Did you know that chronic stress can have serious consequences on your health? It’s true—stress can make it difficult to sleep, weaken your immune system, and lead to other problems like heart attacks, strokes, anxiety, and depression. Plus, stress can cause irritability, lack of motivation, and difficulty concentrating, thereby negatively impacting your work and personal relationships.

If you’re feeling stressed, one of the best things you can do is speak to a therapist who can recommend stress relief techniques that are tailored to your specific circumstances. But in the meantime, we’ve compiled the following five strategies for stress management.

1. Eat a Nutritious Diet

It’s very common for stressed individuals to turn to comfort foods, which are typically high in fat and sugar. But it’s important to stick to a balanced diet, even in times of stress. Research shows that certain foods can impact stress levels—for example, lean proteins and herbal teas can help reduce stress, while refined carbohydrates and caffeine can make you feel more stressed.

2. Exercise

Stress often causes chronic fatigue, and if that’s the case for you, you may have a hard time summoning the motivation to work out. But it’s important that you find a way to incorporate some type of physical activity into your daily routine. Exercising can stimulate the body to produce endorphins and reduce its levels of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.

3. Establish Boundaries

Do you often feel stressed because you’re being pulled in too many directions at once? Setting healthy boundaries may help. For example, at work, this may involve shutting down your computer at a certain time each day, speaking up when you have too much on your plate, and avoiding office gossip.

4. Make Time to Relax

When work, school, and family obligations become overwhelming, you may feel like you don’t have any time left over to focus on yourself, but it’s important to carve out time for self-care and relaxation. Think about what brings you peace—whether that’s going to the movies, getting a pedicure, or working on a jigsaw puzzle—and set aside time to do that on a regular basis.

5. Meditate

Research shows that focusing on what’s going on around you and letting go of any intrusive thoughts and feelings can greatly reduce stress levels. One of the best things about meditation is that it can be done almost anywhere, so you can employ this technique whenever you start to feel stressed throughout the day.

Need Help Coping With Stress?

If you’re looking to improve your stress management skills, we can help. Contact us today to schedule an appointment.

Does your career often leave you feeling stressed? If so, you’re not alone. According to statistics published by the American Institute of Stress, 40% of workers reported that their job was very or extremely stressful, and 25% viewed their job as the No. 1 stressor in their life. And because stress can make it difficult for you to focus, it can affect job performance, potentially leading to even more stress.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to manage your stress, relax, and enjoy a better quality of life:

1. Eat a nutritious diet.
2. Drink plenty of water.
3. Get enough sleep.
4. Exercise (you may even be able to do a few calming yoga poses in your office).
5. Meditate.
6. Use positive affirmations.
7. Practice deep breathing.
8. Spend time on self-care (this could involve going out to dinner with friends, visiting the spa, or even just taking a short walk outside).
9. Take periodic breaks during the workday.
10. Find a healthy work-life balance.

Talk to a Therapist

If you’re still feeling stressed, you may want to consider attending therapy. An experienced therapist can help you identify stress triggers and provide you with tips and tools for how to relax when you start feeling overwhelmed.

Fortunately, busy professionals in this area can turn to therapists for help with relaxation. I understand the toll that a strenuous career can take on your mental health, and once I’ve learned about your lifestyle and treatment goals, I’ll be able to supply you with advice that’s tailored to your specific needs. Contact me today to schedule your first therapy session.

If you’re like most people, you deal with your own fair share of stress most days. And that doesn’t really seem fair at all! Especially when you consider that chronic stress can negatively impact our health, sending blood pressure soaring and causing our hearts to work harder.

Whether it’s a bully for a boss, a horrific commute, mounting bills, or problems in your marriage, stress is a part of life we really can’t get away from. But there are things we can do to eliminate the effects of stress on our minds and body:

Let Go

Sometimes stress comes from wanting to control everyone and every event in our lives. But this simply isn’t possible. Recognizing you don’t have control over everything and just letting go can often bring profound relief.

Breathe Deeply

Taking slow, deep breaths gets you out of fight or flight mode and puts you into rest and digest mode. Our bodies cannot heal and repair when we are in constant states of fight or flight, only when we are in rest and relax mode. Whenever you feel stressed, take three deep, slow breaths in… hold it for a count of three… and exhale… Guaranteed you feel instantly calm and relaxed and you will help your body heal itself.

Make Self-Care a Priority

When we’re stressed it’s easy to make poor lifestyle choices that only lead to poor health outcomes. Be sure to make self-care a priority by eating right, drinking plenty of pure water, and getting enough sleep and exercise each day.

Practice Meditation

Mindfulness meditation is one of the best ways to calm your mind and keep it peaceful throughout the day. There are plenty of Youtube videos that will help you begin your practice.

Stress Awareness month is in April and there is no better way to celebrate it than to take care of yourself!

SOURCES:

• https://www.stress.org/april-is-stress-awareness-month
• https://nationaltoday.com/stress-awareness-month/
• https://www.stress.org/stress-awareness-month-balance