your free life insurance benefits (mental health support and/or 24/7 GP appointments), you could also make use of your actual life insurance policy. If you have an income protection policy in place, unlike other types of life insurance, it allows you to claim for mental health problems, as well as physical illness.

So if you find that stress is impacting your life to the point where you need to seek medical advice, and your doctor signs you off work for mental health, you may be able to claim on your income protection policy.

Also known as sick pay insurance, this policy can pay-out up to 70% of your monthly income, if you find yourself ill or injured and unable to work as a result.

How to choose life insurance

If life insurance baffles you and you have no idea where to start or what policy is right for you, then you’re in the right place.

At Busy Bee, we look at your circumstances, affordability, and get to know you. This way, we can find you the right cover, and hopefully give you the peace of mind you deserve. 



To kick start your life insurance journey today, click the button below to get started!

*Headspace reward is available on qualifying plans and is subject to T&C’s - https://www.vitality.co.uk/rewards/partners/healthy-mind/headspace/

** Free additional benefits are not contractual and may be removed at any time