5-Minute Stress-Relieving Techniques
The best methods for reducing stress quickly and maintaining your positive attitude while doing so are listed below.
The best ways to manage stress are to get enough rest, practice restorative yoga, and spend lots of time with loved ones. But you can't always down dog your way out of the stress that manifests itself when you learn that you missed a flight, when a coworker sends you a sassy email, or when your dishwasher breaks without warning.
You are familiar with the sensation of being overpowered as your heart begins to race and your palms begin to perspire.
How can you feel normal again as soon as possible?
Melissa Dowd, a certified marital and family therapist and therapy lead at PlushCare, a virtual health platform, argues that stress management can be essential to addressing stress in a healthy way. It's critical to recognise the emotion and employ coping mechanisms.
According to Dowd, if stress persists, it may have a negative impact on your health and take a physical and mental toll on your body. Chronic stress may also exacerbate more serious conditions like autoimmune diseases, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, or obesity by causing symptoms like fatigue and headaches.
Here are five easy strategies to help you stop the stress cycle as it's happening in five minutes or less, allowing you to relax, refocus, and carry on with your day.
1. Breathe deeply a few times
The Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and assistant physician and clinical researcher Michelle Dossett, MD, PhD, assert that there is a strong connection between the breath and the body. According to the American Heart Association, when you're under stress, your breathing may quicken, raising blood pressure and heart rate. But she adds, "When your breathing is calm and measured, your body also calms down." "I've witnessed patients overcome panic episodes by modifying their frame of mind with diaphragmatic breathing."
Try the Cleveland Clinic's brief diaphragmatic breathing exercise:
With your legs bent and your shoulders, head, and neck at ease, sit comfortably in a chair. Put one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach.
Slowly inhale through your nose until your stomach begins to move outward against your hand. Keep the hand on your chest as still as you can.
When you exhale, pucker your lips and push the air out through them while contracting your stomach muscles. Keep the hand on your upper chest as still as you can. According to Brooklyn, New York-based mindfulness instructor Kelley Green, "Pursed-lip breathing can help slow down your breath and get more air into your lungs, especially if you are feeling short of breath from stress."
2. Step outdoors
Adopting a healthy outdoor lifestyle is another quick approach to reduce stress, according to clinical psychologist Holly Schiff, PsyD, of Jewish Family Services of Greenwich in Connecticut. Walking outside in the fresh air is undoubtedly beneficial, she claims.
Studies support this. People who simply glanced at photos of trees reported feeling less anxious, according to a study that was published in the September 2014 issue of the journal Environment and Behavior. This functions in various ways. According to a Frontiers in Psychology paper from October 2014, being in a natural setting can automatically grab your attention and make you feel good. According to the University of Minnesota, people are often enthralled by nature, and losing yourself in it might help you forget about whatever is bugging you.
3. Invent a List
Having a lot on their plate, especially under time constraints, can occasionally cause tension and anxiety to spiral out of control. According to Queensland Health, it may be helpful in these situations to list everything you have on your plate.
According to Dr. Dossett, "Getting your to-dos out of your thoughts and onto a piece of paper can be quite therapeutic for people." Instead of worrying that anything would get missed, it can help you prioritize and concentrate on what's in front of you.
4. Start a meditation app
According to the Mayo Clinic, meditation can promote a sense of calm, tranquility, and balance, which is particularly beneficial in situations where you feel anything but peaceful. The best part about meditation is that you can use it anywhere. A guided meditation might help you focus your attention away from the hectic cacophony of thoughts in your head if you're just starting off.
Think about obtaining an app. Green suggests the apps Calm and Headspace as well as the Great Meditation YouTube channel. These are all excellent practice exercises, especially if you're just starting out, she explains. College students used the Calm app in a randomized, controlled experiment that was published in June 2019 in JMIR mHealth uHealth. After utilizing it for eight weeks for 38 minutes each week, the students reported less stress (a little more than five minutes per day).
According to the American Heart Association, meditation can aid in stress reduction and perspective-taking. Maybe you'll come to the conclusion that what drove you into a tailspin wasn't such a huge problem after all.
5. Play
When stress makes you cranky, embrace your inner child and play with a fidget spinner or stress ball, advises Queensland Health. These straightforward toys may seem more appropriate for the middle school crowd, but taking up a stress ball and giving it a few strong squeezes, as well as using a fidget spinner, can help disrupt a tense train of thinking.
Stress can be relieved by anything that diverts your attention and redirects your focus, according to Alka Gupta, MD, a private practitioner of integrative and internal medicine in Washington, DC. These provide a welcome reprieve from a demanding day.
Related posts
