Effective Stress Management
Basic habits and actions to relieve life's tension
Stress is an uncomfortable feeling of emotional or physical tension. The World Health Organization defines stress as “A state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation.”
Stress is a natural human response to thoughts or events that cause you to be nervous, frustrated, or angry. Moreover, chronic stress can harm your physical and mental health.
The American Psychological Association (APA) has found that top social stressors include:
The future of the U.S. (68%)
Violence and crime (61%)
The U.S. debt (57%)
Mass shootings (56%)
Social divisiveness (55%)
Health care (54%)
The top day-to-day stressors are:
Health-related (65%)
Money (63%)
Economy (64%)
Other: Family responsibilities, personal safety, discrimination.1
The following are ten habits and actions that can help to manage stress.
You Deserve a Break
Some days, we may feel we don’t have time to have lunch, let alone take breaks. However, taking 10-minute breaks during the day can help to improve your mental health and well-being. Strive to make taking breaks a regular habit; it will help you to relax and lessen your stress level. Do something good for yourself during your breaks, such as deep breathing or stretching to help ease tension.
Relax with Music
Listening to soothing music helps you to relax and eases stress. Music also helps to distract stressful thoughts and lower your stress level.
Establish Meaningful Relationships
Connecting with other people can help you cope with stress and feel valued. Build strong connections with people who make you feel calm or happy and can listen to you and provide emotional support when needed. Likewise, it would help if you reciprocated to strengthen the relationship.
Stay Active and Exercise
Physical activities such as exercising, walking, playing sports, swimming, or anything that keeps your body moving can relieve stress. Staying active helps your brain focus on your movements rather than feeling stressed, and it releases endorphins to help you feel good.
Avoid Harmful Habits
To cope with stress, people may develop unhealthy habits such as smoking cigarettes, using illegal drugs, drinking too much alcohol, or overeating. While these habits may provide temporary relief, they can damage your health and increase your stress level. Habits such as these can disrupt chemicals in the brain too. When you indulge in unhealthy behaviors and then try to quit, the cravings can make you feel anxious and uncomfortable.
Prioritize Yourself
In our busy lives, we sometimes forget to care for ourselves. We put the needs of others before our own, causing our mental and physical well-being to suffer. Learning how to say “no” or assigning tasks to others is essential to help reduce your stress level.
Establish healthy boundaries for yourself.
For example, if you don’t want to be interrupted for two hours daily, communicate your boundaries to others. If you are interrupted, tactfully remind the person about your set boundary.
Remember that you are the priority; it’s not selfish. If you don’t take care of yourself as the top priority, stress increases, and you may feel resentful and angry. If you’re not taking care of your needs, it’s challenging to be able to help anyone else.
Get Sufficient Sleep
Insufficient sleep can affect your energy, mood, focus, and ability to function throughout the day. Adults require nightly 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep to reenergize the body and brain.
Most of us have experienced the frustration of being unable to sleep due to feeling overwhelmed and stressed. You can develop habits to help you fall asleep and stay asleep. Strive to keep a regular sleep schedule; go to sleep and wake up at the same time each day, as this will regulate your internal clock. Avoid social media and electronics for about two hours before bedtime.
Eat Healthy Foods
A nourishing diet supports your immune system and boosts your stamina, helping you to cope better with difficult situations. Research suggests that foods with polyunsaturated fats, omega-3 fats, and vegetables may help to control cortisol levels.2 Cortisol regulates your body's stress response.
A healthy diet includes fruits and vegetables, plenty of protein, and healthy fats. Avoid or limit foods with unhealthy fats, salt, and added sugars.
Keep Your Sense of Humor
A good sense of humor and laughter can help you feel better. Laughter has short-term and long-term benefits such as soothing muscle tension, stress reduction, improved oxygen intake, improved mood, pain relief, and a boosted immune system.3,4
Practice Mindfulness
Researchers believe that mindfulness can calm the body's response to stress.5 The key is to live in the moment and focus on the present. This can help to lessen worry and crush negative thoughts that repeat constantly in your mind.
Start to practice mindfulness by being aware of what you’re thinking. When your mindset is negative, counter it with positive thoughts. You can also learn mindfulness by taking online classes or consulting with a therapist.
Conclusion
Everyone experiences stress in their lives. Chronic, ongoing stress is harmful to our minds and bodies. The preceding habits and actions can significantly affect how you respond to stressors.
If you need more help to cope with the stress in your life, professional therapists can help find the root cause and teach you effective coping strategies.
References
1 American Psychological Association
https://www.apa.org
2 Soltani H, Keim NL, Laugero KD. “Diet Quality for Sodium and Vegetables Mediate Effects of Whole Food Diets on 8-Week Changes in Stress Load.” Nutrients. 2018 Nov;10(11):1606.
3 “Lower stress: How does it affect the body?” American Heart Association. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/lower-stress-how-does-stress-affect-the-body
4 Yim J. “Therapeutic benefits of laughter in mental health: A theoretical review. The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine.” 2019; doi:10.1620/tjem.239.243.
5 “Mindfulness-Based Therapy: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis” Khoury, B., et. al. Clinical Psychology Review, 2013
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If you like this content, check out my article on how to stress affects your vital organs at: https://www.theunreliablemind.com/blog/the-dangerous-effects-of-stress
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