How to manage stress in your life? What are good stress busters?
In this rapidly evolving world, with lots of unwanted incidents happening it’s quite natural to get stressed. Whether it’s politics, religion, your own personal life or villain of the decade ‘coronavirus’, you are always prone to a stressful life. That’s unavoidable.
But this stress is causing a lot of damage to your health, not just mental health but physical too. Increase in stress is directly related to a decrease in your overall well being. Moreover, stress is a risk factor for many diseases. So it becomes obvious why you should manage stress in your life.
You know now why stress should be managed. But how you can manage the stress.
Before discussing the possible methods of managing stress, you should first be able to recognise that there is stress in your life. You can solve a problem only when you first realise that there is a problem.
How to recognise if you have stress in your life?
There are many signs of stress which you can easily recognise like getting angry or irritated easily, more often than you used to be. Your quality of sleep gets disturbed. You experience mild irritating headaches or lately, you are having more episodes of stomach upsets. All these are stress signals of your body.
Ok, now you have learned to identify the stress in your life. But what are various factors in your life which are causing you stress?
It could be anything like your family, friends, partner, work, school/college, health issues or money problems.
Alright, you learned you are under stress, you know why you are stressed, now let’s jump to the possible ways by which you can manage your stress.
1. Don’t adopt unhealthy stress relief practices.
Whenever we get stressed, we start using unhealthy methods to relieve stress like eating a lot of junk food, smoking, using drugs or drinking alcohol, sleeping too much. You may feel relieved for a moment but in the long term, they are doing more damage than good. With these habits, you’ll face weight gain/obesity issues and that will invite a lot of diseases, more addition to the stress.
2. Divide your stress factors into 2 categories.
Factors which you can change and factors which you can’t change because they are not under your control. This will give you more clarity and you will be able to invest more of your resources into things which you can change while letting go of things which you can’t change.
3. Don’t get involved in situations which are likely to give you stress.
For Example, Many time people have a different opinion about your religion or your favourite sports/athlete/actor and you don’t agree with them. Instead of arguing with them and getting yourself unnecessary stress, just respect their opinion and move on. You don’t even realise how many times you are giving yourself unnecessary stress which can easily be avoided.
4. Exercise regularly or do some physical activity
It can be anything like brisk walking, cycling, swimming or get your muscles flexed in the gym. Our brain releases stress-relieving hormones when we perform physical activities. Believe me, it is one of the best stress busters.
5. Be positive
We all go through some problems in our lives. And the next thing we do is curse our luck for all the miseries. That just adds to the stress. So instead of saying “Why this is happening to me”, think about the possible solutions. Our brain is so powerful, we just don’t appreciate it’s potential. We can overcome any problem if spend more time on finding solutions that cursing our bad luck.
6. Spend time with people you love
Socialising with family and friends can give you new hope and encouragement to do better in life. Spend time with people who appreciate you and love you, with whom you can share your problems. Avoid toxic people around you, those who always find negativity in everything. You need to stay positive.
7. Do stuff which makes you happy
It could be anything like playing music, watching your favourite movie, reading a good book, or go on a solo drive. You have to make time for yourself and things you love.
8. Get a hobby or Learn something new
It can be anything like cooking, playing some instruments, or anything that makes you feel good.
9. Do meditation or yoga.
You can learn from various sources like books, class or even online videos. They are effective methods to relieve stress.
10. Get enough sleep
Your body needs 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep to feel better. Getting a good sleep refreshes your mind and makes you capable of doing tasks more efficiently. If you have trouble sleeping then you can listen to relaxing music before going to bed.
11. Eat healthy Food
Avoid foods rich in sugar and refined carbs. Focus on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat and fat-free dairy.
12. Stop being a people pleaser
And lastly, it’s time to stop pleasing everyone. You have to set some boundaries. You have to accept that you can’t make everyone happy at the cost of your own happiness. Time to make yourself happy first. There’s no point in pleasing people who don’t appreciate your worth.
Follow these methods and live a stress-free and happy life !!
