You will easily find many tips to deal with stress on the web. But, today I am sharing some of my personal experiences with you to make you feel seen and heard. Because the truth is we all have been there. It’s normal to feel stressed out in difficult situations and circumstances.
Stress is how your body responds to different challenges in life. Your emotions are triggered by different events in life. From small daily habits to major changes, stress is your response to what’s happening around you.
Stress is good when it happens occasionally. It keeps you alert to avoid danger and motivated to take on challenges in life. But, regular and excessive stress has a lot of effects on your health. It can make you sick and lead to severe health issues in extreme conditions.
Constant stress leads to physical symptoms like headaches, an upset stomach, high blood pressure, chest problems, sleep problems, and even problems with sex. Mental health problems related to stress include emotional problems, depression, panic attacks, and other forms of anxiety which indirectly affect your body as well.
It is important to handle stress in a way that doesn’t take a toll on your health. Whether physical or mental, the long-term effects of stress on health can be challenging. Thus, here are some tips to deal with stress in your everyday life.
9 Simple Tips to Deal with Stress in Your Everyday Life
1. Eat and drink well
This will sound like the most cliche of all the tips to deal with stress, but it’s true. What you eat today prepares your body for tomorrow. Your stress levels are closely related to the food you eat. Stress often leads to overeating or alcohol consumption. People mistake these harmful activities to be stress busters and they cannot be more wrong. While these activities feel like a solution, they add to the stress in the long run. Ultimately, it all comes down to eating and drinking a healthy and balanced diet.
2. Move your body regularly
We are not sedentary creatures. But unfortunately, our lifestyles have made us one. It has taken us away from our nature. Movement and exercise do not only support your physical health, but they also have a positive impact on your mental wellness too. Working out regularly is a great way to relax your mind and body. It improves your mood and acts as an effective stress reliever. Exercising enhances the flow of your bloodstream. This releases endorphins, the hormones that are responsible to make you feel better and continuing your positive attitude.
3. Practice relaxation techniques
Relaxation techniques are nothing new. They have existed for the longest time. Taking some time out every day to relax helps in effective stress management. It also protects the body from the aftereffects of stress. There are a lot of relaxation techniques for you to choose from. Deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and meditation are only some of them. You can also try including essential oils in your daily routine or go for aromatherapy. Along with their healing and rejuvenating benefits to release stress, they are also great for your skincare.
4. Eliminate the triggers of stress
In his book Atomic Habits, Jame Clear talks about breaking a habit by removing the triggers that cue the habit. It works the similar ways for stress. Stress is how you respond to the cues (situations) you get. An ideal approach is to eliminate these cues. Some of the most practical ways to do this are by practicing time management skills and taking out time for yourself. Self-care is the most important stress reliever. It’s personal and it’s different for everyone. Whatever it looks like to you; skin care, gardening, movies, family time; practice it at your pace.
5. Take control of your thoughts
Apart from external situations, sometimes our thoughts are the cause of our stress. Hence, along with adjusting the outside factors, it is important that we assert ourselves too. This includes a lot of things. Aligning your actions with your beliefs, investing your energy into activities that serve your values, saying no to people or situations that don’t make sense to you anymore, setting realistic goals for yourself, acknowledging how far you have come and everything you have achieved and built a healthy sense of self-belief is some of the things, to begin with.
6. Develop a sleep routine
Your sleep hygiene plays a major role in dealing with stress in your everyday life. Regular stress often leads to a disruptive sleeping schedule which again leads to stress. With this, the brain and the body are stuck in a vicious cycle of stress and no sleep that only gets worse with time. And the only way to break this cycle is by developing and sticking to a sleep routine. To improve your sleep schedule the first step is to stay consistent and go to bed at the same time. Some other tips would be keeping your gadgets away and maintaining a dark room.
7. Make music a part of your life
Next on the list of tips to deal with stress is music. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by constant pressure around professional commitments and personal responsibilities. Music helps by lowering blood pressure and reducing the secretion of the stress hormone called cortisol. Thus, it is advisable to deal with stress with music. From all the different genres, choose what you like and take a break to just be around the melodies for a while. Listening to sounds of nature like waves of oceans or the cooing of birds also have relaxing effects to calm the mind.
8. Surround yourself with supportive people
Under stressful circumstances, sometimes all you need is someone to vent it out. As much as all the tips to deal with stress are listed above, it is important to surround yourself with supportive people. Let’s be honest, there’s already a lot of hate and drama in everyone’s life. You cannot afford to put your sanity at stake by being a part of an environment where you experience any negative emotions. Peace of mind is a new luxury. Thus, you need people who help you feel good and positive about yourself and not otherwise.
9. Laugh it off
They ain’t lying when they say, “laughter is the best medicine”. Laughing releases endorphins which are the body’s natural pain and stress relievers. They improve your mood by decreasing the levels of cortisol and adrenaline (stress-causing hormones). Whenever you find yourself in an extremely stressful situation, you can cope with it by watching your favorite comedy movies. If the circumstances permit, you can also choose to attend live comedy shows. Another option is to try laughter therapy. Laughing tricks your nervous system into making you feel good.
Conclusion
Stress is inevitable. It’s a part of your life. You can neither avoid it nor can you ignore it. Long and untreated stress results in chronic physical or mental health problems.
The good part is stress is manageable as long as you take a preventive approach toward it. These tips to deal with stress are meant to do the exact same. With patience and the right approach, you can manage stress with wellness and self care.
Be it physical or emotional, the symptoms of stress can be both evident and inevident depending on the circumstances. Thus, it is important to learn healthy ways to cope and get the right care in time.
I hope these tips resonated with you and will help you to handle stress and the situations that lead to it.
Now that I’ve shared my views, what are some of your go-to stress busters? Do share them in the comments.
I’ll see you next week !!!
