We can all get stressed from time to time. It's a natural part of life to be stressed, but you shouldn't let it control your life. Stress can be caused by a number of reasons and can affect everyone! Everyone also deals with stress differently. While some stress can be good and a motivating factor, chronic stress can really put a toll on your mental and physical health. Luckily, there are many ways to combat stress and be on a road to relaxation! I've complied a list of six things you can do to try and sucker-punch your stress away!
1. Deep Breathing or the 4-7-8 Breath
According to smallfootprintfamily.com, all you do is breathe in through your nose for four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds, and then exhale for eight seconds. Then, without a break in-between, start your 4 seconds over again. They recommend doing this cycle for three to four rounds, but you can do as many as you'd like! I've found this works to calm me down a little bit, by focusing on something else. This is also recommended all over the Internet as a sleep hack, so you can give that a try as well!
2. Listening to Music
While it might make you feel a little bit more emotional and tie to memories, listening to music is great when you feel stressed. You could find a rock ballad that perfectly captures your feelings and heartbeats, or a calming rain symphony. No matter what you listen to, you are sure to find a type of music that helps you to relax!
3. Going for a Walk
Walking, preferably done outside of a city (unless you love that), is great for stress. Unless you have allergies. There's plenty of air, nature, and sounds to distract you. Focus on the wind through the trees, or spotting bugs flying through the air. Look down at your feet (but please watch for cars!) and count your steps. I like to count how many steps I fit in a sidewalk square and keep counting that for a while. It helps to take your mind elsewhere.
4. Writing
Writing can help to get your feelings down you might feel like no one else understands. You could also create a new world with characters and less stress then you're currently facing. You could write poetry, songs, novels, short stories; the possibilities are pretty much endless. Whether it's a diary, journal, or a hopeful, future novel, it can help to get all your thoughts down on paper. Then you can begin to ask yourself, what is causing this stress?
5. Internal Questioning
It's very important to come back to yourself, and question yourself. Why am I so stressed about this situation? What about it scares me? What about it is out of my control? What can I control or have a direct impact on? Who else is involved that I can share my worries with? There are endless questions you could ask yourself. These could possibly create more stress, but hopefully could make you see you might have some unnecessary stressors in your life!
6. Making Time for Gratitude
Challenge yourself to make a list of 50 things you are grateful for. This will completely take your mind off of your stress, and make you remember the happy parts of your life. Even for happy people, 50 items can be a lot and difficult to come up with! Hopefully when you come up with your 50, you will see all these great things in your life when you get discouraged and stressed about it.
Everything will work out in the end! As cheesy as it is, time helps everything, and it'll help you too.
