Relieving Daily Stress

Handling stress in life is like a juggling act throughout the day. Stress can help us, it can be beneficial, and is a survival instinct, but too much can be harmful to our mental wellbeing and damaging to our mood.

These tips on stress relief will equip you with tools and methods to help keep that daily stress relief.

Ongoing Stress

Stress is a necessary function of the body to help our minds work through issues and get us out of difficult or scary situations. Stress releases hormones, tightens our muscles and accelerates our heart rate, which all helps us properly respond in these situations.

Frequent stress, however, causes mental health issues and can ultimately lead to physical health issues, too. It causes inflammation in the body, which constantly activates the body's immune system. This mix on the long-term can lead to stroke, dementia, among other diseases.

A Start to Fight Stress

Getting a proper amount of nightly sleep is the first and most vital step to coping with stress. Seven hours of sleep is the minimum goal to hit each night. As well as getting a proper amount of sleep, eating more plant-based food, exercising and meditating are other great ways.

Integrating these techniques into your daily life will help you to become a more adaptable person better able to cope with the constant change that is life.

Relaxation Exercises

Relaxation exercises create the relaxation response in the body, which slows breathing, reduces heart rate, and lowers stress hormones.

Start with a basic breathing exercise, such as taking 10 very slow breaths in and out. You can also try an imagery exercise where you imagine being in your favorite vacation place. That could be somewhere like the beach or off in the mountains in nature. Try to get yourself to feel all the sensations you’d experience there, such as the warmth of sunlight, the smell of the sea air, the cool mountain air breeze, etc. Stay in this mental state for several minutes and you'll notice how much it relaxes the mind.

Stretching

It's so important to stretch periodically, because your muscles tense up under stress over the course of the day. Stretching will provide relief from all that tension. Take your arms and raise them above your head while sitting or standing, lace your fingers together, stretch, release your fingers, and exhale while lowering your arms to your sides. Repeat this three times for a quick relief from muscle tension and pent up stress.

Mindful Breaks

Take mindfulness breaks throughout the day. Being mindful triggers a response in the body to relax by bringing you to the present moment. This can help when you get into a bad cycle of stressful thoughts. In these mindful breaks you take note all of your senses as you do something that's soothing, making it like a real-time imagery exercise. Do things like have a cup of tea and take the time to feel its warmth in your hands, its aroma in the air, and how the warmth feels as you take each sip, Other examples are things such as taking a mindful shower or a leisurely and mindful walk outside.

Brisk Walks

It's important for all aspect of the health of the body to get a good amount of moderate-intensity exercise, with getting at least 140 minutes per week being a good benchmark. Even quick walks when you start to feel stressed can help get rid of stress hormones, while also fighting muscle tension and releasing good dopamines to improve your mood.

Music That Sooths

Soothing music can help in tremendous ways to elicit the relaxation response in the body. Opt for a relaxing track the next time stress hits instead of loud or up-tempo music. Using music as a therapy tool is a very powerful one and can even be beneficial to physical healing for those going through something as simple as the flu to as aggressive as cancer.

The key is be present when listening to the music and really take in the sounds. It won't help if you're mind keeps wandering back to stressful thoughts.

Goodbye Stress

We hope that equipped with this advice on stress relief, you can better handle the stress of life, better avoid daily triggers and live a more harmonious life.

Need to speak with a mental health coach about stress relief? Reach out to us now on our "Contact" page to get started on your journey to better mental wellbeing!