Today many people are going through stress and anxiety. We all do. There is no one who claims to not have undergone stress and anxiety but no one think of the ways to reduce stress and anxiety from their lives. However, the reason and the effect of course vary. Some go through stress for a short time period and come out of it. Stress can last for a few hours to years. You might be stressed about your job, because of the ailing health of someone beloved and you might have an anxiety attack because of a financial loss.
Stress and anxiety, thereby are part of human life. We just need to learn to live with it, and most of us do! We do break down and being emotional about someone, a job, or any other thing is just natural. Being stressed about the death of a beloved is as natural as it could be. Yet living with the stress is not something positive! This is where you need to learn to reduce stress.
While I would recommend you to go to a doctor/therapist in case of unmanaged stress. Yet, I do hope my tips below will help you cope up with the stress and anxiety in your life.
What is stress?
As per traditions, let’s explore what we are talking about. What basically is stress? Stress is a term that is used in synonymous to the way the body reacts to a certain given situation. Stress has a negative connotation which means that how does your mood, behavior, and body reaction change with a given situation. You can have stress over small daily chores such as undone laundry to death, divorce, job loss, financial loss, etc.
The usual way a body responds under stress is high blood pressure, high heart-beat, uncontrolled emotions and thoughts, fear or anger.
Stress can be because of a good and positive event in life. A pregnant mother might be stressed about the delivery process, the hardworking employee can be stressed over the promotion he is getting.
What is anxiety?
The word refers to the anticipation of the future in a concerned manner. It is associated with tensions in muscles and avoiding behavior. An anxiety disorder is a situation where the patient tends to escape the situation in anticipation of a worse situation. According to the data, about 7% of US residents have a social anxiety disorder. Women have a higher percentage of developing anxiety disorder than men.
How to reduce stress and anxiety?
As I said, it is important to reduce stress in life. Prolonged stress is not something to live with. You need to reduce and get rid of it. Prolonged stress causes health disorders, converts into depression, and gives you an anxiety attack. You can certainly not avoid stress. How can you tell a student who has his career at stake to not take stress about his result which is due the other day? You cannot avoid stress, but certainly can reduce it! And here are a few tips by therapist and medical specialists:
1. Reducing alcohol
While they say that alcohol helps in relieving stress, this is not so. It triggers emotions and affects them in the worst possible manner. Once you wake up after taking alcohol, you feel even more stressed. Thus, in order to control your emotions, you need to avoid alcohol as much as you can.
2. Improve eating habits
Don’t eat too much or too less during stress. Check your diet. Eating too much or too less during stress is something common. Some people eat more in stress while some completely avoid it. This just adds more to your stress. Your body functions are disturbed which does not let you improve your mental condition. Remember, your eating habits do affect your mental health and the way you take the stress. A balanced diet helps in reducing stress.
3. Have some physical activities
Rather than locking up yourself and abandoning all physical activities, opt for one. Go for yoga, exercise, dance, aerobics, swimming, or any other activity that suits your age and preferences. This will help in combating stress.
4. Opt for relaxation techniques
Study about different relaxation techniques which can also help in putting you to sleep. A hot water bath, a deep breathing guide, muscle relaxation, massages, and other mind meditation help in relieving stress. There are many applications that guide stress-releaving techniques. You can also opt for it. For me, a hot oil massage on the foot and forehead helps in relieving stress and having a peaceful sleep!
5. Learn to value yourself
Start valuing yourself. Get organized. Time management is the key! Have time for yourself, your sleep, your hobbies, and your life! Stop being demanding with life. Start living it. Value yourself and your dreams. No event is too big to crush you. Pursue a new dream, and start fresh! Set priorities and become content with what you are left with!
6. Have Realistic goals
Have short-term realistic goals. Don’t stress out yourself with unrealistic goals. It’s okay not to be successful, remind yourself what success is. Remind yourself that failure cannot break you. Have short-term realistic goals to achieve your goal while not stressing about it. Be ambitious and motivated, but not stressful. Value the time you have to enjoy life rather than having unrealistic goals and not achieving
7. Have Self-Esteem
Build self-esteem. This will help in getting relaxed and stressing a lot. Do you know, that people with low self-esteem tend to be stressed over unrealistic things?
Summary
Here is a summary of tips for reducing stress:
- Have a positive attitude towards life
- have acceptability over failure and uncontrolled events
- Do not let the situations make you aggressive
- Become assertive
- opt for time management
- have a hobby
- start a physical activity
- sleep well
- avoid alcohol and drugs
- Seek treatment from a therapist
- Have positive changes in lifestyle
