7 ways to manage stress better
As long as you are alive, you cannot avoid stress. Stress can be caused by a number of reasons, namely, a marital separation, death of a loved and near one, unemployment, increase in financial commitments and financial instability, relocating to a new place (home or office), emotional upheavals in life, and emotional disturbances that cause turmoil that include depression, anxiety, guilt, anger, loss of self confidence, and so on.
How to tame stress?
Stress is unavoidable so you have to live with it. But it does not mean that it starts controlling your mind and body. There are ways to minimize the effects of stress on your mind and body. Let us find out how you can tackle stress. Go through the following measures:
1. Ventilate and share – This is one of the most effective ways to relieve stress. If you are undergoing mental upheavals, it is best to talk to someone and ventilate your feelings. This has been suggested not just by experts in various health blog but many journals and wellness magazines hold the same opinion.
2. Meditate – Meditation not only enhances concentration and focus, you can prevent your mind from drifting away. Stay focused and you will be able to tackle problems better.
3. Indulge in recreational activities – Do what you enjoy. It can be just listening to music, taking a stroll with your pet, playing an outdoor game with your spouse, children or friends, reading your favorite book, cooking, dancing, playing a musical instrument or simply swimming.
4. Stay calm because nothing is permanent – Whenever you are facing an adverse situation, instead of shouting your lungs out and getting agitated, stay calm, work out a strategy that can help you overcome the situation. Remember, a particular situation does not last forever. “The only thing that is constant is change”.
5. Get adequate sleep – Not getting adequate sleep might take a toll on your health if you are already under stress. Sleep and get rid of the blues.
6. Write down your feelings – If you do not have someone that can lend his ears to you, don’t bother. Write down in a piece of paper what you feel. It has been proved that you tend to feel much better.
7. Exercise – Last but not the least, if you go for brisk walking or prefer to perform just free hand exercises, you feel much better. And if you are already a member of a gym and hit the gym quite often, you can sweat it out by doing some light cardio exercises.
As a result of stress, it is not just the mind that is affected but you tend to develop many disorders. Basically, lifestyle ailments are the long-term effects of anxiety and stress that include cardiac ailments, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, depression, hormonal imbalances, panic disorders, and the list can just go on.
Remember, there is a close association between the mind and the body. This can be better understood with the help of an example. If you are depressed, you tend to have sugar and food cravings and when you eat junk food, you become obese or overweight, and being overweight or obese leads to several lifestyle diseases as mentioned above. It is a vicious cycle that will ultimately harm you not just mentally but also physically.