It’s not easy to avoid stress in your life. Everyone experiences stress – big and small.
From running late and overworking yourself to forgetting an important date or any number of feelings and events you might go through, it’s almost impossible to get rid of stress. But what is possible, is to learn to manage it in your day-to-day life so that it doesn’t consume you.
Knowing how to manage your stress helps you be happy, and live the life you want and deserve.
So, how exactly do you effectively manage stress?
1. Find Balance
One of the most common factors in stress is the lack of balance between the many areas of your life, but often specifically between work and personal life.
Your whole life should not revolve around your job. You need time to do things you love outside of work.
You need time away from work and at home, relaxing, where you do not think about work at all. Once the workday is done, find ways to leave work at work and focus on yourself.
The idea of well-being is to integrate the many areas of your life that make up a complete and whole person.
This includes mental, physical, emotional, occupational, financial, spiritual, and community or social well-being.
They’re all equally important areas to focus on, but we have done a horrible job in our society differentiating and prioritizing areas outside of our career.
Make sure you also schedule some time to socialize and go on adventures. Basically, do what you need to do to feel content. Take all the time off work you’re given.
Work should never take over your personal life completely. Finding separation and balance between the two is super important for your stress levels and your overall health. Work isn’t everything.
If you want to learn more about this important topic, I wrote a book a few years back that is even more relevant today than it was back then. It’s called Back to Balance. You can purchase it on Amazon or if you’d a signed copy, you can get it here on my website.
Get Enough Sleep
The lack of sleep can cause a lot of stress and make situations seem more stressful than they are. Doing anything when you’re sleep-deprived is ten times harder than it should be.
Lots of people lose sleep because they feel like they don’t have enough time in the day to accomplish everything they need to, but that isn’t true most of the time.
If you’ve slept well, you will actually get things done much more quickly and effectively than if you’re sleep-deprived. Sleep-deprivation makes the margin for error much larger, therefore, causing more stress when a mistake is made, resulting taking more time to fix it.
Sleep affects our memory, mood, circadian rhythm, alertness, performance, cognitive functions, weight, stress levels, and so much more.
If there is one thing I can stress as the most important thing to uplevel your health, it is this. Sleep and its effect on your body and mind cannot be overstated.
Practice Breathing
Breathing exercises are proven to help cope with stress and stressful situations, especially in the heat of the moment. They help you relax, think, and focus on what’s important before the stress takes over.
The next time you start to feel stressed or something frustrating and stressful has been dropping on you, take a minute or two to consciously take long, deep breaths. Maybe even finding a quiet area, where you can close your eyes to do this.
There are lots of different breathing exercises you can look into. Whatever you do depends on what works for you and what you need in the moment.
You can try brief, minute-long breathing exercises, as well as longer, more intense ones. There’s something for anything and everyone.
My favorites are:
- Alternate nostril breathing
- Breathing in for 4 seconds, holding for 4 seconds, breathing out for 8 seconds
- Breath of fire (this one takes some practice and actually involves the whole body)
Meditation and Yoga
Meditation and Yoga also have a similar effect. If you have a lot of stress in your life and have never tried either of these options, give them a try! They’re totally worth it.
Many years ago, I led a 30-day Yoga challenge on YouTube. If you’re a beginner and don’t know how to start, check it out and learn a new pose a day.
For meditation, there are a number of guided online sessions. Or you can simply start with a technique of counting from 1 to 10 as a perfectly effective form of meditation. To do this:
- Set yourself up in a comfortable seated position.
- Set a soft alarm chime to alert you when your meditation time is done (Start with 2 minutes and slowly increase that to 10-20 minutes over time).
- Close your eyes.
- Start counting from 1 to 10 in your mind (silently).
- When you notice a thought popping into your mind, start over with your count at 1 (Note: Most of us will not get past 1 or 2 before an invasive thought creeps in. This is normal).
- Continue this for your set period of time.
- When the time is up, slowly open your eyes. Give yourself time, from a few seconds to a minute, to relax and come back to the room.
Calming Supplements and Herbs
We all know that what we put in our body significantly impacts how we feel. Obvious examples of this are children’s behavior after consuming excessive sugar or adults after ingesting too much alcohol. Luckily, there are ways to calm the body and mind using supplements and herbs.
My two favorite things to take to calm myself are CBD and specific herbal tea blends. Wellness Collection has many CBD options, from CBD softgels and CBD tinctures to CBD gummies. All have different properties and benefits, but the CBD Melatonin Softgels combine two powerful ingredients that assist the body in falling asleep. All the others are great for non-bedtime use.
Another great option is various herbal tea blends. My absolute favorite is the Sleepy Time tea, but you can find other great options like chamomile, lavender, passionflower, and licorice root tea.
Special tip: Licorice root tea and sleepy time tea pair perfectly in flavor and calming benefits!
Connecting with Nature
Maintaining a connection with nature is a very underrated way of keeping our stress levels in check. This can be as simple as taking a walk in the park or the woods, or sitting by the seaside and enjoying the sounds of the waves, both of which have therapeutic benefits.
Nature can extend to animals or living plants as well. We often find relaxation when hearing the songs of the birds or watching the wild animals at play.
In fact, there’s an entire study of a therapeutic technique that comes from “grounding” or “earthing,” which is the connection of our bodies to the earth that results in several health benefits.
While this might sound a bit hokey, the science supporting it actually makes a lot of sense. The earth has negatively charged electrons that help to neutralize free radicals, provide immunity-boosting properties, and give antioxidants when connected to the body.
Humans achieve grounding by coming into physical contact with the earth. This can be through gardening (without gloves), walking barefoot on the earth, or using specially designed blankets, mats, and products that bring grounding into the home.
Final Word
Everyone deals with stress. It’s a part of life, but it doesn’t need to take over your life. Everyone can learn to manage stress, and it is incredibly wise to learn to do so. It’ll make you happier and healthier both mentally, physically, and emotionally. Stress doesn’t have to win. You can beat it!
