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Healthy Ways to Relieve Stress
Healthy ways relieve stress as such habits prevent many health conditions associated with stress, such as stroke, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Healthy habits will also improve your physical appearance and improve your mental health giving you a positive outlook towards life.
Therefore, you must take care of yourself by maintaining healthy habits. These are easy to build in your daily routine and the benefits are tremendous. If you’ve not cultivated them yet, the pandemic provides an excellent avenue to start building on those habits. Here are nine vital, healthy bits you need to cultivate to reduce stress.
1. Slow down
Naturally, the extra time we now have in our hands can be tempting. Without care, we might try doing every little task, hobby, or other activity to pass the time. Although this seems like a great idea, it isn’t. To avoid depleting your mental stores, you need to slow down.
Sure, you must allow enough time for the most important things, but you don’t need to push yourself too hard. Make sure you set aside lots of ‘me’ time to recharge. Don’t let the hustle and bustle of life stop you from taking care of your needs, especially during these trying times. Take breaks from responsibilities and simply recharge.
2. Laugh it up
Laughter is a great way to build a positive and take-charge approach. It can help manage and protect you from the rampaging effects of stress. Laughter lightens your burdens, builds hope, and keeps you grounded. It can also help you connect to orders, heal and renew, boost your mood, and even strengthen your immune system. Laughter also triggers the release of endorphins, which boosts your overall sense of wellbeing and can provide temporary relief from pain. As such, laughter is one of the topmost healthy ways to relieve stress.
3. Get your Beauty Sleep
Adequate sleep is a great stress reliever. You need to get at least seven to nine hours of quality sleep every night to scale over. When you try carrying out tasks when you are tired, it only increases your stress, affecting your cognitive functions. Make sure you get as much sleep as possible. It is even better to build a consistent sleeping routine by going to bed and waking up at the same time.
There are ways and means to sleep better. Starting from your dinner time to a comfortable bed you can easily change for the a healthy way of living.
4. Exercise
Physical activity is a great stress reliever. So, you need to take conscious steps to move more. Do note that you don’t have to spend hours in the gym to reap all of its attractive benefits. You can take 30 minutes out of your day to exercise. Also, consider doing other things like dancing to some music, taking your dog for walks, using the stairs, cycling, running, dancing, running, swimming, and walking.
Don’t forget to add relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, tai chi, meditation, and Yoga to jumpstart the body’s relaxation and take you to a state of restfulness. All these are effective healthy ways to relieve stress.
5. Combat Stress with a Healthy Diet
When your body is well-nourished, it becomes better prepared to manage stress. Therefore, you need to be more mindful of what you need. Aim to eat more fruits, vegetables, and proteins to have your daily dose of nutritious ingredients that can reduce inflammation caused by stress.
Reduce the amount of sugar and caffeine you take to prevent the crashes associated with it. Don’t forget to get rid of alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs from your diet. All these only bring about temporary relief with intense crashes at the end that does you no good. When you equally reduce sugar snacks, chocolate, soft drinks, and coffee from your diet, you will more relaxed. In turn, it clears your mind, increases your resistance to stress.
6. Connect with others
The pandemic may have taken away our ability to have fun nights with our friends. But it doesn’t have to rob us of spending quality time with our friends. Modern technology has gone far enough to easily connect you with the rest of the world. Try social media like Facebook , Instagram or Reddit to stay connected but never overdo it. Take time to connect with others via calls, or even video chats.
Of course, it is more effective to have your friend close at hand. However, you can still maintain a great network of friends and increase your resilience to stress.
7. Help Others
There are many of us in the most vulnerable circumstances because of the COVID-19. You can help these folks and take the focus off yourself. Consider helping them pick up the groceries or making donations to the local charity. You can also consider gardening for others or creating green spaces in your local community. There are many more habits to form to anchor your day and give you a sense of purpose. This, in turn, gets rid of stress and anxiety.
Helping others like showing gratitude is one of the most healthy ways to relieve stress and enjoy a spiritual bliss.
8. Focus on Things You can Control
As the pandemic rages on, it is easy to give way to feelings of helplessness because certain things seem to be out of control. We all have heightened worry about ourselves, friends, neighbors, and family. Therefore you need to take out time to focus on things you can control. For instance, consider donating some clothes, cleaning up your home, or cultivating a garden. Now is also a perfect time to learn a new language, skill, or simply do something you’ve always wanted to do.
Learning new things with a creative mindset is another healthy way to relieve stress.
9. Live in the Moment
The COVID-19 pandemic has a lot of us worrying about the future. Therefore, you have to take the conscious step to let go of those feelings. One of the best stress management habits to build is living in the moment. There are many ways to do this. Mindfulness meditation is a great approach to help you appreciate the moment.
Consider taking a deep breath and focusing on it. When you practice mindfulness meditation regularly, you will watch your mental health take a positive turn for the better.
Before the coronavirus, life was different – we could go out anywhere, engage in any form of activity, from gym to outdoors, to hiking, trekking, and trips. Nature helps in stress relief in the best possible way. The current situation has restricted our life to a great extent. It has also caused a lot of anxiety and depression. It is of utmost importance to indulge in healthy ways to relieve stress – as stress can cause damage to both our physical and mental health. Healthy habits will boost your immune system and give you natural protection against this virus and many other diseases.
Zen Lounge helps create an ambiance for relaxing the mind and practicing mindfulness meditation. The app is simple and easy to operate and comes with mood music which can be mixed with nature and atmosphere sounds. Download an try the free version:
