Simple Tools For Creating A Technique To Reduce Mental Stress
Apply one of the greatest mental energies as tools to any of the above stress relieving activities to create your own individual technique:
Gratitude
When you evoke the emotion of gratitude to any of your activities, you switch your mental state from stressful to peaceful . When you consciously acknowledge gratitude toward the present, you send information to your brain that immediately soothes your central nervous system, producing positive hormones like serotonin and dopamine. These hormones reduce your mental stress and create a good feeling, a feeling of reward for having reached a goal.
Also, try to be grateful for the stressors that challenge your efficiency and signal an opportunity to improve.
Conscious Breathing
Support this activity though rhythmic, conscious breathing and intensify your gratefulness and the feeling of that reward. Use your conscious breathing to create a breathing pattern that will identify the moment as one in which youve created safety, peace, and self-respect within yourself.
Use these two tools to approach the seven activities listed above or any other activities you find as stress relieving, and practice integrating them in ways that work for you.
Once you merge the tools with the activities, youll be able to create your personal technique to reduce your mental stress quickly and naturally and apply it in literally any activity.
Natural Ways To Lower Your Cortisol Levels
Cortisol is a stress hormone the adrenal glands release. It helps your body deal with stressful situations, as your brain triggers its release through the sympathetic nervous system the fight or flight system in response to many different kinds of stress .
While the short-term release of cortisol can help you run quickly from danger, when cortisol levels are too high for too long, this hormone can hurt you more than it helps .
Over time, this can lead to an array of health issues such as weight gain, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, insomnia or difficulty sleeping, mood irregularities, and low energy levels (
This article discusses 11 ways to help naturally lower your cortisol levels.
Build Strong Positive Relationships With People Who Make You Feel Goodand Avoid Those Who Dont
Research suggests that stress builds up over time, through multiple small interactions with others. By themselves, few single incidents are intrinsically stressful. However, put them together, and the story is very different.
It is hard to avoid these micro-stressors, because they are too frequent and too pervasive. However, there are ways to address them, and the most important is to focus on your relationships with others. Research suggests that the two most important things you can do are to build strong relationships and connections with people who make you feel good, and avoid those who dont.
There is more about this in our page on Micro-Stressors.
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Practicing Even A Few Minutes Per Day Can Provide A Reserve Of Inner Calm
We all face stressful situations throughout our lives, ranging from minor annoyances like traffic jams to more serious worries, such as a loved one’s grave illness. No matter what the cause, stress floods your body with hormones. Your heart pounds, your breathing speeds up, and your muscles tense.
This so-called “stress response” is a normal reaction to threatening situations, honed in our prehistory to help us survive threats like an animal attack or a flood. Today, we rarely face these physical dangers, but challenging situations in daily life can set off the stress response. We can’t avoid all sources of stress in our lives, nor would we want to. But we can develop healthier ways of responding to them.
One way is to invoke the “relaxation response,” through a technique first developed in the 1970s at Harvard Medical School by cardiologist Dr. Herbert Benson, editor of the Harvard Medical School Special Health Report Stress Management: Approaches for preventing and reducing stress. The relaxation response is the opposite of the stress response. It’s a state of profound rest that can be elicited in many ways. With regular practice, you create a well of calm to dip into as the need arises.
Following are six relaxation techniques that can help you evoke the relaxation response and reduce stress.
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Tips To Manage Stressful Situations
It might surprise you to learn that biological stress is a fairly recent discovery. It wasnt until the late 1950s that endocrinologist Hans Selye first identified and documented stress.
Symptoms of stress existed long before Selye, but his discoveries led to new research that has helped millions cope with stress. Weve compiled a list of the top 10 ways to relieve stress.
Healthy Lifestyle Actions To Reduce And Manage Stress
Stress is a normal response to dealing with changes and challenges in daily life. In the short term, stress can help you perform better under pressure, but constant stress can pose problems for your health. Stress causes the release of cortisol, the stress hormone, as well as adrenaline, which influences your blood pressure, heart rate, eating habits, sleep patterns, blood sugar levels, fat metabolism and your ability to fight-off illness. Long term stress can also increase your risk of heart attack or stroke and contribute to depression.
These lifestyle actions can help you reduce or manage the stress in your life.
Also Check: How Do You Reduce Stress
How Can I Identify The Signs Of Stress
Everyone experiences stress. However, when it is affecting your life, health and wellbeing, it is important to tackle it as soon as possible, and while stress affects everyone differently, there are common signs and symptoms you can look out for:15
- feelings of constant worry or anxiety
- feelings of being overwhelmed
For full details on tips on getting a good nights sleep read our guide How to sleep better and ten top tips for good sleep
7. Dont be too hard on yourself
- Try to keep things in perspective.
- Remember that having a bad day is a universal human experience
- When your inner critic or an outer critic finds faults, try and find truth and exception to what is being said
- If you stumble or feel you have failed, dont beat yourself up
- Act as if you were your own best friend: be kind and supportive
- Take a few minutes each day to appreciate yourself
Now, we would like to move on to a more detailed look at the causes and effects of stress. In this section we will focus on the effects prolonged stress has on your body, behaviour and emotions, and look at key causes such as relationships, money, work, alcohol and drug use.
Helping Children And Youth Cope With Stress
Children and youth often struggle with how to cope with stress. Youth can be particularly overwhelmed when their stress is connected to a traumatic eventlike a natural disaster, family loss, school shootings, or community violence. Parents, caregivers, and educators can take steps to provide stability and support that help young people feel better.
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How To Manage And Reduce Stress
Here, we would like to start, by giving you an introduction to what stress is, what the signs of stress are, what simple steps you can take when feeling stressed and provide practical advice for preventing it, to show why we are passionate about moving towards a less stressed nation.
Take Action: Get Active
Regular physical activity can help prevent and manage stress. It can also help relax your muscles and improve your mood. So get active:
- Aim for 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity try going for a bike ride or taking a walk
- Do strengthening activities like push-ups or lifting weights at least 2 days a week
Remember, any amount of physical activity is better than none!
Read more about:
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Practice Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation involves relaxing all the muscles in your body, group by group. To practice, you can start with a few deep breaths.
Then, practice tightening and relaxing each muscle group, starting with your forehead and moving down to your toes.
With practice, you’ll learn to recognize tension and tightness in your muscles and you’ll be able to relax more easily. Each time you practice, however, you should experience a feeling of relaxation sweeping through your body.
How Does Stress Affect You
The body responds to stress in several harmful ways. For example, stress can affect your heart, your blood pressure, and your stomach.
It can also affect your immune system, making you more susceptible to viruses, and colds.
Stress can affect your breathing and your digestion. Our bodies release negative hormones when under stress.
Stress hormones can affect your brain and your endocrine system.
Stress can also affect your blood circulation, which can lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
It can also affect the way your body reacts to your partner, and it can affect your relationships with other people.
Stressing out and not sleeping enough can also cause weight gain and other health problems.
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Gather Your Thoughts Away From Stressful Situations
It can sometimes be difficult to find a solution. Especially if you are dealing with a stressful situation or you have a heavy workload.
A good idea is to get a little distance from your problems and worries so that you can calmly gather your thoughts. If possible, take a break from the usual environment, stay in a quiet, relaxing place for a day or a weekend to relax. Bring a journal so you can write down any thoughts or ideas.
The distance from your problems and worries can bring some clarity and give you an opportunity to relax. As a result, you will feel a lot calmer and solutions will come much easier to you.
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Dont Compare Yourself To Others
There is a saying I like: Comparison is the thief of happiness. I have no idea who originally said it, but they are brilliant, and most of all, correct. Wasting time and energy comparing ourselves never leads us to a good place. Instead, ask yourself if you are doing the best you can given your own set of circumstances.
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How To Identify And Reduce Stress In Your Life
- 10
- 15-07-2021
Stress is a part of daily life and is only becoming more of a presence in this increasingly-connected world.
This can be a problem, as there are all sorts of negative physical and psychological effects of leading an overly-stressed life.
This article will discuss some causes of stress and the negative effects that result from stress. There are also plenty of easy ways to reduce stress and increase ones well-being, though, so this article will end on a positive note by providing actionable ways anyone can reduce stress in their lives.
First, a distinction must be made between positive stress and negative stress .
Positive stress is healthy stress, such as the stress which pushes us to prepare for an exam, a job interview, or another important event. Negative stress, on the other hand, is unhealthy stress, such as stress which leads one to think they are not good enough for the exam, job interview, or other events they are preparing for, and does not help their preparation for or performance on the event.
While both types of stress are important to research and discuss, in this piece we will focus on negative stress , the unhealthy stress we face in our daily lives.
Before you start reading, we thought you might like to . These science-based exercises will equip you and those you work with, with tools to manage stress better and find a healthier balance in your life.
This article contains:
// Take A Deep Breath
According to theAmerican Institute of Stress , taking a deep breath is one of the best ways to calm yourself down and reduce your stress.
In order to reduce stress the AIS says we need to activate the bodys natural relaxation response. The relaxation response is when your metabolism decreases, your heart beat slows, muscles relax and your blood pressure decreases. Or in non-scientific terms when youre chilled the eff out!
#helpmefindmyzenJo
The AIS claims one major technique that works above all its plain simpleBREATHING! Shocked right!? Me too.
According to them proper abdominal breathing consisting of 20-30 minutes per each will reduce anxiety and stress. See deep breathing increases the supply of oxygen to the brain which in return stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which makes you feel calm!
So start breathing! Or *properly* I might add, deep breaths using your abdomen!
Teddy Bear Breathing One for the kids
Kids get stressed too! Gosh with the amount of homework I see my daughter do, Id be up the wall too!
The AIS created a technique for the little ones using a teddy bear. Lie on your back, with one hand on your chest and the teddy bear on your belly button. Close your eyes and relax, slowly take deep breaths through your nose, this is where only your teddy bear shall rise but not your chest.
When you have taken a full breath hold it for 3 seconds, then slowly breathe out. Repeat this until you feel nice and relaxed.
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Tips To Reduce Stress
It exists many different stress relief techniques and tips on how to manage stress in life. However, every person is unique and responds to different techniques. I recommend you try out some different methods to see what works best for you.
Below are 6 simple tips on how to reduce stress you can start with:
Talk Yourself Through It
Sometimes calling a friend is not an option. If this is the case, talking calmly to yourself can be the next best thing.
Dont worry about seeming crazy just tell yourself why youre stressed out, what you have to do to complete the task at hand, and most importantly, that everything will be okay.
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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.
// Try Using Technology To De
No silly! I dont mean Facebook or Instagram, were talking about apps that will calm you and make your life so much less stressful.
Calm app
One of the most unique apps on the app store is Calm, this number 1 app for sleep and meditation has helped me find my zen when sh*t hits the fan. With features like breathing exercises, mediation classes, sleep stories and relaxing music, its the perfect tool to de-stress after a looooong day.
Life Sorted
Life Sorted is the amazing calendar app , where your whole family schedule is neatly in one place. No more stressing about events or appointments, with the tap of a button you can notify the whole gang with an event changeits seriously that easy. No more nagging!
How are you feeling now? Hopefully a lot less stressed!
Youve got this mama!
x Jo
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How To Reduce Stress In Your Life
Feeling stressedhave anxietysuffering from burnoutdealing with frustrationfeeling overwhelmed? Well, you have come to the right place if you need to reduce stress in your life. Sometimes we cant always have good days and good vibes.
There are many times in life that we may experience one of those terms listed above. We constantly deal with the troubles of the world. We may feel stressed or anxious about family situations, death, divorce, having a miscarriage, arguments, relationships, financial situations, work, feeling pressured from trying to be too perfect, etc.
Whatever the reason stress is present, we must deal with it once it arises. You may be asking yourselfbut how?? I have five ways to reduce stress that will help you begin working towards a happier and healthier you.
How To Reduce Stress From Your Life
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