How to reduce stress for better mental health
Stress is like an unfriendly guest that keeps refusing to leave our home. These days, our lives present countless sources of pressure, from work to personal relationships. While a bit of stress from all this is normal and maybe even beneficial, chronic stress can seriously harm your mental health. It can leave you overwhelmed, anxious, and emotionally drained.
Fortunately, stress is not a difficult thing to control. With a few proven techniques and a bit of mindfulness, you can easily build resilience to it and improve your overall wellbeing. So, keeping that in mind, let us discuss a few great ways that we can minimise stress in our daily lives.
What causes you stress in the first place?
Before we figure out how you can reduce your stress, we need to identify what stresses you out in the first place. For instance, deadlines at work may overwhelm one person, while social situations may present a challenge to another. Similarly, family responsibilities may be putting a lot of pressure on you, or perhaps it is all the financial worries that keep you awake at night.
The point is that all of us have triggers in our daily lives that cause stress, but they vary dramatically between individuals. You need to identify the things that cause you stress in particular. To this end, take some time to observe yourself. Notice when your mood suddenly takes a turn for the worse or when exactly your stress spikes throughout your day.
Knowing this will allow you to address the root cause directly or, at the very least, develop some coping strategies to manage your wellbeing. It’s always best if you can avoid the stressor entirely. But if not, you’ll need to create a toolkit to keep those stress levels low.
Tip 1: Move around to calm yourself
Taking a walk when things get tough is one of nature’s best stress relievers. This does not mean that you need to get a gym membership or engage in intense workouts. Even a brief 10-minute walk can do wonders for your mental health. The key here lies in the release of endorphins, a chemical our body produces during movement. One of its main jobs is to counter all the stress hormones in our body, such as cortisol and adrenaline.
To work on your endorphin production, all you need to do is find activities that you genuinely enjoy. It can be something as simple as dancing in your living room, playing with a pet, gardening, or swimming. Just focus on consistency over intensity, and you should be good to go.
Tip 2: Practice meditation and mindfulness
People tend to complicate the practice of meditation, but stress management really cannot get much simpler than this. Give yourself just five minutes to focus on your breath. Notice each inhale and exhale without any judgment. Let whatever thoughts that come fly by like clouds in the sky, while gently returning your focus on the breath. That’s all there is to it.
This simple practice can help your mind stay in the present. It will help you avoid all the annoying spirals into thoughts of the future or the past. Try doing this daily: it can literally change how you respond to stressful situations.
Tip 3: Cultivate some gratitude in your life
It’s simple: You need to have a glass-half-full mindset towards all aspects of life. Practising gratitude can help you do so, shifting your focus from what’s wrong to what’s right in your life. Of course, that’s not to say that you should ignore all the real problems in your life. Those are very real and very deserving of your attention. But what also deserves our attention are all the positive moments in life that pass us by unacknowledged.
If you want to try this, start small: Each morning, identify just three things that you feel grateful for. They can be anything – how tasty your morning coffee was, an unexpected text from a friend, or having a warm bed to sleep on. Once you’ve identified them, write them down. That’s all there is to it. Doing this every day can literally rewrite your brain’s chemistry, letting you maintain a sense of optimism even in the most difficult of times.
Tip 4: Journal your way to clarity
When you find yourself stuck in a fog full of thoughts, a bit of journaling is the lantern that can help you find your way back to calm. It provides a judgment-free zone where you are free to express your fears, frustrations, and hopes without any worry.
There’s a reason why so many people swear by journaling. Engaging in this small ritual alone can take away nearly all the stress from your body, giving you the clarity of thought required to function. Give it a try and let your thoughts flow onto the paper. You most certainly won’t regret it.
Tip 5: Get quality sleep every night
When you’re tired due to lack of sleep, even the smallest of problems will feel enormous, and your emotional stability will suffer dramatically. As such, trying to get some good quality sleep every night forms the basis for stress management.
So, even if you don’t try anything else, make sure to at least establish a routine to fall into a deep slumber. This routine can involve anything that helps you wind down, from reading to meditating. Along with this, keep your bedroom cool and dark so you can sleep comfortably. Most importantly, avoid looking at any screen for at least an hour before lying down, as doing so can interfere with your sleep cycles.
Tip 6: Carve out some me-time
One of the best things one can do to take care of their mental health is to take some time out for themselves. This me-time can involve anything that relaxes your mind – reading, taking baths, pursuing hobbies, or sitting with your thoughts for a while. What’s most important for this time to be a success is that you protect it fiercely. Schedule it just as you would any critical appointment and let your loved ones know about it.
Tip 7: Laugh, laugh, and laugh
Many tend to take this lightly, but laughter truly is a medicine backed by solid research. When we laugh, our body releases endorphins while suppressing the previously mentioned stress hormones. Not only that, but your immune system gets a nice boost from it, and all the tensed muscles in your body relax back to normal.
All these benefits mean that you must seek what makes you laugh. It can be comedy shows, funny podcasts, or time with that one friend who always makes you chuckle. Just don’t wait for the right time to laugh—pursue it, not just to remove all the stress from your life but to rediscover joy in the everyday.
Tip 8: Nurture your social connections
Humans are inherently social creatures, and having strong relationships is a significant source of support against life’s inevitable stresses. Of course, the quality of the relationship is of tremendous importance here. A few close relationships can far outweigh any number of superficial connections.
At the same time, these relationships don’t grow on their own. You will need to make time for people who lift you. Just don’t wait for others to reach out first, as taking the initiative to maintain relationships really strengthens these vital connections.
Tip 9: Talk it out
Sometimes, the weight of stress can feel too much to bear alone. When this happens, talk to lighten the load. Talking about your worries with your loved ones can not only provide new perspectives that you may have missed, but it can also be a great source of emotional relief.
That being said, you may find yourself in a situation that may require professional support. If stress is significantly impacting your daily functioning, consider speaking with a qualified psychiatrist in London. These mental health professionals offer specialised tips and strategies tailored to your specific needs, helping you develop more effective coping mechanisms.
Building your stress management toolkit
All of these techniques work best when combined. When you want to get started, choose two that resonate the most and consistently work on them. As these two become regular habits, try to incorporate others. The more tools you try in conjunction, the easier it will be to reduce your stress.
Remember: The path to improving your mental health can feel difficult at first. Some days will certainly feel more challenging than others, and there may even be times when you feel like giving up on these habits. Just be patient with yourself as these habits grow and work their magic. With this mindset, you’ll undoubtedly reduce your stress and gain back joy in your everyday life.
