Stress… From minor difficulties to major problems, stress is a part of everyday life. You can’t always control the situations that cause stress, but you can control how you react to them. In this article, we’ll discuss stress and the ways it can impact your experience of life. Then, we’ll outline ten ways to manage stress.
What is Stress?
Stress is both a physical tension and a mental strain. It’s the unpleasant feeling you have in reaction to a situation you feel is difficult to handle. We all feel stressed periodically. It’s part of being human. We face work pressures, relationship problems, health concerns, and never-ending to-do lists. All this can cause us to feel stressed out. When you are faced with these difficult situations, you need to be at your best. You need to stay calm, feel confident, make good decisions, and take action.
Unfortunately, the feelings of stress can derail you. Instead, you feel worried, distracted, or anxious. You are more likely to put off making decisions and delay taking action. You feel bad about leaving things undone. You become overwhelmed. So, you procrastinate further – making things worse.
Prolonged stress can take a toll on you physically too. When you tend to get stressed out often, your body may exist in an elevated state of tension most of the time. And that can lead to serious problems with your health. Constant stress can mess with your immune system and cause problems with your digestive and reproductive systems. It can increase heart attack and stroke risk, and speed up the aging process. It can even rewire the brain, making you more susceptible to depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions.
When we feel stressed, we may fall into bad habits as a way of coping. We might skip going to the gym or eat junk food. These habits usually just create more problems for us like fatigue or weight gain.
10 Ways To Manage Stress
While stress is unavoidable, there are ways to manage it and bring a sense of calm to your mind and body. When you feel calm, you’re able to think clearly and make better decisions. You’re more positive and able to see opportunities. You have the confidence to solve problems and take action. Here are ten things you can do to relieve stress and anxiety. Different circumstances may need different solutions. It’s a good idea to try several techniques and apply the one that works best depending on the situation. First, let’s look at things you can do for immediate stress relief.
1. Go for a Walk Outside
Spending time in nature can lower stress hormones like cortisol. It can lift your mood, and even improve your memory and attention.
If getting outside isn’t a practical option, try closing your eyes and visualizing a peaceful, natural scene. See yourself in a quiet forest or sitting on a beach watching the waves roll in and out. This will help you to relax.
2. Meditate
Meditation can create a state of calm and a quiet mind. It can be a fast method of relief to help you stop your body’s stress response and relax. If you make it a daily habit, it can help you build resilience to stress.
When you meditate, you focus your attention and stop the flow of thoughts that may be crowding your mind, causing worry and stress. By learning to relax your body and calm your mind, your physical and emotional stress can disappear. Leaving you feeling refreshed, and ready to deal with challenges with a positive attitude.
3. Listen to Music
Music is one of the best ways to manage stress and ease tension. Tunes with a fast tempo can make you feel cheerful and create a positive attitude. A musical composition with a slower tempo can relax your muscles and calm your mind. Classical music has been proven in many studies to diminish stress and tension.
4. Try Aromatherapy
Inhaling certain scents from essential oils may help to ease the stress you’re feeling. The most common method to use essential oils is to inhale them, either directly out of the bottle or by using a diffuser. You can also burn a scented candle or dilute essential oils with a carrier oil, like coconut oil, and apply it directly to your skin. Popular scents associated with stress reduction include lavender, bergamot, lemongrass, and jasmine.
5. Laugh
It’s almost impossible to feel stressed out when you’re laughing. Laughter causes physical and emotional changes in the body that help relieve stress and leave you feeling good. The next time you’re feeling stressed, indulge in anything that makes you laugh. Try sitcoms, funny movies, stand up comedy, or just spending time laughing with friends.
Now, here are some healthy habits you can develop to reduce your stress levels over the long term.
6. Practice Positive Self-Talk
Self-talk is the constant stream of unspoken thoughts flowing through your mind. Practice saying positive things to yourself.
Substitute unhelpful thoughts like: “I’ve never done it before. It’s impossible.” Change these to more supportive messages like: “This is an opportunity to learn something new. I’ll give it a try.” Having a positive outlook helps you cope with stressful situations better. This reduces the harmful effects of stress on your body.
7. Exercise Regularly
Almost any form of regular exercise, from walking to yoga or aerobics, can work as a stress reliever. Exercise and other physical activity produce the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins. Studies have shown that low to moderate-intensity exercise can decrease your level of tension. It can elevate your mood, improve your sleep, and even increase your self-esteem.
8. Make Healthy Food Choices
Emotional eating and reaching for processed junk foods with high-sugar, can provide a temporary sense of relief. But, this will add to your long-term stress. Refined carbs, like chips and cookies, can cause a quick rise in your blood sugar. Soon, your blood sugar will crash, leaving you feeling tired, anxious, or stressed. Eating a diet of healthy foods can help you fight long-term. Foods such as eggs, avocado, and walnuts help to regulate mood and balance energy.
9. Develop a Hobby
You might think that your life is too busy for hobbies or games, but these activities are a great way to combat stress. Anxiety levels decline when your attention is absorbed in an activity that you enjoy.
Try getting in touch with your creative side. You can paint, draw, or color in a coloring book. Do some scrapbooking or crafting. Maybe you like board games or puzzles. Whether you find joy in caring for a garden or you like making quilts, leisure activities and hobbies can be a fun way to relieve stress.
10. Look for Things to Appreciate
Focus on what’s going well right now. Gratitude and appreciation can help you to relieve stress and anxiety by focusing your attention on the positive things in your life. No matter how stressful things can get, you can find something positive in most situations. Make it a habit to look for things to appreciate or be grateful for. This may also remind you of all the resources and support you have to cope with stress, which can be empowering.
Conclusion: How to Manage Stress
We can’t guarantee that you’ll never feel stress. You will because it’s a part of living a life where you are stretching yourself, trying new things, making changes, and pursuing your goals. There will be pressures and even setbacks, but if you practice these techniques, you can recover quickly and not let stress get the better of you.
- Go for a Walk Outside
- Meditate
- Listen to Music
- Try Aromatherapy
- Laugh
- Practice Positive Self-Talk
- Exercise Regularly
- Make Healthy Food Choices
- Develop a Hobby
- Look for Things to Appreciate
Stay calm and remember how capable you are. You can handle anything!
Each of these 10 ways to manage stress requires you to develop new habits to make them a part of your everyday life. For more help with building habits, check out our recommendations on the Resources page.
Be sure to subscribe to our Newsletter to get notifications when we publish a new article or video.
