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Stress can be a major factor in life. It can block up your emotions, wear down your mind, and seriously affect your weight and overall physical condition. While it’s easy to become aware of what is stressing you out, though, doing something to combat that stress in your day-to-day life can be a challenge.
Here are five simple, straightforward ways to address the stress. They start with taking hold of the situation in your mind and then move on to physical, tangible activities aimed at busting you out of that stressful slump.
1. Become More Aware
It all starts with awareness. Whether you’re a new retiree figuring out a life outside of work, a parent with an infant in your arms, or a freshman struggling on campus, it’s always important to look for what is causing your stress.
And it’s the very diversity of those situations that proves the point. Stress isn’t something you encounter at a specific time or during a certain event in life. It can be present in nearly any situation. In fact, stress, in and of itself, can be a very good thing. It can help you avoid negative situations and can help you take care of yourself and those you love.
But, of course — and you saw this one coming, right? — too much stress is a bad thing. That’s why, if you feel you’re beginning to physically or mentally suffer from stress, it’s important to take the time to identify the stressors in your life. While each person needs to find their own way to do this, a few ways to begin this discovery process include:
- Taking the time to sit and meditate on a regular basis.
- Verbally processing things with someone you trust.
- Taking your concerns to a mental health professional like a college counselor.
2. Practice Positive Thinking
As you take the time to identify what is causing your stress, it’s also essential that you begin to actively practice positive thinking. Stress can have the nasty side effect of causing you to obsess over the negative. It crowds out the good and perpetually fills your mind with the things that are concerning you.
Rather than buckle to the stress, begin to take time to regularly practice your positive thinking. At first, approaching this as a discipline may feel strange and even disingenuine, but remember that you’re establishing a mental habit. If you can faithfully work on shifting your attitude, eventually it will become second nature. A few suggestions for how to practice positive thinking include:
- Accepting that you have feelings and that’s okay, as long as you take the time to properly process them.
- Taking time to think before you react — in other words, don’t rush your responses.
- Trying to meditate and/or pray on a regular basis.
- Actively practicing forgiveness.
- Purposefully counting your blessings on a regular basis.
- Choosing to socialize with those who calm you down, not those who stress you out.
3. Eat Healthier
Now it’s time to get to actual physicalities. Once you’ve taken steps to address the sources of stress in your mind and the world around you, it’s time to take some tangible steps to address them in your daily life as well — and a good place to start is with your diet.
Keeping your body properly fueled is a critical part of a healthy, stress-free lifestyle. Start by trying to eat out less. Instead, buy healthy ingredients you can cook at home. Schedule your meals ahead of time when possible and try to find simple meal prep recipes that can make it easier for you to stay on track with your diet.
In addition to overhauling the way you eat, consider looking for new health food items that you can add to your diet. These can both nourish your body and give you something exciting and new to help take your mind off of the stresses around you. A few interesting new health foods you may want to try include:
- Seaweed
- Kefir
- Edible bird’s nests
4. Be More Active
If you’re feeling stressed out, chances are you do a lot of things already. Doing is far different from actually being active, though. One great way to combat stress is to try to find ways to incorporate more activity into your day.
This could be something as simple as walking the dog, taking up yoga, or signing up for a disc golf league. On the other hand, it could be as complex as launching into a new fitness regimen like CrossFit or training to run a marathon. Whatever you choose to do, look for positive ways to be more active that fit into your schedule without adding more stress.
5. Unplug Occasionally
Finally, there’s unplugging. Everyone spends too much time on their smartphones these days, and the side effects can be serious. It can impact your body, emotions, and mind. Try to set “phone hours” during which you allow yourself to use your phone and then turn it off the phone before bed, early in the morning, and maybe even on the weekends.
If you can regularly detach from the stresses of social media, the mindlessness of endless internet surfing and the harmfulness of blue light, chances are you’ll feel much less overall stress.
Combatting Stress
And there you have it. Five great ways to combat stress. Dealing with stress is a serious business and it takes commitment and focus to truly embrace a lifestyle aimed at reducing your stress levels.
However, each of these tips can serve as great starting points as you launch into the journey of fighting for a life where stress no longer controls your every thought and decision.
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