Stress reduction is imperative in protecting our health. Stress can affect us on either a psychological or a physiological level. It can manifest in symptoms as diverse as gastrointestinal disorders and eye ticks. By addressing stress in a step by step approach, its cause can be identified and possibly even alleviated.
A great and simple way to reduce your stress level is to take a break, even if it’s just a minute or two. By stepping away from a stressful situation, you are allowing yourself to rejuvenate and recover for a few short minutes. By letting your body relax and your stress hormones to reduce, you are giving yourself a fresh start at the project at hand. With a new perspective after your small break, you might find that the task at hand isn’t as stressful as it first seemed.
Getting plenty of quality sleep will counteract the stress of what ever your daily life brings. It sounds simple enough, but most people fail to get enough basic sleep let alone quality sleep and that is the way your body recovers from your hard day at work, keeping after the children or the million other ways you spend your waking time!
A great tip that can help you keep your stress down is to draw or paint something. Drawing and painting are great ways to fight stress because you focus on being creative. It’s a great way to keep your mind off of certain things and you’ll also have some art to show off.
If you have extra time to spare grab a pencil or pen and start drawing or doodling on a piece of paper. This will tap into your creative side and let your mind wander alleviating the stresses that you may have. Draw a picture or random designs to help feel better.
When it comes to dealing with stress, one way that may help out is identifying a comfort food and always making sure that you have it available when feeling stressed. This is important because sometimes that is all that it takes to relieve yourself of stress, and as long as it is not too unhealthy, you are taking care of a meal and stress relief all at once.
If you eat foods that have a lot of carbohydrates, your body will release serotonin. This is your body’s natural relaxing chemical. So if you’re feeling stressed, munch on some crackers, pretzels, a bagel, or other snacks that have a lot of carbohydrates in them. This will help your body naturally relax itself.
Stress is a basic and necessary human emotion and it can be used properly at some times. That being said, if you are experiencing stress on a daily level than you are not using stress correctly. It should be something that only comes out during the hardest and most dramatic situations.
If you are not the kind of person who enjoys running than you can also consider some type of martial art. The act of hitting an object or other person in an appropriate context can really help to ease the desire to hit people in the absolute wrong situations in life.
One great way to deal with stress is to try to visualize something calming. This is important because if you are somewhere that does not allow for some sort of physical relaxation, you can try to imagine it and calm yourself down. An example would be to imagine the relaxing nature of a hot shower while you are at an office meeting.
If you have a special someone, go out on romantic outings regularly. This date will give you an opportunity to focus on your relationship without focusing on things which stress you.
Try giving whatever is bothering you a number on a scale from one to ten, where one is a minor bump and ten is the end of the world. You’ll probably find that most of your daily problems are no more than a five. In other words, they’re not worth getting upset about.
Develop a social network. Your social network can be the most important lifeline you have against stress. Sometimes all that you need to relieve stress is to have someone to talk to. Other times you might need someone to volunteer to take over one of the tasks that is overwhelming you. Well developed social networks provide for such needs.
To better control the stress in your life, take some time to figure out what it is that is most important to you. Knowing which things are truly important to you will help you keep stressful situations in perspective and live a happier, less troubled life.
By reducing or, better yet, even eliminating stress from our lives, we can do wonders in improving our health. This isn’t an impossible task. The first step is figuring out the problem. The second step, or series of steps actually, involves addressing the problem at its root and working to eliminate it in its entirety.