Ways To Stop Stressing In Seconds
Summary
Running a small business means doing it all, and that can lead to plenty of tension and anxiety. Here are some simple steps to keep your nerves in check.
Life is stressful, especially if youre an entrepreneur or running a startup. Thats why sugar, caffeine, high-fat snacks and comfort food are so popular. The thing is, that junk doesn’t detract from your stressit only adds to it. Me? I eat a lot of ginger, I run and eat healthy, but Im not immune to stress. The techniques below help me force me to relax and chill out when I over schedule, under sleep and freak out.
1. Breathe. Yep, we all do it until were dead. But most of us dont do it right. Stress tends to make us shallow breathers. When youre stressed, stand up and take long, slow, deep breathsthe kind you take before jumping into a swimming pool of cold water or before giving your kids the sex talk. Slow inhale, slow exhale. Do this at least five times. If you get dizzy, sit down. Youre probably not used to that much oxygen.
2. Laugh out loud. If theres nothing funny in your life or office, turn to YouTube. Search on Cats, Fail, or Epic Face Plant. Youll find lots to laugh out loud at. If youre not near the Internet, think about something funny.
6. Plug in. The right music can calm any stress. Dont turn on heavy metal or something raging that youd workout to. Try something more mellow and happy, or something that reminds you of good times. Relax into it.
Break Out The Bubble Gum
Feel like you’re becoming unglued? Grab a stick of gum. Research suggests that chewing gum can help relieve both stress and anxiety. It may be that the rhythmic motion of chewing helps boost blood flow to the brain. An alternative theory suggests that it’s the taste and smell of the gum that elicits the relaxation response. Next time you think, “I can’t stop stressing,” grab a stick of gum as a stress relief technique that is inexpensive, effective, and you can do it virtually everywhere.
Recognising Your Stress Triggers
If you’re not sure what’s causing your stress, keep a diary and make a note of stressful episodes for two-to-four weeks. Then review it to spot the triggers.
Things you might want to write down include:
- the date, time and place of a stressful episode
- what you were doing
- a stress rating
You can use the diary to:
- work out what triggers your stress
- work out how you operate under pressure
- develop better coping mechanisms
Doctors sometimes recommend keeping a stress diary to help them diagnose stress.
Recommended Reading: How Can I Measure My Stress Level
What Are 3 Causes Of Mental Disorders
What causes mental disorders?
- Your genes and family history.
- Your life experiences, such as stress or a history of abuse, especially if they happen in childhood.
- Biological factors such as chemical imbalances in the brain.
- A traumatic brain injury.
- A mother’s exposure to viruses or toxic chemicals while pregnant.
What Are The Signs Of Stress

We all deal with stress differently, but stress does affectall of us emotionally and physically. Here are a few signs:
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Some people who experience severe stress can sometimes havesuicidal feelings. In fact, The Mental Health Foundation found 32%of adults said they had experienced suicidal feelings as a result of stress.
There are ways to help you deal with it!
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What Can We Control
It’s important that you focus on what you can control. Without getting too deep about freewill and whatnot, here are a few things that you’re able to control.
- Your mindset. While there are some aspects of your personality you cannot change, you can train your brain to be more mindful, empathetic, and open to new ideas.
- To an extent, your health. You can choose to eat right and exercise. Certain life circumstances can make this easier or harder, but for the most part, it can be done in the end.
- Your skills. You can learn new skills for a job and go on a journey to the career of your dreams.
- Your thoughts. Using mindfulness or cognitive behavioral therapy, you can learn how to acknowledge that your thoughts are there and not let them control your life.
- Who you choose to associate with. While you can’t control your family, you can control your friends and who you decide to talk to.
Put Yourself In A Position To Have More Control
If possible , put yourself in a position to have more control over the situation.
For example, lets say you want to get a promotion. But your company isnt giving you one because they dont want to pay you more.
One option is to get more control of the situation, by looking for another job. And then either taking that new job or possibly negotiating for a counter offer.
Read Also: How Do You Know When Your Stress Level Is High
Coping With Stress At Work
Working hard should not be confused with overworking at the expense of relationships and physical health.
Coping with stress at work.
Everyone who has ever held a job has, at some point, felt the pressure of work-related stress. Any job can have stressful elements, even if you love what you do. In the short-term, you may experience pressure to meet a deadline or to fulfill a challenging obligation. But when work stress becomes chronic, it can be overwhelmingand harmful to both physical and emotional health.
Unfortunately, such long-term stress is all too common. In fact, has consistently found that work is cited as a significant source of stress by a majority of Americans. You cant always avoid the tensions that occur on the job. Yet you can take steps to manage work-related stress.
Tips For Relieving Stress Without Medication And Alcohol
In this article, I will explain how to relieve stress and stress without the help of drugs or alcohol . In the first part of the article, dispensing with meaningful theoretical calculations, I immediately give 8 tips on how to remove stress. You can test these recommendations on yourself today and check how effective they are.
Also, in the second part, I consider it necessary to touch a little on how to minimize the daily level of stress, and how to become less stressed. Many tips on getting rid of stress for some reason do not pay due attention to this. But Im aiming for a long-term result and its obvious to me that the less stress level you get, the easier it is to cope with it.
Have you heard the slogan is it easier to warn a fire than to extinguish? Everyone needs to know what measures must be taken to extinguish the fire, but it is even more important to understand what it takes to prevent a fire . Also with stress: it must be able to warn.
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Critical Stop Stressing Tactic: Focus On Things That Are Going Well
If you cant stop stressing about something, one thing that can help is to switch gears and think about something that is going well for you.
Sometimes thats tough, especially if you are in a rut and everything seems to be going badly.
But other times you may have one area in your life which is bothering you, but another area of your life where things are going well.
For example, when I have something worrying me about work, I think about how things are great with my wife.
Being thankful for what is going well can help you stop stressing about what isnt going well.
How Do I Let My Thoughts Come And Go
No matter how hard you try, you are going to have thoughts that enter your mind and seemingly refuse to leave. How can you let them come and go? It can take some time to combat self-doubt, catastrophic predictions, and other problematic thoughts when your brain seems to refuse to delegate tasks that are helpful and instead focuses on the bad. However, there are some ways.
- When they come, distract yourself. Whether its looking at your phone, taking a few deep breaths, exercising, immediately find a way to distract yourself and make it a habit.
- Usually, these thoughts are worries. Are they valid worries? If so, think of ways to control them. Some people become control freaks of their own mind, separating the helpful from the unhelpful, and thats a good thing.
- Substitute that thought for something better. Even if it comes back, keep substituting.
- Seek help from a therapist. When people have positive things happening, but they worry constantly, they may have other mental health problems they are unaware of. Seeking help from a therapist may be your best bet to stop those thoughts.
Recommended Reading: How To Relieve Stress Anxiety And Depression
Food Is Important But It Is Not The Only Determinant Of Health
As a Registered Dietitian, I know food can positively impact your health. But when a desire for healthy eating turns into obsession and is stressful, thats not good for your health either. I see so many women who make healthy eating their life, when in actuality it should only be a part of their life because there are many other determinants of health.
When we look at the Social Determinants of Health we can see that what we eat is only a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to our health. Other factors such as environment, medical care, genetics and biology, individual behavior and social circumstances play a role in our health. These include but are not limited to what we eat, our sleep patterns, stress levels, the environment that we live in, our genetics and spiritual practices.
So instead of only attributing health to what you eat, focus on the big picture and ways you can improve your overall health by pinpointing weak points for you when you look at the Social Determinants of Health. And remember, one meal, day or days of eating will not make or break your health. So stop stressing over what you eat!
And thats how you eat stress-free!
Comment on the blog with and tag me on with how you will stop stressing over food!
How Do You Take Things Less Personally

Some people take everything personally, even if it isn’t about them. Here are some ways that you can stop taking things so personally.
- Find ways to make yourself feel more confident. If you lack confidence, you may be offended at every remark, or think that everyone is talking about you. By changing your behavior to think more highly of yourself, you can stop taking things so personally.
- Realize that people are probably not talking about you, and if you make a scene, it shines a spotlight on your insecurities. Not every vague Facebook post is about you.
- If someone doesn’t stop making personal remarks toward you, cut them out of your life. While you shouldn’t let every remark get to your personally, it goes both ways.
- Learn to ignore the haters and not feed the trolls.
- Meditation and mindfulness can help increase your chances of not letting everything get personally.
- Find other hobbies or habits to spend on your energy on rather than worrying about how people will perceive you. Practice ways to increase your confidence or find healthy stress relievers.
- Seek help from support groups and therapists. Changing your mental effort and attitude toward taking things personally may be the answer.
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Talk To Someone About Your Financial Stress
Sometimes life can become overwhelmingand your finances can play a big role in that. If youre struggling to manage everything alone, its time to talk to someone about the financial stress youre experiencing. Whether you decide to talk to a trusted family member, friend or therapist or book an appointment with one of our understanding, accredited counsellors, talking about your finances and the feelings associated with it can help you tremendously. Remember: Youre not alone in your financial journey and its okay to not be okay.
You Use Stress To Justify Emotions And Decisions
This sounds harsh, but some people like having a reason to be emotional or make poor decisions. Sorry I overreacted last night. I have just been so stressed out lately. If you find yourself using stress as a justification, think about what you can do to cut down on your stress. Reduce your commitments, take some personal time, and get on the path to better decisions.
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Worried You May Be Suffering From High Stress
Take our 2-minute stress level quiz to see if you could benefit from further diagnosis and treatment.
If you are experiencing any of these signs you may want to take action to reduce stress today. Here are some simple but revealing questions you can ask yourself to pinpoint areas for improvement or change. Asking the right questions can identify what improvements you can make to feel more relaxed and in control of your health.
How To Stop Caring In Healthy Ways
There are many strategies for learning to stop caring about so many things you can’t control, and as a result, reduce your stress.
Look Inward
Of course, we can influence others. And one of our best opportunities to do so is to ensure that we are being who we want to be. Often, the characteristics that are the most frustrating and offensive to us, are those which we are guilty of ourselves. So it is always a good practice to turn our attention to ourselves as soon as we realize we are annoyed with someone else. Awareness is critical to making changes in ourselves. That about which we are unaware, we cannot control. Stated another way, that about which we are unaware of in ourselves, will control us. Sometimes, just gaining awareness of a tendency in ourselves is all we need to choose to think or act differently.
Change Your Perspective
Another helpful concept is that while it is impossible to simply change our feelings, we do have a much greater capacity to change our thoughts, perspectives, the meaning we attach to specific events, our conclusions, expectations, etc. It may be safe to conclude that much of the disappointment, hurt, offense, sadness, anger, etc. we experience is a result of unmet expectations. So if we can change our expectations, we will be able to dramatically decrease the negative feelings that result from experiencing unmet expectations, right?
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Listen To Good Mood Music
Music can have a powerful effect on your mood and on anxiety. They key however is to not just choose songs you like. but also make sure that you are listening to music that represents the way you want to feel. Happy or relaxing music can directly impact your mood and the way you feel.
While many people find it soothing to listen to angry music when theyâre angry or sad music when theyâre sad, the truth is that this type of music will only help you get in touch with those negative emotions. That won’t help you feel better. When you’re trying to stop anxiety, you should listen to music that will help you feel the way you want to feel.
Symptoms Of Financial Stress
There are obvious symptoms of financial stress that we can identify when we experience significant situations in our lives, as well as more subtle signs of burnout that can make problem solving seem impossible. Watch for these signs and symptoms of financial burnout:
- Constantly thinking about your budget, or lack thereof
- Feeling stressed about where your money is coming from and where its going
- Feeling guilty, exhausted, depressed or overwhelmed about your finances
- Feeling cynical or apathetic towards your financial goals
- Lack of sleep or increased anxiety just thinking about money
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, youre probably struggling with financial burnout. Luckily, there are ways to combat this so you can get back to feeling like you againwithout your money dragging you down.
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What Happens To Your Body When You Relax
Your Heart Rate Slows This “fight or flight” response sends out hormones called catecholamines to speed up your heart. But relaxation lets your body know it’s OK to save energy. Your parasympathetic system takes over and releases a hormone called acetylcholine. That slows your heart rate down.
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Tip 7 Begin To Relax On The Road After Work

By myself I know that even if the day did not turn out to be particularly heavy in terms of nervous load, its still the way home can greatly teduce or spoil the mood. Many do not know how to reduce stress after workand continue to accumulate it on the way home. Therefore, already on the road, start disabling thoughts about work and current problems, abstract from what is happening, do not yield to the general malice and nervousness, the atmosphere of which, as a rule, reigns in public transport and on the roads. Be calm, try to suppress within yourself those impulses that lead to the fact that you begin to be angry with someone and swear at the rumor or to yourself. Since all this negativity can bring the finishing touches to your evening picture of stress and tension and finally exhaust you. Let them get angry and nervous at the expense of themselves, but not you!
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Tip : Challenge Anxious Thoughts
If you suffer from chronic anxiety and worry, chances are you look at the world in ways that make it seem more threatening than it really is. For example, you may overestimate the possibility that things will turn out badly, jump immediately to worst-case scenarios, or treat every anxious thought as if it were fact. You may also discredit your own ability to handle lifes problems, assuming youll fall apart at the first sign of trouble. These types of thoughts, known as cognitive distortions, include: