Everyone experiences some form of stress in their life, whether it’s from work, relationships, finances, families, or just the challenges that life throws at us daily. It can feel all-consuming and begin to affect your quality of life if you don’t take action to reduce it.
In fact, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, long-term stress can contribute to a wide range of health problems, from headaches and sleep issues to anxiety and depression.
So what can we do to reduce stress and avoid more serious health problems? The good news is that by taking small steps every day to counteract stress and introduce healthy habits, you can transform your mental health.
Reducing stress benefits not only your mental health but also your physical health and relationships. Read on to find out about a few things you can do to reduce stress, naturally.
Nutritional Supplements
The first port of call for many people looking for effective stress management is nutritional supplements. For example, Ashwagandha supplements (also known as KSM-66) contain powerful herbal ingredients that offer a natural way to help your body manage stress and anxiety.
There is also evidence that suggests Magnesium can reduce stress, ease insomnia and help maintain healthy sleep patterns. Magnesium is, in fact, the second most common deficiency among adults, for which supplements are an effective quick-fix.
Exercise
Whether you’re a fitness fanatic or you dread the idea of a gym, keeping your body active has been proven to reduce anxiety and relieve mental stress. This is because as stated by experts on https://novagenix.org/hormone-therapy/, exercise has a powerful effect on your hormones, simultaneously lowering your cortisol (stress hormone) levels and releasing endorphins (chemicals that boost mood and act as natural painkillers).
This doesn’t mean you need to become a long-distance runner to see the benefits – any movement for your body is beneficial, even just a half an hour walk. Taking control of your physical health can have excellent benefits for your mental health as you begin to feel more confident in the power of your body.
Start A Journal
While supplements and exercise are helpful options for reducing existing stress, journaling is an effective way to get to the root of your stress and begin to prevent more stress from occurring. Sometimes writing down something that’s causing anxiety can help to put it in perspective.
Another important aspect of journaling is writing down things that you’re grateful for. By switching your focus to positive affirmations rather than negative emotions, you can begin to train your brain to be more resilient to stressful situations.
Spend Time With Family & Friends
When you’ve got something bothering you or making you feel overwhelmed, there’s nothing better than offloading to friends and family or using their company as the perfect distraction. Talking through something stressful can often help you find a resolution and feel a weight lifted.
Friends and family are your free sources of talking therapy, so make the most of it! They’re the people that know you best, so they are likely to know what to say to make you feel supported through your negative emotions.
Schedule In ‘Me-Time’
With busy lives and increasingly demanding schedules, many of us forget to schedule in time that is simply dedicated to whatever makes us feel good. This might mean making more time for socialising, cooking yourself a tasty meal or doing a form of exercise.
Whatever your ‘me-time’ looks like, this time allows you to relax and release stressful emotions, it also asserts to yourself that your mental health is worth making time for. Structuring a set period of time for yourself, and making this a habit, is an essential part of self-care; it allows you to check in with yourself and really take stock of what’s causing you stress.
Hopefully, this post has given you a few ideas about how you can improve the way you deal with stress to reduce it and become happier and healthier.
Learning what stress-reducing methods work for you is a process, but you can begin to tackle your stress head-on by understanding your body and what it needs.
