Medical research estimates as much as 90% of illness and disease is stress-related.
If you’re constantly under stress and pressure, it can be detrimental to your health, work performance, fitness, and even your relationships.
Unfortunately, 74% of people have felt so stressed that they have been overwhelmed, or found that they simply couldn’t cope with it over the past year.
If that’s you, then now is the time to put a stop to it.
In this post, you’ll learn the exact ways to reduce and manage stress in your life. You’ll also discover a simple trick that can help you reduce stress in just a few seconds.
Why Is Stress Management Critical?
Stress can have a negative impact on almost every aspect of your life. That’s why it’s essential you learn the strategies to cope with stress and manage it better.
Here’s how proper stress management can lead to a better and healthier life.
Getting Your Energy Back
Stress can cause chronic fatigue and disruptions in sleep, which result in lower energy.
Source: AFPA
You may often experience brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and an unwillingness to work. Fortunately, if you can manage stress properly, you can eliminate any of these symptoms – and get the energy and motivation back into your life.
Staying Healthy
Medical research estimates as much as 90% of illness and disease is stress-related.
Source: GreensBoro
This means that if you learn to manage and reduce your stress properly, you can feel healthier and minimize the chances of getting sick.
Better Mood
51% of adults who felt stressed reported feeling depressed, and 61% reported feeling anxious. If you haven’t been feeling like yourself lately, or you have been experiencing many negative thoughts and feelings, you might be under a lot of stress.
Fortunately, managing stress can get that happiness back into your life, so you can enjoy your life with your loved ones more.
The Fastest Way To Minimize Stress
There are plenty of ways you can minimize stress, such as eating healthy, exercising, or having time for relaxation. And while all of these work over time, they don’t minimize your stress levels right away – they won’t help you if you’re facing a stressful situation.
By contrast, the method we’re going to share now, the physiological sigh, empowers you to feel more relaxed and reduce stress and anxiety instantly.
The Physiological Sigh
The physiological sigh is a pattern of breathing which involves two inhales followed by an extended exhale. It’s very useful to use anytime you feel too stressed, and you want to feel more calm and relaxed.
Here’s what the breathing pattern looks like in detail:
- Inhale 1: Quick inhale through the nose.
- Inhale 2: Shorter inhale that maximally expands the lungs through the nose.
- Exhale: Very long and extended exhale through the mouth.
It takes as little as 1 – 3 these breathing cycles to bring your stress levels down and make you feel more calm.
5 Tips to Manage And Reduce Stress
The physiological sigh acts as a short-term fix for any stress that you may currently be experiencing.
However, if you’re looking to decrease your stress levels over time, you have to eliminate the source of the stress, and start doing stress-relieving activities regularly. Here are some of our most effective ways for managing and reducing stress.
#1: Identify the Source of Stress
The best way to reduce stress is to identify the causes of stress and – if possible – eliminate them.
We’re very often exposed to advice on the best tips to reduce stress. But the first and most effective step to achieve this goal is to find the root cause. This is because if you are able to do that, you can reduce stress altogether, and minimize stress in the future.
Our most effective approach to identifying the source of stress is to keep a journal.
In this journal, you should write down every time that you feel stressed – what made you feel like that, and why you felt stressed.
It often takes as little as one week to identify the most common stressors in your life.
After that, you should look at these stressors and avoid them. Perhaps it’s waking up late, having no structured day, or just too much work. Either way, it should be in your best interest to change your behavior, and avoid such things.
#2: Exercise
Physical activity is a huge stress reliever. It pumps up the production of your brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins.
It can also turn off your brain from all the worrying, and act as a valuable distraction.
Source: US Dermatology
You don’t have to break a sweat. In fact, it takes as little as 15 – 30 minutes to feel better. Plus, on top of stress management, you will also improve your fitness, build a stronger body, and feel better about yourself.
#3: Make Time for Fun
It’s very easy to get caught up in a home-work-home lifestyle. You rush to work every day, get home late, and all you want to do is go to bed and rest. If this sounds like you, then you might have too much on your plate – which increases stress.
But, even if you don’t, we always recommend making time for your loved ones, for fun, and for activities you like doing. It might be as simple as calling your friends, going out for dinner, or just walking your dog.
These activities will improve your happiness levels and decrease your stress.
#4: Manage Your Time Better
Having an unstructured day can lead to a lot of stress.
Do you feel that you are constantly rushing from one place to another, having hundreds of things in mind, and just feeling overwhelmed?
Creating a schedule can alleviate stress by helping you see precisely what you need to do and when you need to do it – no worrying about whether you can make it.
It will also encourage you to plan your day the way you want to live it.
Plus, by creating a schedule in advance you know you’re not going to add 50+ activities to your day as that would be unrealistic for you to achieve.
#5: Prioritize Sleep
Adults who sleep fewer than eight hours a night report higher stress levels than those who sleep at least eight hours a night.
We all need to recover physically and mentally, and the best way to do that is sleeping. Also, when you sleep more, you tend to feel happier and have more energy – which will help you conquer your day more easily.
To achieve higher-quality sleep, we recommend following these tips:
- Establish a consistent sleep schedule.
- Keep your room dark and cool.
- Avoid heavy meals and alcohol.
- Limit screen time before bed.
- Develop a wind-down routine.
Source: Comprehensive Sleep Care
Don’t Be Afraid to Seek Professional Help
There is nothing shameworthy about seeking professional help. In fact, when you experience chronic stress, it’s required.
Our take on seeking professional help is this – start with making changes in your day-to-day life. These are the things we’ve talked about such as exercising, getting proper sleep, and identifying and eliminating the root causes of stress.
If this doesn’t help, you should definitely contact therapists in your area and seek help.
Source: Verywell Health
Reduce Stress And Live a More Fulfilling Life
Stress can be detrimental to all areas of your life whether it’s relationships, work, or your health and fitness. Fortunately, now you know how to reduce and manage stress better.
To learn some additional work-related tips, check some of these resources:
- Losing Clients – How To Avoid It & Handle it Well
- How to Handle Criticism – The Best Way to React and Handle It Well
- How to Fire a Client (The Right Way)
If you have any questions or need anything in general, you can always reach out to support@atarim.io – we’re always happy to help!
