Accept The Things You Can’t Change
Changing a difficult situation isn’t always possible. Try to concentrate on the things you do have control over.
“If your company is going under and is making redundancies, for example, there’s nothing you can do about it,” says Professor Cooper.
“In a situation like that, you need to focus on the things that you can control, such as looking for a new job.”
Find Your Flow Activity
When we were children, we had a much greater capacity to be in the moment. Remember starting to play in the sandpit at noon and being dragged home by your mother well past 4 pm because you lost track of time? Thats called being in flow.
Hungarian-American scientist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was a pioneer in the study of happiness. He also defined the psychological concept of flow: moments when youre concentrating so intensely that you feel the world has quietened around you and youre completely absorbed and in the zone. Flow activities are like a moving meditation. In this state, your creativity, concentration, and imagination take over your feelings of stress, leaving you lighter and happier.
Find your flow activities: singing, playing musical instruments, cooking, fixing things around the house, building Ikea furniture, playing with kinetic sand, painting, drawing, or whatever. Anything can be a flow activity. Dedicate some time to figuring out what works for you.
Simple Ways To Relieve Stress And Anxiety
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Stress and anxiety are common experiences for most people. In fact, 70% of adults in the United States say they feel stress or anxiety daily.
Here are 16 simple ways to relieve stress and anxiety.
Exercise is one of the most important things you can do to combat stress.
It might seem contradictory, but putting physical stress on your body through exercise can relieve mental stress.
The benefits are strongest when you exercise regularly. People who exercise regularly are less likely to experience anxiety than those who dont exercise .
There are a few reasons behind this:
- Stress hormones: Exercise lowers your bodys stress hormones such as cortisol in the long run. It also helps release endorphins, which are chemicals that improve your mood and act as natural painkillers.
- Sleep: Exercise can also improve your sleep quality, which can be negatively affected by stress and anxiety.
- Confidence: When you exercise regularly, you may feel more competent and confident in your body, which in turn promotes mental wellbeing.
- Try to find an exercise routine or activity you enjoy, such as walking, dancing, rock climbing or yoga.
Activities such as walking or jogging that involve repetitive movements of large muscle groups can be particularly stress relieving.
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Make Time For Leisure Activities
Leisure activities can be a wonderful way to relieve stress. Yet, many people feel as though their lives are too busy for hobbies, games, or extra fun.
But building time for leisure into your schedule could be key to helping you feel your best. And when you feel better, you’ll perform better, which means leisure time may make your work time more efficient.
Whether you find joy in caring for a garden or you like making quilts, hobbies and leisure are key to living your best life.
Develop A Positive Self
The way you talk to yourself matters. Harsh self-criticism, self-doubt, and catastrophic predictions aren’t helpful. If you’re constantly thinking things like, “I don’t have time for this,” and “I can’t stand this,” you’ll stress yourself out.
It’s important to learn to talk to yourself in a more realistic, compassionate manner. When you call yourself names or doubt your ability to succeed, reply with a kinder inner dialogue.
Positive self-talk can help you develop a healthier outlook. And an optimistic and compassionate conversation can help you manage your emotions and take positive action.
Recommended Reading: How To Cope With Stress For Teens
Healthy Ways To Cope With Stress
Feeling emotional and nervous or having trouble sleeping and eating can all be normal reactions to stress. Here are some healthy ways you can deal with stress:
- Take breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including those on social media. Its good to be informed but hearing about the traumatic event constantly can be upsetting. Consider limiting news to just a couple of times a day and disconnecting from phone, tv, and computer screens for a while.
- Take care of yourself. Eat healthy, exercise, get plenty of sleep, and give yourself a break if you feel stressed out.
- Take care of your body.
- Take deep breaths, stretch, or meditateexternal icon.
- Continue with routine preventive measures as recommended by your healthcare provider.
- Get vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine when available.
Quick Stress Relief At Work
Meetings. During stressful sessions, stay connected to your breath. Massage the tips of your fingers. Wiggle your toes. Sip coffee.
On the phone. Inhale something energizing, like lemon, ginger, peppermint. While talking, stand up or pace back and forth to burn off excess energy, or take calls outside when possible.
On the computer. Work standing up. Do knee-bends in 10-minute intervals. Suck on a peppermint. Sip tea.
Lunch breaks. Take a walk around the block or in the parking lot. Listen to soothing music while eating. Chat with a colleague.
Your workspace. Place family photos on your desk or mementos that remind you of your life outside the office.
Recommended Reading: How To Feel Less Stressed At Work
Spend Time With Nature
Nature has an incredible way of healing the human mind. Studies show that spending time in natural settings can reduce heart rate and blood pressure. It also lowers stress hormones, too.
Ways to connect with nature:
- Garden
- Workout outdoors
- Read a book on a blanket in the sun
Get outside in your backyard or front yard as much as you can. As long as youre practicing social distancing, you can unwind on your own property and enjoy the benefits of nature. At least 120 minutes a week in nature is the ideal remedy for stress reduction.
Avoid Fast And Junk Food
Do you know your food also plays an important role in your feelings? Yes, during the moving process, you might not get time to cook food therefore you might choose to eat junk and fast food.
This could be tricky during the moving process in that you have to pay attention to what you are eating and have to go to the grocery shop to buy items for cooking food.
Try to eat healthy during the time so that you can manage to do all the moving-related tasks and to stay energetic and happier for the entire day.
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The Importance Of Managing Stress
If youre living with high levels of stress, youre putting your entire well-being at risk. Stress wreaks havoc on your emotional equilibrium, as well as your physical health. It narrows your ability to think clearly, function effectively, and enjoy life. It may seem like theres nothing you can do about stress. The bills wont stop coming, there will never be more hours in the day, and your work and family responsibilities will always be demanding. But you have a lot more control than you might think.
Effective stress management helps you break the hold stress has on your life, so you can be happier, healthier, and more productive. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and funand the resilience to hold up under pressure and meet challenges head on. But stress management is not one-size-fits-all. Thats why its important to experiment and find out what works best for you. The following stress management tips can help you do that.
What Not To Do If You Have Itchy Skin At Night
If your skin itches at night, here are a few triggers to avoid:
- Dont go to bed in anything itchy. Wear pajamas made from soft, natural fibers, like cotton or silk.
- Keep the temperature in your room cool around 60 to 65°F. Overheating can make you itch.
- Avoid caffeine and alcohol before bed. They widen blood vessels and send more blood to warm your skin.
- Dont use any cosmetics, perfumed creams, scented soaps, or other products that might irritate your skin.
- Dont scratch! Youll irritate your skin even more. Keep your fingernails short in case you do feel the urge to scratch at night.
Also Check: How To Calm Your Stress Down
Simple And Proven Ways To De
There is a lot you can do between now and when the world gets to be a nicer place.
Entrepreneur
We all experience stress at some point in our lives. Whether it is preparing for an exam, going on a first date, getting stuck in traffic, worrying about bills, or making a sales presentation, stress is just a normal part of life.
Granted, stress is worse for some people. In fact, according to the American Psychological Association, stress is a perfectly normal reaction that developed in our ancient ancestors as a way to protect them from predators and other threats.
We still face dangerous predators and threats — work for instance.
Whenever facing a dangerous situation, the body kicks into gear, flooding the body with hormones that elevate your heart rate, increase your blood pressure, boost your energy and prepare you to deal with the problem.
Although its a natural reaction, stress is still a negative force that can have a serious impact on both our professional and personal lives.
For starters, stress can lead to fatigue, headaches, stomach aches, muscle tension, heart attacks and even death. Stress can also cause you to pick fights with the people youre closest to. In short, stress can put a monkey-wrench in your career, relationships and even your life.
Related: 10 Effective Ways to Beat Stress
Skip Your Morning Coffee
Got an exam in the morning?
You wont want to skip your morning coffee. And yet, thats exactly what you should do the morning before your exam.
When you experience stress, thats because the hormone cortisol is active in your brain.
When you consume caffeine, this can increase the bodys production of the hormone which causes stress.
Therefore, leave your flat white until after the exam. This will allow you to get the most of your caffeine hit without it disrupting your focus and stressing you.
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Identity Your Stress Triggers
First things first, what exactly stresses you out? Do you know exactly what triggers this reaction? How do you react to it,? When you have a few answers, look for possible solutions.
While youre not going to be able to eliminate every stress trigger in your life, you can at least remove the ones that you have influence over.
For example, if your morning commute is your main cause of stress because of traffic, then ask for a flexible schedule where you only have to commute three days week and work two days from home. Another option for a flex schedule would be coming in earlier or arriving later so that you can avoid most of the hectic traffic.
Related: How Working At Home Can Be Harmful to Your Health
Take A 10 Minute Walk
Exercise is one of the best stress relievers out there. But, not everyone will take the time or have the motivation to commit to a strict workout regiment.
Could you squeeze in a 10 minute walk either first thing in the morning, during a lunch break, or when we get home from work? A short walk clears our heads and boost endorphins, which in turn reduces stress hormones.
Related: Stressed and Exhausted? More Than Half of Founders Say They Never ‘Switch Off.’
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Tip : Make Quick Stress Relief A Habit
Its not easy to remember to use your senses in the middle of a minior or not so minocrisis. At first, it will feel easier to just give into pressure and tense up. But with time, calling upon your senses will become second nature. Think of the process like learning to drive or play golf. You dont master the skill in one lesson you have to practice until it becomes second nature. Eventually youll feel like youre forgetting something if you dont tune into your body during challenging times. Heres how to make it habit:
Start small. Instead of testing your quick stress relief tools on a source of major stress, start with a predictable low-level source of stress, like cooking dinner at the end of a long day or sitting down to pay bills.
Identify and target. Think of just one low-level stressor that you know will occur several times a week, such as commuting. Vow to target that stressor with quick stress relief every time. After a few weeks, target a second stressor and so on.
Test-drive sensory input. If you are practicing quick stress relief on your commute to work, bring a scented handkerchief with you one day, try music another day, and try a movement the next day. Keep experimenting until you find a clear winner.
Have fun with the process. If something doesnt work, dont force it. Move on until you find what works best for you. It should be pleasurable and noticeably calming.
Keep A Routine Of Exercise
Even when you have to complete a huge number of tasks in a short duration still it is important to find spare time to do exercise on regular basis.
If you are considering that you are exercising because you are lifting a lot of heavy items throughout the day, carrying different items up and down the stairs, and doing other tasks also but still if you drop your exercise routine and does not get time for it then this will create stress to you.
Spend just 30 minutes a day yourself doing exercise and you will feel better.
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Number : Create A Gratitude Practice
Gratitude is a powerful force that you can use to expand your happiness, improve your health, andyou guessed ithelps you cope with stress.
Many scientific studies, including research by renowned psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, have found that people who consciously focus on gratitude, experience greater emotional wellbeing and physical health than those who dont.
Read More: Learn more about the healing power of gratitude, and how to begin your gratitude practice
Learn To Avoid Procrastination
Another way to take control of your stress is to stay on top of your priorities and stop procrastinating.
Procrastination can lead you to act reactively, leaving you scrambling to catch up. This can cause stress, which negatively affects your health and sleep quality .
Get in the habit of making a to-do list organized by priority. Give yourself realistic deadlines and work your way down the list.
Work on the things that need to get done today and give yourself chunks of uninterrupted time, as switching between tasks or multitasking can be stressful itself.
summary
Prioritize what needs to get done and make time for it. Staying on top of your to-do list can help ward off procrastination-related stress.
Yoga has become a popular method of stress relief and exercise among all age groups.
While yoga styles differ, most share a common goal to join your body and mind.
Yoga primarily does this by increasing body and breath awareness.
Some studies have examined yogas effect on mental health. Overall, research has found that yoga can enhance mood and may even be as effective as antidepressant drugs at treating depression and anxiety .
However, many of these studies are limited, and there are still questions about how yoga works to achieve stress reduction.
In general, the benefit of yoga for stress and anxiety seems to be related to its effect on your nervous system and stress response.
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Have A Relaxing Cup Of Tea
Have a hot cup of tea, preferably with no caffeine, Wei said. And put the smart phone away and just spend a few minutes focusing on the flavor of tea, the temperature, noticing everything about the cup.
This mindfulness practice helps you tune out other thoughts, helping you focus on something thats calming. This can be a great tactic to reduce stress at work while you can’t necessarily step away from the stressors completely, you can use a cup of tea as a signal to press pause for a moment.
How To Destress Yourself
Do you have an exam coming up? Are you feeling stress about it?
There are tons of things you can do to destress. From skipping your morning coffee to going for a walk, follow our tips on how to destress yourself.
Do you want to learn more about how you can take good care of yourself? Discover more right here on our blog!
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Regular People Pressures How You Respond Is What Matters
egular people can wind up with the same urgent need to maintain a celebrity-like front to the world, Ana Marie Cox wrote in The Washington Post after the Spade and Bourdain suicides. ressure to conform to whatever story weve created for ourselves based in the simple fear of revealing yourself to be flawed, and how the world will respond when you do.
Its this fear that can take over when we face a stressor, whether its the revelation of a mistake, an unhappy client, or being spoken to in a degrading manner.
If youve been putting yourself down in your own mind, then the stress of the moment could overwhelm your ability to deal with the situation, because it triggers what Chicken Soup for the Soul® author, and renowned peak performance trainer, Jack Canfield calls the inner critic that we all have.
How you react to the situation will influence the outcome. Canfield describes it in his best-selling book, The Success Principles, as E + R = O or, Event plus Response creates the Outcome. Your response is determined in part by what you tell yourself in that moment. Being able to calmly and thoughtfully respond comes from feeling centered and confident.
As Canfield wrote, What if you could transform your negative self-talk into positive self-talk?…What if you could transform your inner criticinto a supportive inner coach who could encourage you and give you confidence?
Self-Awareness
Lighten Up on Yourself
Then I realized I needed to lighten up on myself.
