It’s common to feel stress at times in your life, but when chronic stress takes over, it can cause physical ailments and reduce the quality of your mental health. Chronic stress is the cause of a lot of physical illnesses, especially coronary artery disease. Un-stressed people are better able to dispel their negative feelings and find themselves feeling happier and more optimistic, which in turn has physical health benefits.
If you are keen about preventing any kind of illness, you may want to safeguard your emotional and physical well-being with the strategies below to help you reduce stress in your life.
De-Clutter and De-Stress
Let go of the old, so that you can make space for the new. The clutter that builds up in your home, at work and even in your vehicle can cause unneeded stress.
Take out time to tidy up each day. This can help you ease your mind and become more productive and accomplished. You will also feel instant calm and relief with a very tangible sense of having done something.
Give Yourself Time
Being in a hurry always can have you stressed constantly. It is best to always expect delays and give yourself more time each day. Expect stress because it happens – don’t be surprised by a traffic jam, a flat tire or an equipment breakdown.
Allow extra time for things that take longer than you think because time pressure causes people to by chronically stressed.
Keep a Journal Entry Of What You Are Grateful For
It is way easier to notice when things go wrong and stress helps to amplify these thoughts. The more you see going wrong. An easy way to build your stress resilience is to keep a gratitude journal, detailing at least five good things about your life each day.
Your journal should help you notice the good things hapoening in your life. This helps you shift the perspective away from negativity and balance your emotions accordingly.
Get a Pet
Pets are often the key to calming you when anxiety takes over. If you’re feeling stressed, you may want to consider getting a pet you can take for a walk. Pets give us so much affection and allow us to give them affection.
Grooming a pet can give a soothing respite from your busy and stressful life.
Give Back
Alleviate some stress and share the benefits of your time and care with the needy. Random acts of kindness can help you to focus on the needs of others versus the challenges in your life that are causing stress.
Volunteering, such as at a motherless babies home, may help you alleviate stress while lifting your mood. Since depression and stress involve a focus on the inner world, focusing on others shifts your thinking.
Helping others can help activate the feel-good hormones in the brain, such as oxytocin.
Sleep It Off
If you feel stressed or anxious, it may be likely that you’re not getting enoug sleep each night. A lack of sleep affects your level of stress significantly. Experts recommend at least seven to nine hours per day for adults.
People who are good sleepers are stronger than bad sleepers at handling distracting thoughts and controlling their emotions. One quick and easy way to alleviate stress is to get serious about your sleep.
Let Go Of Toxic Friendships
Friends are an essential component of your social well-being, but when toxic relationships are elevating your stress level, it may be time to let go of your toxic friends. cut toxic friends loose. Take a step back and assess your stress level when interacting with friends to determine if the friendship is worth keeping.
If you find out that it isn’t, cherish the good times you had, the lessons you learned and move on.
Learn To Say No
It’s natural to want to please others, but when agreeing to requests and favours that leave you feeling stressed, you may want to learn to say “no” for your own sake.
Limit your commitments with one little word to relieve some stress. Sometimes, we are fearful that people may not like us if we do not comply with their requests, but if at your expense, you want to make sure you are taking care of yourself first before taking care of others.