Quick Stress Relief On The Go
In traffic. Play music or listen to an audiobook. Take a different route to see something new. Do neck-rolls at stoplights. Sing in the car to stay awake and happy.
Public transportation. Take a break from reading, cell conversations, and music to tune into the sights and sounds around you. Try noticing something new, even if youre on the same old bus ride.
Running errands. Wear a special perfume or lotion so you can enjoy it while you rush from place to place. Carry a stress ball in your pocket. Take a mental snapshot or postcard at each destination.
Waiting in lines. Instead of worrying about time slipping away, focus on your breathing. People watch. Chat with the person ahead of you. Chew a stick of minty gum.
Quick Ways To Reduce Stress
Taking care of your long-term mental and physical health is an important part of stress management. However, there isnt always time to take a nap, hike a fourteener, or read a novel. Thus, here are 25 ways to reduce stress in five minutes or less. From eating chocolate to meditating, there is a quick stress-relieving tactic for everyone.
1. BreatheSlow, deep breaths can help lower blood pressure and heart rate. Try pranayama breathing, a yogic method that involves breathing through one nostril at a time to relieve anxiety. The technique is supposed to work the same way as acupuncture, balancing the mind and body.
2. Listen to Music No matter what the song, sometimes belting out the lyrics to a favorite tune makes everything seem all right. If youre in a public place, just listening to music can be a quick fix for a bad mood. Classical music can be especially relaxing right before bedtime.
3. Take a Quick Walk When youre feeling overwhelmed or having trouble concentrating, go for a quick stroll around the block. Youll get the benefits of alone time, physical activity, and a few minutes to gather your thoughts.
4. Find the Sun If its a sunny day, head outside for an easy way to lift your spirits. Bright light can be an effective treatment for people who suffer from depression, and can even cheer up otherwise healthy people.
8. Rub Your Feet Over a Golf Ball You can get an impromptu, relaxing foot massage by rubbing your feet back and forth over a golf ball.
12. Be Alone
Helping Children And Youth Cope With Stress
Children and youth often struggle with how to cope with stress. Youth can be particularly overwhelmed when their stress is connected to a traumatic eventlike a natural disaster, family loss, school shootings, or community violence. Parents, caregivers, and educators can take steps to provide stability and support that help young people feel better.
Read Also: What Vitamins Are Good For Anxiety And Panic Attacks
Stocking Stuffers For Her Essential Oils
Essential oils can help with everything from stress relief to deep relaxation. You can purchase a pure oil to place in a stocking or you can buy a product containing a helpful essential oil.
A great idea is this Breathe Essential Oil Blends Setwith three aromatherapy oil rollers for relaxing, focus and happiness.
Is It Safe To Vape Terpenes
Yes, if done correctly. In their pure form, terpenes are very potent and powerful. Because of this, you only need to use a drop or two at a time. Terpenes should always be diluted before use. This is often done with a common type of carrier oil. If youre not sure how to dilute terpenes for vaping, you can also purchase terpene cartridges, which will take all of the guesswork out of dosing and dilution.
You May Like: How To Deal With Presentation Anxiety
House Plants With Powerful Anti
Prepare to turn your interior into an indoor green house. Plants have an abundance of stress relief benefits that bring all kinds of natural healing right into your home. Once you receive the powerful anti-anxiety benefits of plants, youll wonder how you ever survived without them. Here are the best house plants for anxiety.
Pothos Are Great for Beginners
If youre someone who struggles with keeping plants alive, the mere thought of adding more into your home can give you anxiety. Pothos are a great house plant for beginners because theyre near difficult to kill. They also help cleanse the air to increase air quality. The veins continue to grow, so one will go a long way.
Succulents For Stress-Free Green
Studies show that all plants, including succulents, provide mental health benefits. They can help improve concentration, productivity and mood, and can also reduce stress and anxiety. I personally love succulents for anxiety because they are hard to kill. Give them some bright light and theyll be happy. Succulents can even survive several weeks without water, making them the perfect stress-free option.
Peperomia Obtusfolia are Magical Plants
If youre looking for an anxiety house plant that is magical, peperomia obtusfolia is it. These plants are ideal for keeping the energy, air, and atmosphere in your home ideal for mental health. They reduce carbon dioxide levels, increase humidity, reduce certain pollutants, keep air temperatures down and reduce dust.
Recognising Your Stress Triggers
If you’re not sure what’s causing your stress, keep a diary and make a note of stressful episodes for two-to-four weeks. Then review it to spot the triggers.
Things you might want to write down include:
- the date, time and place of a stressful episode
- what you were doing
- a stress rating
You can use the diary to:
- work out what triggers your stress
- work out how you operate under pressure
- develop better coping mechanisms
Doctors sometimes recommend keeping a stress diary to help them diagnose stress.
Read Also: What Is The Va Rating For Anxiety
How Anxiety And Stress Increase Your Need For Vitamins & Minerals
Stress and anxiety increase the need for nutrients in a variety of ways.
First, the production of stress hormones and neurotransmitters consumes a big chunk of your reserves of these nutrients.
Then, because stress largely shuts down the digestive system, fewer nutrients are absorbed from the food you eat.
Consequently, your supply of anti-stress vitamins and minerals is decreased and your tolerance to stress is lowered.
Many unhealthy habits that people gravitate to when theyre stressed and anxious alcohol, caffeine, smoking, sugar, and recreational drugs deplete nutrients as well.
Numerous prescription drugs deplete vitamins and minerals, including anti-anxiety medications.
How can you stop this downward spiral?
Eating a diet rich in the right vitamins and minerals is the first step.
And supplementing with the right nutrients can be important too.
The Difference Between Worry Stress And Anxiety
Theyre not all the same, but we do have tips to help you deal with all of them.
You probably experience worry, stress or anxiety at least once on any given day. Nearly 40 million people in the U.S. suffer from an anxiety disorder, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Three out of four Americans reported feeling stressed in the last month, a 2017 study found. But in one of these moments, if asked which you were experiencing worry, stress or anxiety would you know the difference?
I reached out to two experts to help us identify and cope with all three.
Recommended Reading: How To Help Test Anxiety
Achieving Better Mental Health Through Diet
Be sure to talk to your doctor if your anxiety symptoms are severe or last more than two weeks. But even if your doctor recommends medication or therapy for anxiety, it is still worth asking whether you might also have some success by adjusting your diet. While nutritional psychiatry is not a substitute for other treatments, the relationship between food, mood, and anxiety is garnering more and more attention. There is a growing body of evidence, and more research is needed to fully understand the role of nutritional psychiatry, or as I prefer to call it, Psycho-Nutrition.
How Does Worry Work
Worry actually has an important function in our lives, according to Luana Marques, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the president of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. When we think about an uncertain or unpleasant situation such as being unable to pay the rent, or doing badly on an exam our brains become stimulated. When we worry, it calms our brains down. Worry is also likely to cause us to problem-solve or take action, both of which are positive things. Worry is a way for your brain to handle problems in order to keep you safe, Dr. Marques explained. Its only when we get stuck thinking about a problem that worry stops being functional.
You May Like: How To Describe Anxiety To Someone
Crucial Foods To Avoid
There are foods that help anxiety, but just as important is making sure that you’re not eating foods that contribute to anxiety. Examples of these types of foods include fried foods, high glycemic carbs, refined sugars, and alcoholic beverages.
Other foods depend on how much you understand you own anxiety. If you have panic attacks, you may want to avoid coffee, because coffee can increase your heart rate and trigger an attack. But if you have more general anxiety, coffee may actually be beneficial. Many find that caffeine , can actually reduce stress and improve mood.
Can Stress Be Positive
Research has shown that stress can sometimes be positive. It can make you more alert and help you perform better in certain situations.2 However, stress has only been found to be beneficial if it is short-lived.
Excessive or prolonged stress can contribute to illness such as heart disease3 and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.4
You May Like: Can Anxiety Cause Memory Problems
Keep A Thought Diary And Challenge Any Negative Thinking
Writing down what youre worrying about can help you to clear your head and reduce stress and anxiety. You could keep a journal or have a notes file in your phone, and write down your thoughts whenever youre feeling anxious. Its almost like youre transferring them out of your head and into your journal.
Doing this can also help you to see what youre thinking about more clearly and to challenge negative thinking. If youre having trouble challenging your thinking, you could try asking someone you trust or a therapist to help you out.
Terpenes And Prescribed Medication
Prescribed anti-anxiety medication may be slowly released in the body over a period of several hours, or it may be fast-acting and will begin to take effect immediately, hitting you all at once. If youre currently taking prescribed anti-anxiety medication, then its important to speak with your doctor and your pharmacist to determine if terpenes will have a negative impact on your treatment. Your doctor may be able to recommend a specific type of terpene to try that wont interfere with your current treatment, or they may suggest changing your prescription to one thats more effective. Since everyones brain chemistry is unique, it can be difficult to say how or if terpene use can impact the effectiveness of your current treatment or you. Most physicians will recommend starting with a very low dose and gradually increasing the dosage until you experience the ideal results. This is a process that can take several days, weeks, or even months if youre currently on other anti-anxiety meds.
Additionally, terpene use can also have an impact on other types of medications youre taking, which is why its always important to discuss any changes to your routine medication, whether its an all-natural product or an over the counter product.
Read Also: How To Deal With High Functioning Anxiety
Quick Stress Relief At Work
Meetings. During stressful sessions, stay connected to your breath. Massage the tips of your fingers. Wiggle your toes. Sip coffee.
On the phone. Inhale something energizing, like lemon, ginger, peppermint. While talking, stand up or pace back and forth to burn off excess energy, or take calls outside when possible.
On the computer. Work standing up. Do knee-bends in 10-minute intervals. Suck on a peppermint. Sip tea.
Lunch breaks. Take a walk around the block or in the parking lot. Listen to soothing music while eating. Chat with a colleague.
Your workspace. Place family photos on your desk or mementos that remind you of your life outside the office.
B Vitamins Create Feel
Some of the B vitamins are required for the production of neurotransmitters essential to the ability to relax and maintain a positive state of mind.
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is utilized in the synthesis of the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine.
This means that when youre stressed, there is less B6 available to perform its other functions.
For instance, vitamin B6 is essential to the formation of the feel-good neurotransmitters GABA, serotonin, and dopamine.
GABA
GABA is the brain chemical associated with relaxation.
When levels dip low, you may find yourself anxious, overstimulated, and overwhelmed, and youll find it hard to turn off your racing mind.
Serotonin
Serotonin is the happiness molecule.
Low levels of serotonin are linked to negative thinking, anxiety, insomnia, depression, and seasonal affective disorder.
Dopamine
Dopamine helps you get motivated and stay focused.
A low dopamine level will push you to rely on stimulants like caffeine, nicotine, and sugar to get through the day, further adding to your stress.
” Many unhealthy habits that people gravitate to when theyre stressed and anxious alcohol, caffeine, smoking, sugar, and recreational drugs deplete nutrients as well.
Vitamin B1
Vitamin B1 is a necessary cofactor for the production of GABA and acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter of memory and learning.
It also strengthens the immune system, helps regulate blood sugar, and improves the ability to withstand stressful conditions.
Vitamin B3
Recommended Reading: How To Get Rid Of Test Anxiety
Highly Effective Tips For Relieving Stress
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all option when it comes to stress relief, however. What works for one person might not work for another.
And what works for you at home might not be an option when you’re at work or in the community .
So it’s important to have a variety of stress relief tools at your disposal. Then, you’ll be able to pick a strategy that works best for your current circumstances.
Learn To Avoid Procrastination
Another way to take control of your stress is to stay on top of your priorities and stop procrastinating.
Procrastination can lead you to act reactively, leaving you scrambling to catch up. This can cause stress, which negatively affects your health and sleep quality .
Get in the habit of making a to-do list organized by priority. Give yourself realistic deadlines and work your way down the list.
Work on the things that need to get done today and give yourself chunks of uninterrupted time, as switching between tasks or multitasking can be stressful itself.
summary
Prioritize what needs to get done and make time for it. Staying on top of your to-do list can help ward off procrastination-related stress.
Yoga has become a popular method of stress relief and exercise among all age groups.
While yoga styles differ, most share a common goal to join your body and mind.
Yoga primarily does this by increasing body and breath awareness.
Some studies have examined yogas effect on mental health. Overall, research has found that yoga can enhance mood and may even be as effective as antidepressant drugs at treating depression and anxiety .
However, many of these studies are limited, and there are still questions about how yoga works to achieve stress reduction.
In general, the benefit of yoga for stress and anxiety seems to be related to its effect on your nervous system and stress response.
20 ).
Recommended Reading: What Ear Piercing Helps With Anxiety