Tips to Manage Stress and Maintain Mental Well-being
1 in every 8 people, or 970 million, lived with mental disorders in 2019. Depression and anxiety were the most common disorders affecting this population. With the dramatic increase in the number of depressed people, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization, among other humanitarian organizations, has maximized efforts to create awareness about mental health and tips to manage stress.
Ideally, although everyone can feel overwhelmed by daily demanding situations, individuals with anxiety disorders experience intense and excessive feelings of fear and worry. Some symptoms of anxiety disorders are feeling irritable and tense, heart palpitations, shaking, sweating, trembling, sleeping problems, abdominal distress or nausea, and having a sense of imminent danger or panicking. These feelings are difficult to control and worsen mental health if not treated promptly. Are you often overwhelmed by your school work, family, and social relations? You may be wondering how to control this stress, and this article will provide significant guidelines for habits you can constantly practice to minimize overall stress in your daily activities gradually.
5 Tips to Manage Stress and Maintain Mental Well-being
- Practice Relaxation Habits
Relaxation techniques are the first habits to adapt to control stress. You can practice these techniques daily to create a positive lifestyle and calm your nerves when tense feelings arise. These habits include;
This concept has been practiced for over 5,000 years; thus, it is crucial and effective in maintaining mental well-being. It lowers anxiety, chronic pain, and stress and improves mood, sleep, and energy levels. It has been effective for most people.
It is both a meditation and a form of exercise. During Yoga, you focus on deep breathing, stretching, and slow movements to reduce stress and anxiety. There are many types of Yoga, and you can choose one that suits you.
Laughter improves your mood, immune system, and lessens body pains. It also enables you to take in more oxygen, which boosts your muscles, heart, and lungs. The body also gets to release feel-good hormones when one is laughing.
Your inner voice guides your actions through positive or negative self-talk. Replacing self-accusations with encouragement lowers levels of stress, depression, and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, you can control stress since you are in control of that inner voice.
A long-term therapist can equip you with helpful approaches to deal with stress. For example, a therapy session can enable you to develop positive thought patterns.
Deep breathing sends more oxygen to the brain and calms your nervous system, thus relaxing your body naturally. This exercise requires you to close your eyes, place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach, and get comfortable. Inhale through your nose and pay close attention to how the stomach rises higher than your chest. Exhale and notice how your body relaxes. Repeat the process.
Human beings are social beings and spending time with family and friends is a natural way to calm our nerves and reduce distress. Researchers have noted that such a habit enables your body to release a hormone that stopsthe fight-or-flight response.
Learn how to manage your muscle tension, blood pressure, and heart rate during stressful moments. Biofeedback enables you to understand how your body reacts when in distress and alerts you on signals to watch over before your body gives in to stress.
Adapt positive behavioral practices like;
- Distracting yourself with podcasts with positive content
- Listening to music of your choice
- Sharing responsibilities
- Taking few seconds before responding
- Walking away from bitter arguments
- Avoiding over-commitment
- Proper Diet
Eating a balanced diet is both essential to retaining a waistline and a beautiful body figure and maintaining positive mental health. In this case, avoid junk food, a lot of sugar and fats in your food. Instead, ensure your meals contain lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and fatty acids available in meat, nuts, eggs, and fish. Also, consider Antioxidants found in fruits, beans, vegetables, berries, and spices like ginger. Lastly, get Vitamin C, Magnesium, and Omega-3 fatty acids as part of your balanced diet. This healthy meal lowers your blood pressure, levels your mood, lessens the impacts of stress, and builds your immune system, thus regulating the level of stress.
- Get Enough Sleep
Getting adequate sleep is another tip essential for ensuring mental health, but it is often overlooked. The lack of enough sleep increases your levels of stress. On the other hand, stress deprives you of sleep and causes Insomnia. To avoid heightening the levels of stress, you can create a daily bedtime routine that is effective for you and practice the following activities;
- Drink less caffeine and alcohol close to the sleeping time.
- Set a sleep schedule
- Try one of the relaxation habits like meditation or Yoga before sleeping
- Avoid staring at your electronics before bedtime.
Also, improve your bedroom hygiene and make the room calm, quiet, dark, and comfortable. Therefore, you must control your sleeping habits to keep stress in check.
- Exercise Consistently
Physical activity improves your sleeping habits, thus controlling stress. However, it is not advisable to exercise close to bedtime. Exercise also stimulates the production of hormones like endorphins and endocannabinoids that improve mood and block pain. Therefore, you can practice activities like running, swimming, Aerobics, dancing, and cycling. Other exercise tips are also significant if time is inadequate to schedule for daily exercise. For example;
- Walking a significant distance daily, for example, during your lunch break.
- Using the stairs instead of the elevator
- Cycling to the food store instead of driving
- Cleaning your house
- Manage Social Media Time
Spending a lot of time on social media heightens the level of stress due to exposing yourself to content that could be insensitive. In addition, it wastes time that could be spent with friends or building hobbies and interests. Worst still, using social media at night disrupts quality sleeping habits, leading to stress and Insomnia. Therefore, you can replace excessive reliance on social media with reading an insightful book, enjoying the weather, or developing and growing hobbies and interests.
Stress is part of daily life and sometimes motivates you to achieve your goals. However, high stress levels adversely impact your energy and productivity in school, family, or working environment since it makes you anxious and demotivated. Regardless of the painful experiences or losses that push you to stress, there are effective ways to handle such anxieties. Put stress in its place by practicing some of these habits that are easy and cheap to perform daily. Most of these tips are calming strategies and may help your blood sugar level and blood pressure and enable your body to rest.
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