In the United States, 70% of adults admit to feeling stress or anxiety daily. Although stress always manages to slip into our lives, there are ways to reduce the amount of stress we feel.
In recognition of Stress Awareness Day, we found five easy ways to help you start reducing your stress levels today:
- Exercise: Exerting yourself physically can help relieve mental stress. Exercise reduces stress hormones and releases endorphins, improves your sleep quality and boosts your confidence.
- Light a Candle: Scents like lavender, rose, bergamot, sandalwood and neroli are just a few examples of scents that are known to have a calming effect.
- Reduce Your Caffeine Intake: Too much caffeine can increase anxiety. If you notice yourself acting jittery or anxious after consuming any sort of caffeinated beverage or food, consider changing your caffeine intake.
- Deep Breathing: Deep breathing exercises can help activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which controls the relaxation response. If you notice yourself feeling extra stressed, remove yourself for a few seconds and take a deep breath.
- Listen to Soothing Music: Listening to music is a great way to help your body relax. Slow-paced instrumental music can help to lower blood pressure and heart rate as well as stress hormones.
The tips above are great ways to help ease life’s stresses. Although we can’t always control what life throws at us, we can take steps to live a healthier and well-balanced lifestyle. For more tips on how to reduce stress, please click HERE.