7 Proven Things You Can do to Get Rid of Stress
1.
Stop what you are doing and take a long deep breath. Slowly breathing in and slowly breathing out. When we are really stressed out, we tend to take a very shallow, short breaths which can actually increase stress, nervousness, and anxiety. Therefore, when you take a few slow, deep breaths, you are a literally telling your amygdala, the part in your brain that signals the fight, flight, freeze response of stress, to relax and that everything is okay. When we take short, shallow breaths our body can literally be put into a heightened state of fear and anxiety because of the lack of oxygen our body is getting.
So something as easy as closing your eyes and taking some slow deep breaths can instantly de-stress you very quickly. Another little trick to go along with this is to use visualization and visualize a place that you really like to go, a place that is very relaxing and fun for you. Visualize this place so clearly that you can almost smell different things from there or here some common sounds from your favorite place. If you are able to visualize this place while taking slow, deep breaths you can instantly be transported from your current place of stress and burn-out to a space of calm and clarity.
2.
Go for a short or long walk, either inside if you’re at work or outside if possible, for example around the block or on a walk through the woods. Walking outside can instantly put you into a sense of calm if you are able to disconnect mentally from thinking about your stressors. If possible, try focusing on what you can see, hear and smell, which will help to ground and distract you from stressors. Walking will help you to release energy that is held up, or stored up, with in your mind and body. Therefore, you are able to release that energy while you are walking which will help you to get into a calm state of being while also releasing some energy, therefore, de-stressing. If you are able to go hiking or walk at a fast pace, you will feel even more of the benefits. However, it is extremely important to note that to make this an effective way to de-stress, you must clear your head of the things that are causing you stress.
Try saying a few “I am” statements off and on repeatedly while you are walking. “I am” statements are instrumental in changing your thought patterns. If you have a negative thought pattern and tend to be over critical of yourself or tend to think very negatively of your job or your life, you probably have a negative thought pattern, meaning that you have trained your brain to focus more on the negative things in your life that you don’t like and that you would like to change. However, if you are constantly thinking of the negative things in your life you will not see the positive things in your life or the solutions that are likely around you that could be utilized if you could train your brain to focus more on the positive things in your life, therefore, allowing the positive solutions that surround you to be highlighted. To get to this negative mindset, you probably repeated negative statements that you either heard from others or that you said to yourself over and over again. “I am” statements work the same way except they are positive and can literally change the way that you think, what you believe, and how you behave. If you could get into the habit of taking 5 to 10 deep breaths each hour while saying five affirmations 2 to 3 times, you would start to notice a drastic change in your conscious and subconscious thought pattern. Try doing this throughout the day, every day, for one month and reflect on the change in your pattern of thinking throughout the day. This is going to require you to be very mindfully present throughout the day every day. Mindfulness means that you are aware of your thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, and thought patterns throughout the day, whether you are at home, at work, at the store, with family, or with friends. The more mindful you can be throughout the day, every day, the faster you can change the negative patterns of self talk into positive affirmations about yourself and your world, starting with “I am.”
3.
Have you ever heard of the phrase, “laughter is the best medicine”? This exercise is obviously the most fun because it involves you simply finding a bunch of funny videos on YouTube and putting them in a specific folder that you can go to to watch when you are feeling stressed. Try not to go on TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook for this exercise because you will likely get drawn into something negative or numerous very short videos which are not good for your brain activity. If you are a cat person, try to find some funny cat videos. If you are a dog person, try to find some funny dog videos.
If you like America’s funniest home videos, try to find some of those on YouTube and put them in a specific folder that you can go to when you need to de-stress at work, at home, or other situations that will likely cause you heightened stress and anxiety. Label the folder something that you will recognize in a heightened state of stress, burnout, or anxiety so that you can quickly go to YouTube and that folder and have a quick mental escape. Too often people think that to de-stress they need to work out or meditate or spend time with friends, etc. However, most people forget that stress and anxiety happen within the mind, therefore, requiring the person to take a mini mental vacation, and one that includes humor is the best remedy for stress, burnout, anxiety, and even depression symptoms. Laughter literally releases feel good chemicals throughout your body and can heal sickness, illnesses, and various ailments. So when you are feeling stressed, anxious, or sad, try putting on a video that is at least 15 minutes long so that your mind and body can have a happy mini break.
4.
Sit and reflect on as many things as you can think of that are going well in your life, things that you have done well and are proud of yourself for, and fun goals or plans that you have coming up. Take out either a sheet of paper, your journal, a whiteboard, anything to write this stuff down in so that either it can be displayed for you to see often or in your journal so that you can refer back to it often. Reflecting on our accomplishments and goals, as well as the things going well in our lives will often ease our minds and put us in a happy and relaxed state of mind. It is in this space that you will be able to release some of the stress that you have been building up and holding onto.
Often times when we are stressed, we believe and continue telling ourselves that we are not doing a good job, therefore sitting and reflecting on the things that we have done well will help you enter a space of grounding and being centered so that you can see the big picture and will likely notice that things are not as bad as you thought they were. In my experience providing therapy for over a decade, one of the best ways to de-stress, lower anxiety, increase self-esteem, and keep anxiety at bay is to reflect daily on the positive things that have happened, the things that you have done that you are proud of, and making a list of some self-care goals or fun personal goals that you have or would like to plan for coming up within the next month or so. The list of things that you write down that you are proud of yourself for can include conversations with others, completing tasks, cleaning, etc. Try not to be too rigid with any of this, it’s supposed to simply promote awareness while training your brain to focus on the positives that have happened that day or recently, rather than focusing on the negatives that might be happening in your life.
5.
A great way to destress is to read a book. This can be difficult at first if you have a lot on your mind as it might be difficult to concentrate on what you are reading. However, similar to guided meditations, the more you train your brain to focus on what you’re reading, the easier it will be to concentrate on what you’re reading. Try not to read magazines and possibly not a book on your phone or a tablet because it will be very tempting to look at other things on the Internet. And the energy coming off of your devices (phones, laptops, iPads, etc.) might be negatively affecting you mentally and physically, that’s not allowing your mind and body to enter a place of calm to where you can destress. Wi-Fi signals and cell phone radiation negatively impacts your entire body, every cell in your being. Therefore, you might notice an increase in fidgeting or being unable to focus or concentrate, or even feeling sad, down, or negative more often when you are by your devices than when your devices are in another room. There have been several studies done on the negative effects of Wi-Fi signals and cell radiation and what it does to your mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, when reading a book I suggest that you have a physical book in hand rather than a book on device. Also, audiobooks are not suggested for this because it is easy to half listen and half worry or mentally multitask the things that are on your list or the things that you think you should be or could be doing instead of listening to the audiobook. When you have a book in hand you can’t multitask, so you can’t have your phone in your hand or be on your tablet or laptop working. You really have to only focus on reading when you have the physical book in your hand. You might notice that when you watch TV you can also be on your phone or on your tablet or on your laptop, which can be overstimulating for your brain as you are requiring it to focus on several things at once, which can actually cause a lot of stress mentally and physically. So try planning a half hour each day to sit in a quiet space, not listening to music as that is asking your brain to focus on two different things, and read a book from cover to cover before you read another book. Reading one book at a time is a great way to train your brain to be calm and focus on one thing at a time. I have had several patients who have two or three books started at a time and go back-and-forth between books which they like because they think that it is more mentally stimulating for them, however, they are training their brain to focus on and remember numerous details from different stories. Training your brain to be calm and focus on one thing at a time is not common in today’s world as we are very busy and tend to push ourselves to get even more done in a day. Therefore, to de-stress you have to do the exact opposite.
6.
Try meditating twice a day for a month. Guided meditations are a great way to train your brain to be calm. Over time, this practice will keep stress at bay. However, when you start a meditation practice it will likely be overwhelming and frustrating because it can be hard to come our minds down to focus on one thing for an extended period of time after we have been mentally multitasking for so long.
If you give this practice a chance though it will be life-changing because you can literally retrain your brain from being over active to being calm and even eventually handling stress in a positive way. Remember that every new practice that you try you should give at least one month to see the effects that it has had on your mental and physical health. The guided meditations can be anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, so they don’t have to be long, the idea is to get into the habit of taking the time to slow your mind down and control your thoughts. Your brain is a muscle and you have to work it out and train it because if you don’t it will wander uncontrolled and will likely focus on things that are fearful, worrisome, sad, or hurtful to you.
There are hundreds of YouTube channels that have really great guided meditations for anxiety, depression, self-love, self-compassion, overcoming fear, letting go, etc. So whatever it is that you want to focus on that day or time you can, as long as you get into the habit of doing guided meditations twice a day for a month and then reflect on how you have changed mentally, as well as any positive changes it has had on your life, whether that’s between you and your family members, you and coworkers, or you handling stressful situations. Try to remember to reflect, which is useful for you to learn about yourself, rather than analyze yourself or a situation, which can be very negative and tends to leave us feeling very negative about ourselves or a situation.
7.
Make sure that you are getting together with friends and family often so that you are able to have a really fun and healthy distraction. Remember to try to keep the conversation light and fun, remembering that laughter is the best medicine! When we are with family and friends we tend to feed off of each other‘s energy so make sure that you are spending quality time with positive people rather than with people that tend to complain a lot. This will promote those feel good chemicals to be released in your brain and body, like a serotonin and dopamine. Getting together with friends and either reminiscing over old stories or talking about what’s new with everyone will likely be enough of a distraction so that you are able to ground yourself in that moment but you can also use this time together with your friends and family in the future to calm and de- stress while at work, or other stressful situations. And if you get into the habit of doing this as part of your reflection process each day, it can decrease your overall stress, the stress that you keep within your body that is really harmful if it builds up.