Everyone feels stressed from time to time – it’s an unfortunate part of human nature. Whether it’s linked to pressures at work, home life or another reason, it’s a commonly felt emotion no matter what your age or what stage of life you’re in.
When you’re feeling this emotion, it can feel incredibly difficult to see a way out of it. And whilst, of course, if it’s severe you should go to the doctor or seek other professional help, there are other simple things that you can do to help ease it when it’s mild to moderate.
If you’re unsure where to start with this, to help with the process, here is a list of 10 simple tips you can use in your journey to better mental health:
Meditate
When you’re feeling a burnout coming on, it’s vital that you take action early and try to nip it in the bud. And a great way of helping to reduce stress is through the act of meditation. Whether you start yoga for meditation (which will benefit you by helping to get the blood flowing) or simply practice traditional mindfulness at home, you’ll start to feel the weight lifting off of your shoulders.
Helping to improve your mental health and improve your overall focus, the stressful feelings will start to fade away.
Visit Friends and Family
When you start to have negative thoughts, it’s important that you seek support from your loved ones. And this can be from your family and friends. Acting as a security blanket and offering you a chance to escape your head for a while, the visits will help to release oxytocin (a stress hormone). If visiting them isn’t possible, then opt for a long phone or skype call.
It doesn’t have to be every day, simply every few days or so. You don’t want to isolate yourself from those around you – and you need to recognise how much they care for you.
Drink Less Caffeine
Whether you typically drink tea, coffee or energy drinks a lot throughout the day, it’s time to cut down on these. Not only are they damaging to your body generally, but they can contribute to higher anxiety levels – and therefore, increase the stress that you’ve been feeling.
Start by gradually cutting out the number of caffeine drinks you intake. After a while, you won’t miss the caffeine and you’ll start to feel better and be able to sleep better at night.
Turn Up The Music
When was the last time that you sat down and listened to your favourite album? If you’re starting to feel stressed, take some time out and put on Spotify. Helping you to feel more calm and relaxed, it will lower your blood pressure and release stress hormones. After taking the time out to do this you’ll feel a whole lot better.
Just make sure to stick to upbeat songs, however, as you don’t want an album that aligns with the negative feelings you have.
Practice Breathing Exercises
A great way to de-stress is by practising breathing techniques regularly. Whether you do this inside or outside, it will automatically make you feel more at ease and bring more oxygen into your body. A simple trick that’s used by many people, it requires little effort and can have a big impact.
Get More Sleep
There are so many benefits that come with a great night’s sleep. And two of these, is that it helps to calm the body and stabilize your mood. Whether you regulate your sleeping pattern every night by setting strict times when you should walk up and go to sleep or take more naps throughout the day, your body and mind will start to heal.
When you have little sleep, you’ll find that you’re in your head a lot more and you could start to overthink certain situations. Prevent this from happening before it starts to have a big impact on your mental and physical health.
Create a Stress Diary
Another effective way of helping with stress management is by keeping a diary every day. Through this, you’ll be able to write down all of your feelings which makes you more aware of the situations. Whenever you have a stressful moment, take note of it and describe exactly how you felt.
By looking back at these you’ll then be able to determine what triggered the stress, which helps you to develop better mechanisms of coping with it.
Ensure That You Exercise Regularly
A proven way of combating stress is through regular exercise. Easing the mental and physical stress you’ve been feeling, you’ll be able to tackle certain situations in better ways. Getting the blood flowing and helping to clear the mind, activities like walking and running are worth a try.
Book in a Massage
The ultimate way to relax and unwind is through a massage. Whether it’s a back massage, hot stone massage, head massage or full-body massage, you’ll feel the stress that you’ve been feeling gradually drift away. Stimulating blood flow and improving cognitive function, it’s a self-care technique that’s well worth the price.
Run a Hot Bath
If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly way to relax and de-stress, then a nice hot bath might be just the ticket. Take some time out at the end of the day and run a bath, before filling it with your favourite bubbles or bath bomb. Then, put on some relaxing music, lie back and enjoy it.
Final Thoughts
So, there you go! Those are 10 simple methods that you can use to help de-stress, relax and unwind. The method that you use, of course, is up to you. But the moment that you start to enact self-care, you’ll start to feel less pressure and more at ease
