What is troubling you? What is upsetting you? What is making you sad, anxious, angry, frightened or unheard? You might have a sense that life is not going the way that you want it to. Maybe a sense that there is more to life that what you are currently experiencing. Maybe a notion that you are experiencing some uncomfortable feelings. In particular I am referring to feeling which indicate stress or anxiety in your life.

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Sometimes the changes we face in life can leave us feeling stressed, overwhelmed, isolated or stuck, leading to anxiety, depression or relationship issues.

If there is one thing that is inevitable in life, it is change:

• We do everything we need to be successful, have a good job, great car, big house, perfect life but something is missing.

• Change that is forced upon us – changes at work, restrictions, loss, bereavement

• Maybe you really wanted that change – moving away, starting a family, divorce, changing your job, kids growing up, leaving home, but now…

“When it comes to positive life changes, the brain is still challenged to do something different,” says Dr. Srini Pillay. “Even if that change is positive, it can induce anxiety or uncertainty or a feeling of unfamiliarity and this generally precipitates habit pathways in the brain. Meaning as soon as you feel stress, you want to go back to old habits.”

Sometimes our stress shows up in our sleeping patterns - maybe you cannot get to sleep at night, or you go to sleep but then wake up and toss and turn in the middle of the night. Night time is often when we get a lot of our anxious thoughts - you have nothing else to do but lie there and worry! Your mind goes into overdrive and you start to imagine the worst possible situations. And most of us have an incredibly good imagination..... Avoidance might be fine, for a while - but eventually, our pain has a way of finding us. It is better to face our issues and understand what we need as soon as possible so we can become content again.

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If we are honest with ourselves we have those little signs that suggest we are getting stressed. Some of us may experience this physically - getting a lot of headaches, stomach problems or other bodily signs that something is not right. Others will notice it in our mood - I knew someone who said they always knew their job was getting on top of them when they went home and were in a bad mood and snapped at those they lived with.