8 Ways to Manage Your Stress

Stress can cause your health to deteriorate. It’s not uncommon for outside stressors to cause physical symptoms. You might start experiencing migraines or have trouble falling asleep. In addition to the obvious problems plaguing your body, you also have to deal with long-term consequences. Stress has been linked to serious cardiovascular and other health problems.

Learning how to deal with stress is a necessary skill if you want to survive in the world. Without a solid coping technique, you can easily become overwhelmed.

The following tips aren’t magic cures, but if you adopt them you might see a great change in your life.

1. Get More Sleep

The quality of your sleep has a profound effect on your life. No one can survive if they don’t get enough sleep. If you’re moderately sleep deprived, you might feel hungry or irritable. If the problem becomes severe, you could end up in the hospital or even die.

Most adults need around eight hours of sleep every night. It can be tough to achieve this if you have a busy job. Getting ahead in a competitive world requires putting in hours. Help yourself by coming up with tricks to make yourself fall asleep faster.

Try turning off your electronics at least an hour before bed. While it can be tempting to lounge in your room watching TV, consider devoting the space to resting. You don’t want your brain to associate lying in bed with staring at a screen.

2. Exercise

You can’t talk about a strategy to reduce stress without mentioning exercise. It’s one of the best ways to combat anxiety naturally. Exercise helps your body and mind.

You don’t need to transform into a mega athlete to experience benefits. You just need to get your heart pumping multiple times a week.

Pick activities that you love to do and it won’t seem like such a chore. Ideas include:

• Skiing
• Long walks with your dog
• Joining a local sports team
• A fitness class at the gym

3. Call a Friend

Sometimes stress builds because you don’t feel as though your feelings are being appreciated. You feel ignored and like no one is paying attention to you. Speaking to a close friend can help alleviate these feelings.

If it’s hard to talk about the troubles in your life, talk about something else. Just knowing that someone else cares about you can be enough to dispel your angry, negative thoughts.

Make the call whenever you’re feeling down in the dumps. It’s a quick, easy way to connect to another human being.

4. Use Aroma

Aromatherapy has been shown to have an effect on our moods. There are many ways that you can get the scent. You can burn a stick of incense or light a candle. Or you can try using scented oils.

Certain scents are associated with calming sensations.

5. Cut Out Caffeine

Caffeine can make you feel jittery and nervous. Multiple studies have shown that consuming too much caffeine can increase your anxiety. If you’re trying to be calmer, look to your diet. How much coffee are you drinking? How much soda?

Cut out caffeine entirely if you want the maximum effect. It’ll be challenging at first if you’re used to drinking coffee or soda every day. However, you can make it easier by gradually reducing your intake.

6. Chew Gum

Smoking is associated with a host of negative health consequences. Doing something with your hands or mouth, however, has been shown to reduce stress. Instead of smoking, try chewing gum. It’s cheap, easy to find, and can even improve your oral health.

Pop a piece into your mouth the next time you’re feeling stressed out.

7. Laugh

Laughter has healing properties. It’s hard to hate the world when you’re having a blast and can’t stop laughing. In addition, laughing physically forces you to relax the muscles in your mouth. When your hackles are raised and you feel defensive, your entire body tenses up.

Hang out with your funny friends and family members. If that’s not an option, go online. You can find hilarious videos online for free.

8. See a Professional

Sometimes your stress becomes too hard to manage on your own. When that happens, it’s time to see a licensed mental health care provider. Psychiatry in Fort Myers, Florida, for instance, is a thriving field. It has to be to meet the needs of the population.

Comprehensive MedPsych Systems’ website notes that they provide: “Emotional & behavioral support & counseling: Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), hypnosis, family/child therapy, stress management, art therapy, sports psychology” among other services.

Dealing with the stressors in your life doesn’t have to be overwhelming. There are strategies you can use to make life easier.