Written By: Yashika Sabharwal
5 Best Science-Backed Ways to Relieve Stress and Relax
Mental illness and stress can have a variety of causes such as family problems, job problems, and disputes, financial difficulties, ill health, or even the demise loss of someone close to you. It is always important to identify the causes of stress and sometimes the stress is natural. One has to take some steps to deal with the root of the problem, and then only they can tackle the symptoms.
Relax, take Pause and Breath. You deserve it, Relaxation is good for you, and this process takes less time than you think.
“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”~Amit Ray
You never need a luxury spa or retreat dinners for relaxing. Each of our stress-relieving tips can get you from OMG to WOW in less than 15 minutes.
Try cumulative relaxation
Try self-hypnosis, which is a very simple relaxation technique and can be done anywhere, you can do it even at your desk or in the car. Another very simple example of this technique is to focus on a specific ‘word’ or ‘phrase’ that has a positive meaning to you.
Cumulative Relaxation also includes normal exercise like – Start Relaxing all the way from fingers to toes (contract and relax) and then release each muscle group in the body. Start with the lower arm, upper arm, chest, back, abdominals, and the overall body. Once the whole body is relaxed, the mind will eventually relax soon.
Avoid Caffeine, Alcohol, and Tobacco
Reduce and at least avoid the intake of alcoholic as well as tobacco products, your consumption of caffeine and nicotine products can make your mind dull according to researchers. Any drinks containing caffeine and alcohol is regarded as a stress booster. Caffeine and Tobacco are stimulants and so will increase your level of stress rather than reduce it.
Alcoholic drinks are regarded as a depressant when it is taken in large quantities, it proves to be more stressful. Therefore, the usage of alcoholic drinks as a way to alleviate your stress is not very helpful.
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Swap caffeinated and alcoholic drinks with the drinking of water, herbal teas, and diluted natural fruit juices, which keeps you hydrated and enable your body to cope better with stress. It also benefits your body’s metabolism and skin tone.
Indulge in Physical Activity
Sometimes the targeted exercise goes a long way toward freeing your body of stress hormones and increasing your endorphin levels – responsible for feelings of happiness. Carve out your time during any busy day to indulge in exercise for both purposes – keeping your body healthy and as a result, it naturally burst out your stress.
However, the stress in the modern lifestyle is quite rarely remedied by anything and so physical exercise can be useful as a surrogate treatment to metabolize the excessive stress from your hormones and restore your body stress level and mind to a calmer healthy life which is, more relaxed.
When you feel stressed and tense with any situation of life, go for a healthy walk in the fresh air. Try to incorporate yourself with some physical activity into your daily routine on a regular basis. You can either plan it before or after work or after lunchtime simple walk. Regular physical activity such as gyming and yoga will also improve the quality of your sleep.
Get More Sleep
Lack of proper sleep is a very significant cause of stress during your coming day or at the office and anywhere. Unfortunately, the stress also interrupts your way of proper sleep so it is contradictory to sleep and stress. As oceans of thoughts keep pondering through our heads, it stops your mind to work or interrupt your relaxing time to fall asleep.
Take a bubble bath or warm bath with some reading and calming, it will help you better sleep and eliminate the stress from your body. Also take a few minutes to relax your body, try to tire your eyes and mind that help you forget about the things that worry you during the day.
One should also aim to go to bed at the same specific time each day so that your mind and body get used to it and it will be your predictable bedtime routine.
Light a Candle and write your journal
Using the essential oils every night or burning a scented candle may help you reduce your feelings and help you to be energetic in mood whenever you feel down. Some candles and their scents are especially soothing and made for stress relieving. Here are some of the most calming scents:
- Lavender
- Rose
- Roman chamomile
- Neroli
- Sandalwood
Using this kind of scents to treat your mood is accelerating and used to be called aromatherapy. Several research and studies show that aromatherapy can decrease anxiety and improve your sleep with minoring the stress.
Keeping a Stress Diary and journal may be the one best way to effectively relieve from the stress-related symptoms. The gratitude of keeping the journal best in a fancy diary and cute pens can really help you to put things in a better perspective. So pick your daily time and make your routine according to that every day, by writing down a few things that make you happy and results in stress to get out of you.
To your Dear Diary, note down the date, time and place of each stressful episode as well as the happy phase. Afterward, note down what you were doing, who you were meeting with, and how you felt about yourself both physically and emotionally. Give every stressful time a stress rating and mark improvement. Use your diary to understand what is going through your life from past episodes and what triggers your stress. Try to find out how effective you are in stressful situations. This whole writing and soothing candles interlude will help you enable yourself more and avoid stressful mechanisms.
Apart from these five proven facts, there are some other general ways by which you can easily boost yourself over the stress:-
- Snack on fruit and nuts
- Get yourself a dog
- Smile more to less stress
- Watch a Comedy movie or thing
- Think of Happy Memories… and Don’t Dwell on the Past
- Have a cup of tea Drink chamomile tea
- Massage reduces the stress hormone cortisol
- Walk in the woods Take a walk: Nature
- Regular vacations
- Get honest with yourself about your job and life
- Do an art project – Be creative
- Practice meditation and join some yoga
- Solve Crossword Puzzles to energize the mind
- Add Some Indoor Plants for positivity
- Express Yourself by Writing
- Join a religious community or go to religious temples weekly
- Spend Time with Friends and Family
- Chewing gum
- Engage in physical intimacy
- Dark Chocolate: a delicious stress reliever
- Aware mindfulness
- Fix your diet and supplementation
- Play video games of your choice
- Schedule time for emails.
- Music: Listen to Soothing Music
- Laugh Out Loud – Spread smiles
- Reduce the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs
- Talk to someone – Go out with friends
- Schedule time to recharge: proper sleep
- Write your stresses out on paper: Journal
- Indulge in some light reading- daily reading
