Five Strategies to Manage your Stress

In today’s fast-paced technological world, stress often seems unavoidable. The multitasking demands and other pressures of modern life can leave you feeling overloaded, overwhelmed, and exhausted. Although some levels of stress can be helpful in sustaining motivation, focus, and energy, ongoing high levels of stress can be detrimental to mental and physical health. Stress can leave you feeling anxious, irritable, and angry. It can also lower your immunity, upset your digestion and interfere with your natural sleep patterns. In times of high stress, it can be beneficial to implement stress management strategies into your routine so you can better cope.

Below are five strategies to help you manage your stress so you can return to helpful levels.

Write it Down

Writing a list of future tasks can ease your stress. This is because writing down what you need to accomplish can help you manage your time and also help you identify potential stressors. It is important to review your list at the end of the day and at the end of the week. Cross off completed tasks and gauge your stress levels. Are you living a balanced life? Do you have a healthy daily routine? Can you identify any thinking patterns or triggers that are contributing to your stress? Triggers can be experiences, people, places, or things. Writing things down can help you clearly assess the demands of your everyday life and help you see where changes need to be made. You can then make needed changes to your lifestyle so that you can better manage your schedule and associated stress and anxiety.

Make Time for Exercise

You may feel that you are too busy and too tired to exercise, but exercise is a critical component in managing stress and associated tension. Exercise can help you relax. This is because working your body provides a release for built up muscle tension. Exercise dissipates high levels of adrenaline and releases endorphins. Consequently, exercise can clear your mind and lift your mood. Physical activity also helps you sleep at night. Regular exercise can lower blood pressure and improve your immunity. Ideally, you should aim to combine elements of stamina, strength, and flexibility.

Eat a Healthy Diet

Eating a healthy well-balanced diet can help you cope better with stress. A balanced diet can strengthen your immunity, increase your cognition and improve your mood. Eating a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and proteins can fuel your body and help it to function properly. Try to limit foods that contain substances that may increase your stress levels. Many people, when under stress and pressure, reach for energy drinks, extra coffee, or sugary snacks to sustain focus and energy, but this can have a counter effect.  Caffeine and high sugar can overstimulate the adrenal glands and mimic stress response symptoms such as palpitations, headaches, and surges of energy that can later make you feel irritable, moody, and lethargic.

Practice Relaxation Techniques

Relaxation may not come easily if you lead a busy schedule and are experiencing stress. This is why it is important to put time aside for yourself and practice relaxation techniques. Adapting a relaxation technique into your routine can quickly provide you with relief from stress and help you focus on future tasks. Relaxation is a skill that, like any other skill, needs to be practiced in order to be mastered. With regular practice, relaxation techniques can lower your overall tension and stress levels.  Relaxation techniques can include concentrating on and slowing down your breathing, inhaling deeply through your nose and exhaling through your mouth, alternating between tensing and releasing muscles, and visualising your ‘happy place’ or other attractive and peaceful settings. There are a number of different relaxation exercises you can try.  If you are able to set aside a longer period of time, the Progressive Relaxation exercise can be helpful. You can find detailed script instructions here or alternatively find an audio guide.

Learn Mindfulness Strategies

Mindfulness can be an effective strategy to decrease stress and anxiety. Mindfulness can improve your attention and wellbeing and facilitate relaxation and sleep. Mindfulness is a present-centered process of observing your thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations as they come and go, without judgment, and with a sense of curiosity, detachment, and acceptance. Mindfulness can assist people in staying calm in times of increased stress. There are a number of exercises that people can do to practice mindfulness. The activities draw on metaphors such as leaves floating on a stream, balloons carried by the wind, or sushi moving on a sushi train. These metaphors can be helpful in understanding unproductive negative thinking patterns or ruminations that you may be experiencing and that may be triggering your stress and anxiety. You can find Dr. Ross Harris’ sushi train mindfulness exercise video here.

Adhering to the above strategies can help you manage your stress so you can better cope, particularly when faced with additional triggers. If you find that you are following these strategies but are still experiencing stress that is affecting your day-to-day functioning, it may be time to reach out for help. Talking to a psychologist can help you understand your experiences and provide you with additional coping skills.