Cognitive self-care skills: a model for managing stressful lifestyles

Feeling overwhelmed or overloaded and frequently experiencing anxiety, anger, guilt, and/or frustration is preventable and amenable to personal control. It takes self-awareness and lots of practice to modify long established ways of thinking about one's self and others. It is often helpful to have someone who will support identified goals to improve stress-reducing resources; to help with developing a sensitivity to self-generated stress-inducing demands; and/or to rehearse cognitive stress-reducing, self-care skills. The cognitive self-care skills outlined herein are powerful stress-reducing resources that can prevent psychological stress and that can promote a sense of wellness.