Six steps to control and manage stress

Step 5

Exercise

 Make time for moderate exercise and a pleasure in life. Set a limit on what you can do every day, combining, your daily tasks, by adopting healthy habit, and scheduling fun activities into your day.

When you are stressed, probably exercising is the last thing you feel like doing. However, exercise is a powerful tool for dealing with stress. In fact, studies show that regular exercise can be as effective as antidepressant medication. It increases energy levels and decreasing feelings of fatigue. Go on. Break this vicious circle.

Scientists have not figured out exactly: - why exercise is such a potent anti-stress, but evidence suggests that physical activity increases mood-enhancing neurotransmitters in the brain, raises endorphins, reduces stress, and relieves muscle tension – all things that can have a positive effect on stress.

To get the best benefit from exercising, aim for 30 minutes of exercise per day. However, you can start small. Short 10-minute bursts of activity can have a positive effect on your mood. Here are a few easy ways to get moving:

-      Take the stairs rather than the lefts

-      Park your car in the farthest parking bay to your destination

-      Take your dog for a walk

-      Pair up with an exercise partner

-      Walk while you are talking on the phone (if convenient)

-      Exercise at least twice a week, 

Meditation is also an effective way in reducing stress. Its techniques can help you to be aware of the cause of your guilt, your stressor, and develop ways to detach you from your symptoms, and prepares you to focus your attention on thing you want to do.

In addition, aerobic and yoga poses can help relieve feelings of stress. Try downward-facing dog or legs-up-the-wall pose (you can find these poses on yoga websites). Two other aspects of yoga — breathing exercises and meditation — can also help people with stress feel better.

As a next step, try incorporating walks or some other enjoyable, easy form of exercise into your daily routine. The key is to pick an activity you enjoy, so you are more likely to keep up with it.

People who are stressed might not like being active. However, make yourself do it anyway (ask a friend to exercise with you if you need to be motivated). Once you get in the exercise habit, it will not take long to notice a difference in your mood.

The following exercise tips offer a powerful prescription for boosting mood as an antidepressant (see appendix 8 for more details):

 -    Ten minutes walk can improve your mood for two hours.

-     The key to sustaining mood benefits is to exercise regularly.

-    Choose activities that are moderately intense.

-   Aerobic exercise undoubtedly has mental health benefits, but you do not need to sweat to see results.

 Find exercises that are continuous and rhythmic (rather than intermittent). Walking, swimming, dancing, stationery biking, and yoga are good choices.

 Start slowly, and do not overdo it. More is not better. Athletes who over-train find their moods drop rather than lift. It is not just a matter of getting blood flowing, though that is part of it. However, getting outside and getting sunlight and fresh air is important because it is refreshing and gets more oxygen to your brain.

 

Please refer to the next Blog for the next step

 

Six steps to control and manage stress

Step 4

Socialise

No matter how difficult it might seem to get out of the house and smile in the company of others, this is probably the most effective way of getting over stress. Socializing is essential for anyone of us and you should consider it a fun activity, not an obligation. Select some friends that have always made you feel better and reconnect with them (see appendix 6 for more details).

Ten tips for reaching out and building relationships

1.       Talk to one person about your feelings.
2.       Help someone else by volunteering.
3.       Have lunch or coffee with a friend.
4.       Ask a loved one to check in with you regularly.
5.       Call or email an old friend.
6.       Go for a walk with a workout friend.
7.       Schedule a weekly dinner date.
8.       Meet new people by taking a class or joining a club.
9.       Confide in a counsellor, therapist, or clergy member.

10.          Accompany someone to the movies, a concert, or a small get-together

Laughter really is the best medicine. Studies show that simply smiling will increase serotonin levels in your body, making you feel better physically. Therefore, put some fun in your life by reading a good book, learn to parasail, or simply learn some new jokes and share them with your family and friends.

A smile is not a guaranteed or permanent cure, but it does help sometimes if you can keep a smile for a few minutes. Laughing helps, well at least temporarily and straightens your face muscles.

Get involved socially. An active life keeps stress at bay. Try to keep up with social activities even if you do not feel like it. When you are stressed, it feels more comfortable to do nothing. However, being around other people will make you feel less stressed.

 Please refer to the next Blog for the next step

 

Six steps to control and manage stress

Step 3, nurture yourself with good nutrition

The first step to develop your stress management skills is to stay healthy. Most stressful people develop a situation that hard to think rationally, and therefore, easy to forget. The key to control stress is to start with a few small goals and slowly build from there. Draw upon whatever resources you have. You may not have much energy, but you probably have enough energy to take a short walk to the park, open space, or just telephone a friend.

Take things one day at a time and you can reward yourself for each accomplishment. The steps may seem small, but they will quickly add up. Moreover, more energy you put into stress recovery, the more you will benefit from it.

From newly established research into fighting stress recently, we have put together seven brief healthy tips for controlling stress without using medications or vitamins. Most of these tips are probably common sense. These tips are prepared as an action plan to take step-by-step:-

 Nurture yourself with good nutrition

 Good nutrition can stimulate good feelings and produce energy in your body. A simple fruits and vegetables diet can go a long way. It does not have to be an expensive diet.

Stress can affect your appetite. It can affect it in different ways, like no desire of eating at all, or you may overeat.

 Try to make it as a habit by eating healthy food. Eat in a regular basis without waiting until you are hungry. Eating properly applies all the time, but for those suffering from stress; it is more advisable to adopt self-discipline healthy eating habits. Food with nuts, grains and similar diets (only if you are not allergic to them) can benefit your health and improve your stress level.

 Healthy snacks are widely available these days in all food units. If you can make your own, it is much better still.

 Water is an important factor for our body. More that 70% of our body is liquid and needs water. The proper amount of fluids in our body helps to keep our skin healthier and dioxin our body. There is no specific amount of water, which a person must have. The proper amount is based on your body weight, age, activity level, and other factors. Most importantly, drink water that is required when your body ask for it.

Fitness and diet balance is critical to our health. Alcohol and caffeine are the ones you have to watch constantly. They must be under your control, otherwise, your body will get addicted to them, and they will seriously make stress much worse.

Please refer to the next Blog for the next step

 

Six steps to control and manage stress

Step 2, have a pleasant environment

Have a pleasant environment.

 Spring season is a pleasant time for all creatures. We can benefit from it to bring a smile to our face and mostly we benefit from its wonderful sun light. The sun light has an important role to play in our chemical processes in our body. Lack of sunshine may trigger negative effects in our moods and behaviours. There is a hormone called “melatonin” that contributes to tiredness. If you live in areas that have little sun light around the year, try to be active in outside sports like fishing, mountaineering, or just gardening.

 Use colours to cheer you up. Wearing clothes with bright colours, may seems to be odd for some people, fortunately, it does stimulates and bring positive feelings. Dark colour clothes may increase the effects of stress. You can try any colour that is cheering you up. If you find that is not convenient in your work place, try it in your own spare time, when you do sport or gardening. If none of all these stimulate you feelings, try colour art therapy.

      Add extra lighting in your environment. We may sometime feel that we need some privacy by turning the light down (using dimmer), or just accept the poor lighting with low wattage bulbs. Research proves that poor lighting can contribute and have great effects on stress. Technology has developed in the twenty first century, and providing us with low cost energy bulbs, which is good for your health and good for your pocket.

 Avoid fluorescent lights. If you have any of such bulbs/tubes replace them with the new energy saving bulbs if convenient.

 Your place where you are sleeping is the most important place for your health. Irregular sleep, in irregular environment, lack or too much of it will make the matter worse. If you cannot control it, try to use safe binaural beats to positively affect alpha, beta, theta, or use safe brainwavers. Try to adopt healthy lifestyle habits, by aiming at 8 hours of sleep (or the amount of hours that you body needs).

 Please refer to the next Blog for the next step.