Introduction to Amazing Tips For Stress Free Life
Several scenarios lead to a stressful life. Common internal causes are pessimism, rigidity, inability to accept things you can’t control, and perfectionism.
External factors include relationship problems, financial constraints, hectic work schedules, and family dysfunction. Major life events are also known to cause this condition. The main ones are the death of loved ones, divorce, imprisonment, sickness or injury, joblessness, and retirement.
If you’re experiencing stress, you’re not powerless. You can still improve your health and lead a better lifestyle.
How to Avoid a Stressful Life
The following tips will help you tackle both emotional and physical tension:
1). Take A Break from Your Hectic Lifestyle
Do you always feel like you don’t have enough time to complete your projects? The more frustrated you become, the more stressed you feel.
Although you might have a burning ambition to succeed, you could easily burn out. Technology is supposed to make life easier but it also contributes to stress.
It forces you to multitask by responding to emails, chatting with clients, and fulfilling orders among other repetitive chores. In the past you could leave your work in the office at 5 pm then get back to it at 9 am the next day.
Modern technology has blurred the line between the home and the office. It’s not unusual to keep working when you should be sleeping or relaxing.
To Avoid stress, automate repetitive tasks such as social media posts, paying bills, data analytics, customer support, and document backups. If you still feel overwhelmed, hire an assistant to help with non-core tasks.
However crucial you think your job is, you must create some free time to unwind. It helps you recharge and stay focused. Ultimately, you’ll be more productive if you focus on quality over quantity.
2). Manage Your Time
Poor time management plays a significant role in intensifying stress. It causes mood swings and irritability, fatigue, lack of focus, memory lapses, and erratic sleep patterns.
If left unchecked, these symptoms could morph into more serious disorders such as anxiety and depression. In a bid to complete overlapping tasks, you could end up doing substandard work.
The confusion could also cause you to react haphazardly to demands without prioritizing the most important duties.
Proper time management gives you greater control over your life. It helps you achieve the work-life balance that most people seek.
Planning is one of the most important time management techniques. A detailed plan helps you complete tasks fast without wasting time on costly bottlenecks and revisions. To-do lists are a perfect example of this technique.
As you cross off completed tasks on your list, the accompanying sense of accomplishment reduces your stress. It also gives you the confidence to work more purposefully towards achieving your other objectives.
If you have too much work, you can delegate some portions of it while maintaining overall control. There are several communication and collaboration apps you can depend on to speed up this process.
3). Embrace an Active Lifestyle
Other than improving your physical appearance, workouts are a good form of stress relief. Physical exercise improves your mood by releasing serotonin, endorphins, and other chemicals that boost happiness.
It also creates harmony between your mind and body, which is beneficial to your immune system. A healthier body is better prepared to tackle the symptoms associated with stress.
Apart from a good physique, it helps you sleep better, boosts blood circulation, lowers blood pressure, and improves your confidence.
It’s important to develop an exercise routine that you enjoy and can stick to. Aerobic activities such as swimming, cycling, and athletics are known to reduce stress. Avoid performing only one exercise because your body might become complacent and fail to reap its rewards.
Mixing aerobics with other workouts such as dancing, calisthenics, and weightlifting challenges your brain to unlock its potential. Work closely with your fitness instructor to create a workout plan that you’ll enjoy.
4). Adopt a Healthy Diet
If you live a stressful life, you might be unaware of the role food plays in influencing it. A busy lifestyle makes it hard to prepare and consume a healthy, balanced diet. You’re more likely to eat fast food made with ingredients that are unhealthy for your body and mind. Healthy food helps you manage your weight while reducing inflammation and oxidation.
Nutrients such as Omega-3 and vitamin E improve blood flow, which makes your brain function better. Green vegetables also have carotenoids and polyphenols, which are known to reduce stress hormones.
Other stress-reducing nutrients include magnesium, vitamin C, and complex carbohydrates. Foods that contain these compounds include whole grains, avocados, fish, citrus fruits, and fiber-rich plants. Warm milk can help you sleep better and reduce stress.
If you want healthy comfort foods, you can always try oatmeal and dark chocolate. Include healthy teas and supplements in your diet plan for the best results.
Examples are valerian root, chamomile, mint, and barley tea. They help in relieving stress-related symptoms such as sleep disorders, anxiety, and gastrointestinal discomfort.
5). Devote More Resources to Your Hobbies
Hobbies are natural stress relievers. If you stopped pursuing yours due to a busy lifestyle, you should seriously reconsider.
You’re less likely to suffer fatigue if you engage in a hobby at least once a week. Scientific studies show that leisure activities help in reducing blood pressure, body mass index, and cortisol levels.
Common hobbies include gardening, photography, solving puzzles, scrapbooking, dancing, painting, working out, playing musical instruments, writing, and knitting.
Other than providing personal satisfaction, hobbies allow you to expand your social circle. By coming together with others who enjoy similar interests, you create new friendships that provide much-needed emotional support. If you feel like you don’t have enough time to explore leisure activities, cut back on other tasks.
One of the biggest benefits of hobbies is that they stop your stress from graduating to burnout. The gratification you receive gives you fresh insights into your personal and professional life.
6). Stop Holding On to The Past
It’s natural to feel angry towards people who treated you unfairly in the past. While everyone feels this way once in a while, it can increase your stress levels in the long term.
Anger is one of the emotions that activate your fight or flight response. In such situations, your adrenal glands boost the production of hormones such as cortisol.
Unmanaged anger causes more serious problems such as insomnia, extreme anxiety, cardiovascular issues, high blood pressure, and migraines.
Holding a grudge creates more health problems for you than for the person you direct it at. Because you focus too much on the past, you can’t enjoy the present.
You could also feel a lack of purpose in life. Although it’s not easy to forgive, it’s advisable not to dwell too much on such negative issues. Once you free yourself from the yoke of victimhood, you deny the other party the power to control your life.
There are various healthy ways of expressing your anger and frustration. You can talk about it with someone you trust, meditate on it, keep a journal, or join a support group.
7). Look at Life from a Different Perspective
Sometimes your stressful life could result from holding on to rigid beliefs. Maybe you don’t like your job, or neighborhood, or the people you interact with, but somehow never seek new opportunities.
Fear of the unknown, coupled with the relative comfort of familiarity, are strong agents against positive change. They could cause you to live your entire life without exploring your full potential. Changing your perspective results in several ripple effects in your life.
Suppose you’re overworked, underpaid, and not appreciated at your current job. If you focused on finding a new one that didn’t have these negative qualities, most of your stress would disappear. You’d also have more time to gain new skills, work out, network, pursue new hobbies, and improve your productivity.
In the long term, your entire outlook will change for the better simply because you didn’t maintain a single perspective.
8). Get Closer to Your Loved Ones
Your family and friends provide strong emotional support. They can tell when you’re struggling because they know you well. Your stressful life might encourage you to withdraw from society, but that’s not healthy.
It will only result in a downward spiral that will cause more devastating disorders such as depression. By opening up to your loved ones, you share your burden and get motivated to turn your life around.
Your brain is also more likely to produce serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine, and endorphins when surrounded by people you love.
These hormones help in lifting your moods, which does away with symptoms of stress. You can take it a step further by getting a pet.
Apart from companionship, furry friends help you manage anxiety and other associated disorders. They eliminate loneliness, encourage physical workouts and hobbies, and provide genuine, unconditional love.
Studies show that pet owners are less likely to feel sad, be agitated, and visit the hospital often. You’re also less likely to have high blood pressure and suffer cardiovascular problems.
9). Quality Sleep Is Healthy
Sleep deprivation is both a cause and a symptom of stress. It’s caused by factors such as a busy schedule, moving to a new location, or the birth of a baby. Some are voluntary, such as watching TV or reading late into the night when you should be sleeping.
Others are the result of medication, extreme weather, and unhealthy habits such as smoking and alcohol abuse. Conditions such as sleep apnea, asthma, anxiety, and heart disease affect your sleep-wake cycle.
You can reverse these negative situations by eating healthy, exercising, managing your time, and seeking professional help.
Do a detailed evaluation of your day to day activities to determine the exact cause of your stress. Remember to eat healthy foods rich in natural nutrients. Avoid excessive consumption of alcohol, caffeine, and sugar.
Alcohol and substance abuse also worsen your erratic sleep patterns. Other solutions include meditation and delegating overwhelming responsibilities to free up time for relaxation.
Visit a sleep doctor if you have more challenging situations such as restless leg syndrome, insomnia, and narcolepsy.
10). Declutter Your Life
Have you always wanted a clean and organized space but just can’t seem to get it right? This clutter doesn’t just refer to your physical environment.
When you’re stressed, it’s hard to stay focused. Cluttering results in extra work, lost productivity, hoarding, weight gain, and diet problems. Luckily, you can take control of your life immediately.
One way of doing so is to dedicate a few minutes every day to organize your surroundings. Other solutions include avoiding impulse purchases, unsubscribing from email newsletters that you never read, and thoroughly cleaning your house. Close unused social media accounts, delete idle apps from your phone, and cut off toxic people.
Go through your belongings and dispose of everything you haven’t used for years. A garage sale will help you achieve this objective faster.
The benefits of decluttering include better air quality, healthier eating habits, and improved concentration on your personal and professional goals. With time, your stressful life will be a thing of the past.
While these recommendations work well, you also need professional healthcare to make them effective. Various practices specialize in managing mental disorders.
Other than treating symptoms, they dig deeper to identify the root cause of your stress. EZCare Clinic is a prime example of this high-quality medical approach.
Its licensed and highly skilled physicians excel at diagnosing and treating associated mental and physical conditions. Their services include anxiety disorder and chronic fatigue treatment, as well as pain management.
Conclusion
If you’re feeling stressed, the tips outlined in this article will make you feel better. A less stressful life improves your mental wellbeing and slows down the aging process.
It also helps combat conditions such as high blood pressure, memory loss, acne, and obesity. These positive results are beneficial to your mind, body, and soul.
They also radiate to your family, friends, and acquaintances. So a healthier mental lifestyle ultimately benefits the entire society. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you need more tips on how to cope with mental disorders.
Author Bio:
Sara Anderson is the head of content for the EzCare clinic, a medical clinic that provides world-class health care services. She has been associated with the health care industry for 10+ years and specializes in health care and medical content
