From my experiences with stress, there are some habits and actions that you do – actions to reduce stress and actions will amplify your stress even more (that you do on accident).
I used to blame the reason why I was stressed on the external circumstance.
It took me a while to realize that I can’t control what shows up in my reality, but I can control how I feel.
“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”
― Mark Twain
In the past, I believed that stress is a natural thing that everyone feels, and I shouldn’t make any effort to get rid of it.
I scarily thought…it was hopeless, and life would always be like this. I thought I’d just have to suck it up and endure the pain. But this is NOT true.
I’ve discovered from my experience that it is 100% possible to live most of your days stress-free (as a default mode). It doesn’t matter what your circumstance is.
I’ve gathered from my experience, these 5 best tips to reduce stress. They really helped me achieve a relaxed and clear state of mind, along with boosting my happiness and productivity.
If you’ve been feeling stressed out too much, here are 5 tips to reduce stress:
1. Avoid Escapism:
I had an inclination to avoid the problems that were causing me stress by distracting myself. I distracted myself with video games, social media, complaining to other people, binge eating, etc. While these activities did take away the stress for a little while, I would still feel drained and panicked. They didn’t offer a long lasting solution to my stress, and made the problem worse. Solve your problems instead of running away.
2. Replace Unhealthy Activities With Healthy Ones:
By unhealthy activities, I don’t just means the activities that are bad for our physical health but also the ones destroying our mental health.
You can find the best routine habits in this article that I’ve written here.
Doing these activities significantly reduced my stress and made me so much happier.
3. Develop Your Faith
Faith is a powerful emotion, even stronger than fear.
If you are religious, develop your faith with the Universe/God. Read your holy book and pray deeply. The Universe will always take care of its children.
When you’re stressed and worried about something, just do what you can do, with the faith that everything will work out. The Universe will answer your prayers.
4. Perform Breathing Exercises.
Breathing exercises were an instantaneous relaxation technique for me when I was too overwhelmed. Here is a simple breathing exercise you can follow- The 4-7-8 Technique.
- Breathe in for 4 seconds
- Hold your breath for 7 seconds
- Exhale your breath for 8 seconds.
Repeat twice or as many times as necessary.
5. Spend time outside- get sunlight and breathe.
Studies show that ‘forest bathing’ reduces stress immensely, increases happiness and relaxation.
You can read the full guide on forest bathing in this article. In summary, forest bathing simply is taking in the forest/natural atmosphere with all your senses.
Simply being connected to nature and being aware of it with your sense of sight, smell, and touch.
