What Is Stress Management Mentoring and How Can It Help You?
Have you ever had a mentor before? Someone who has helped guide you through a specific aspect of your life?
Perhaps it was someone in your career who was several steps ahead of you and led you to where you are now. Or maybe it was someone you looked up to in a certain skill or hobby who made it easier for you to get better in that skill faster. A past mentor might even be a role model for you now…still inspiring you to be your best self.
But did you know that you can also have a mentor to guide you in living a more stress-free life? Learning to relate to stress differently is a skill. But with guidance, it’s a skill that anyone can become better at - even if you feel like you’ve always been a stressed-out person.
Here we take a look at the benefits of mentorship, how it differs from coaching, and what stress management mentoring could do for you.
What is a mentor?
A mentor is someone who shares their experience and skills to help you achieve your goals in a particular aspect of life. A mentor can provide personalized and objective advice that can move you closer in the direction of where you’d like to be.
And because a mentor has been in your shoes before, they can help you save lots of time and headaches without you having to do all the learning yourself.
The best mentor is one who has been where you are and is steps ahead of you in terms of what you’re working to improve. That may be a specific skill, habit, or a way of showing up in daily life.
Mentors help you apply important skills to daily life
Perhaps you’ve always wanted to learn a skill but no matter how much you read about it, you feel like you’re not able to fully get the hang of it?
That’s because it’s one thing to learn about something (like reducing stress) from a book, audio, or video course. But it’s a whole other thing to integrate this knowledge into your life and apply it when it counts most.
Integrating new skills into daily life can be difficult to do on your own because:
Other responsibilities and challenges often get in the way
There are too many resources out there on a topic and you don’t have time to browse through all of them to find what best suits you
There might be unconscious beliefs or blind spots holding you back (but you can’t see them)
A mentor can become the perfect partner to help you get to your goals because they’re able to help you overcome the common obstacles to integrating new skills into daily life.
How is a mentor different from a coach?
When considering working with someone to help you manage stress and anxiety in your life, you might wonder how to pick the right professional to work with. Should you choose a mentor, a coach, or a counselor?
A mentor is great when you want someone guiding you through challenges with proven tips that work and can easily be applied to your specific situation. A mentor can help you uncover new ways to build positive habits while offering actionable guidance to move you forward.
Mentoring, unlike coaching, is usually not based on any specific framework. This might make it more flexible in terms of the guidance you’re able to receive so it can be more customized to your particular needs.
A coach can help you go within to find ways that you can help yourself. Compared to a mentor who might be sharing insights based on their experience, a coach might pose questions that give you the space to reflect and do more of the talking.
Like a mentor, a coach will generally help you reflect on patterns that might be keeping you stuck so you can resolve them. Unlike a mentor, however, they might have a specific framework as a recommendation rather than creating a highly personalized plan of action.
Apart from mentors and coaches, you can also address stress with the help of a counselor. A counselor is typically a licensed mental health professional such as a psychologist or psychotherapist who helps you find solutions to emotional challenges through psychological methods. This can include exploring past or present problems through interviews and therapy sessions.
7 ways a stress management mentor can help you
While most of us experience stress at many points in our lives, we’re rarely taught how to manage it. While there are many ways to decompress and relax in the short-term, learning to intentionally create a less stressful life takes time and practice.
That’s why it can be invaluable to have someone alongside you, guiding you every step of the way until living with calm in your body and mind feels natural.
A stress management mentor is a mentor who guides you specifically through navigating the stress and anxiety of daily life so you can experience greater mental and emotional stability, enhanced relationships, and greater health and wellness.
A stress management mentor can help you:
Navigate uncertainty with ease - A stress management mentor can support you through difficult periods of transition in your life to reduce the stress associated with these changes.
Build positive mental habits - With a stress management mentor, you’ll know how to build the habit of living from a space of relief, confidence, and resilience by relating to life’s stressors differently.
Be supported along your growth - A stress management mentor can provide a space of encouragement, accountability, and motivation to help you achieve your goals without burning yourself out or putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.
Set clear goals and intentions - When you don’t know where exactly you want to go, it can feel impossible to get there. A stress management mentor can help you set clear goals and intentions based on what’s important to you.
Stay accountable to your wellness - One of the hardest things about achieving goals can be holding yourself accountable. A stress management mentor can provide the fuel to help you keep going…especially when challenges come up that bring you into old habits of stressful or anxious thinking.
Gain confidence in your strengths - A stress management mentor can help you gain greater confidence by pointing out what you’re doing well, allowing you to see the strengths that you normally might have overlooked. When you recognize your strengths, it makes it easier to stay motivated even if you might occasionally need to make small adjustments to your path.
Learn from mistakes - without having to make them yourself. One of the best ways to learn in life is through what many people call “mistakes.” Even these are ultimately stepping stones to success…but if you can take less steps toward your target with less stress, why wouldn’t you? Your mentor has often been through their share of mistakes which they can share with you, so you don’t have to go through them yourself.
Work with a stress management mentor who’s been there
Whether you’re going through personal stress, work-related stress, burn-out, or anxiety, working with a stress management mentor can help you find relief and regain energy to achieve your most important goals.
As someone who’s personally gone through a range of different types of stress in my own life, I’ve successfully applied the stress management techniques I teach to many different types of situations for myself and my clients.
In addition to providing you with the guidance you need to better manage stress, I also bring you tools from the fields of mindfulness, massage therapy and the music industry to help you feel great in your mind and body!
Schedule a complimentary 30-min stress management consult to chat about ways we can work together to bring more ease into your life today!
