How to Manage Stress to Live a Happier and Healthier Life

If you’re like most people, you’ve experienced high stress levels at some point in your life. Stress is something that impacts just about everyone to one degree or another on a daily basis. Whether you are stressed out because of things like work or finances, or simply because there is not enough time in the day to get it all done – stress has an impact on not only your emotions, but also your whole body. Read on to learn how to manage stress for a more fulfilling life.

What few people realize is that stress impacts more than just how you feel on a daily basis. When you suffer from high stress levels over time, you’ll be more prone to weight gain, you’ll suffer more sleepless nights and your blood glucose levels may be more difficult to stabilize. This in turn can lead to things like diabetes or even heart disease, and is why it’s extremelly important to manage stress levels.

Stress impacts every cell in your whole body, so it’s a must for you to do whatever you can to manage stress, and keep your stress levels under control.

Need a few tips on how to get started? Check out the following techniques to help you manage stress, which will quickly help you to destress, and then keep those stress levels under control for good.

Our Tips to Help Manage Stress

Use A Stress Journal

One of the best and most effective ways to manage stress is to use a stress journal. Now, it may seem like just a waste of time to write what you’re stressing out about down (after all, you already know what’s bothering you in your mind), but I promise you it’s not.

Simply getting those stressors out on paper will release them from your mind, freeing you up to think about other things – possibly even a solution.

Often people find that the act of writing what’s stressing them down helps their brain formulate a smarter plan to overcome that particular stressor and manage stress. If nothing else, it will often help you put that stressful thing into perspective. Many times, you’ll find that you can be making a bigger deal out of it than it really is.

Perform Intense Whole Body Exercise

Next, you can try getting in some intense exercise to manage stress. Whether this is something like a high intensity interval cardio session, picking up some heavy weights in the weight room or something similar of your choosing, intense whole body exercise causes an endorphin release in the body, which can help manage stress and put you into a feel-good state.

If you have ever wondered why you feel so great after that fat burning workout you just completed, you have those endorphins to thank for that. Use these in your favor to naturally bring down your stress levels.

As an added benefit, by exercising you’ll also crank your metabolic rate into high gear as well, which can lead to more energy and weight loss.

Take A Yoga Class

On the flip side, sometimes it’s not intense exercise you need. Performing some relaxation focused exercise can also be a great way to manage stress levels and get you feeling better again.

For instance, you can try taking a yoga class. The deep breathing combined with soothing positions and stretching will help ease stress and make you feel more in control. It’s also a great way to raise mind-body awareness, so it could possibly help you be more in tune with your body, which can be very helpful for when stress levels are building as well.

Spray Some Lavender Room Spray

Want a fast and easy way to bring down your stress levels? Try spraying the room you’re in with some lavender. This scent is known to help promote relaxation and ease stress, so it might just do the trick.

There are many ways that you can harness the power of lavender. Try a body spray, a bath wash that smells like lavender, or try even washing your clothes with lavender scented detergent. This way you can have the calming scent around you throughout the day, as you inevitably encounter situations that may be stressful.

Sip Chamomile Tea

Drinking tea can be very soothing, and chamomile tea is a great way to calm the mind, ease the body, and can help promote sleepiness as well if you are preparing for bed.

Sipping a warm mug of chamomile tea is one of the best ways to help promote a deeper sleep, especially if you often lay in bed at night, tossing and turning thinking about whatever is stressing you. But don’t think this remedy is just for before bed either. It doesn’t have such strong sedative properties that you couldn’t use it during the day as well if you prefer.

If you are not a tea person, try taking a supplement with magnesium to help you relax. This can have similar effects to chamomile, and also is great for relaxing your muscles, which tend to tense and tighten when we are stressed. Sometimes calming the bodies tense reaction to stress helps to reduce the amount of stress you feel in your mind as well.

Get Lost In Something You Love

Last but not least, consider getting lost in something that you truly enjoy doing to reduce stress. Whether this is drawing, going or a long bike ride, playing music, or something else entirely, do something that gets you into a ‘flow’ state. This is a state of being where you completely lose track of time, and therefore all your worries along with it.

This really is one of the best ways to reduce stress levels – even though it may only be temporary, and it can also help improve your overall outlook on life. You should aim to do something that you truly love doing for at least an hour or two a week to help maintain that healthy balance that you need in your life.

We hope you will use these tips and take charge of controlling your stress levels so that they don’t start to control you and have a negative impact on your mind, or even your whole body over time.