10 Stress Reduction Tips You Can Use Now
We live in a microwave world where everything is wanted instantly... You don't need a spa weekend or a retreat. Each of these stress-relieving tips can get you from OMG to om in less time than you think.
1. Meditate
A few minutes of practice per day can help ease anxiety. Daily meditation may alter the brain's neural pathways, making you more resilient to stress, and helps to regain clarity and focus.
It's simple. Sit up straight with both feet on the floor. Close your eyes or find a neutral focal point. Focus your attention on reciting -- out loud or silently -- a positive mantra such as "I feel at peace" or "I love myself." Place one hand on your belly to sync the mantra with your breaths. Let any distracting thoughts float by like clouds.
2. Deep Breathing
Take a 5-minute break and focus on your breathing. Sit up straight, eyes open with a neutral focal point or closed, with a hand on your belly. Slowly inhale through your nose, feeling the breath start in your lower abdomen and work its way to the top of your head. Reverse the process as you exhale through your mouth.
Deep breathing counters the effects of stress by slowing the heart rate and lowering blood pressure. Inhale good, exhale bad.
3. Be Present
Slow down and enjoy a cup of green tea.
While sipping, you can talk yourself through whatever is causing the stress, first by identifying the source, dissecting it, then verbalizing your course of action to accomplish the task at hand. Green tea has micro and macro antioxidant properties that also promotes focus.
Take 5 minutes and focus on only one behavior with awareness. Notice how the air feels on your face when you’re walking and how your feet feel hitting the ground. Enjoy the texture and taste of each bite of food. When you spend time in the moment and focus on your senses, you should feel less tense.
4. Reach Out, Touch Someone
Your social network is one of your best tools for handling stress. Be careful, it can also be a primary source for stress. Talk to others -- preferably face to face, or at least on the phone. Share what's going on. You can get a fresh perspective while keeping your people skills and connections strong.
5. Tune In to Your Body
Mentally scan your body to get a sense of how stress affects it each day. Lie on your back, or sit with your feet on the floor. Start at your toes and work your way up to your scalp, noticing how your body feels.
Simply be aware of places you feel tight or loose without trying to change anything, For 1 to 2 minutes, imagine each deep breath flowing to that body part providing exactly what it needs to restore balance. Repeat this process as you move your focus up your body, paying close attention to sensations you feel in each body part.
6. Decompress
Place a warm heat wrap around your neck and shoulders for 10 minutes. Close your eyes and relax your face, neck, upper chest, and back muscles. Remove the wrap, and use a tennis ball or foam roller to massage away tension.
Place the ball between your back and the wall. Lean into the ball, and hold gentle pressure for up to 15 seconds. Then move the ball to another spot, and apply pressure.
7. OMG... Laugh Out Loud
Laughter doesn’t just lighten your mood. It lowers your stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline, and boosts chemicals in the brain called endorphins, which help your mood. Lighten up by tuning in to your favorite sitcom or video, reading the comics, or chatting with someone who makes you smile. Laughing tricks your nervous system into making you happy.
Here is a 5 minute video to laugh:
8. Play Some Tunes
Research shows that listening to soothing music can lower blood pressure, heart rate, and anxiety. Create a playlist of songs or nature sounds (the ocean, a bubbling brook, birds chirping), and allow your mind to focus on the different melodies, instruments, or singers in the piece. You also can blow off steam by rocking out to more upbeat tunes -- or singing at the top of your lungs!
9. Get Moving
You don’t have to run in order to get a runner’s high. All forms of exercise, including yoga, tai-chi, Pilates and walking, can ease depression and anxiety by helping the brain release feel-good chemicals and by giving your body a chance to practice dealing with stress. You can go for a quick walk around the block, take the stairs up and down a few flights, do your best shadow dances or do some stretching exercises like head rolls and shoulder shrugs.
Physical activities and routine movement helps to promote better sleeping habits, which in turn decreases overall stress.
10. Eat Right & Be Grateful
A proper diet and gratitude are closely related. Unfortunately, it’s when we have the most work that we forget to eat well and resort to using sugary, fatty snack foods as a pick-me-up. Fruits and vegetables are always great choices, and fish with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to reduce the symptoms of stress. Fish really is brain food.
Keep a gratitude journal or several (one by your bed, one in your purse, and one at work) to help you remember all the things that are good in your life.
Being grateful for your blessings cancels out negative thoughts and worries, just as feeding your body with proper nutrition cancels out stress-related hunger
Use these journals to savor good experiences like a tasty well-balanced meal, a sunshine-filled day, and good health. Don’t forget to celebrate accomplishments like mastering a new task or a new hobby.
When you start feeling stressed, spend a few minutes looking through your notes to remind yourself what really matters. You Matter.
