We all experience stress in life. Some of the usual reason comes from your job, an illness, and financial difficulties trigger this. Though not all stresses are harmful, some can actually help you be more focused and give strength and achieve your goals in life.
But when the stress can no longer be handled anymore, there are times that you just wanted to stop and have something to overcome it.
So we write down a list of 7 Easy Ways + 1 Master Step to Lessen Stress that you can easily do right now!
1. Deep Breathing
The simplest and the easiest of all that we usually do every day: Breathing.
Breathing deeply can lower down your heart rate and blood pressure to make your self more relax at times that you’re having those stressful feeling
Though there are plenty of ways to do the breathing exercise wherein you can just sit with eyes closed and hands on belly, you can also try the “4-7-8 method”. The 4-7-8 Method is a method of breathing exercise that aims to reduce anxiety and helps people to fall asleep. Although the exercise has limited scientific research to support the method, there are anecdotal evidence to support the claim(1).
The breathing method consists of the following:
- Breath-in through the nose for 4 Seconds
- Hold your breath for 7 seconds
- Exhale through the mouth, pursing the lips and making a whoosh sound for 8 seconds
- Repeat for 4 cycles
2. Exercise
One of the most common and also highly effective to combat stress is to have an exercise. Even though you can’t run or too tired to do it, there are other ways that you can do to make you start moving. One of my favorites is the walking exercise.
It might look simple, but it can pump up your heart rate, help your bones become stronger, releases the feelgood chemicals such as Endorphins (triggers positive feeling in the body that acts as analgesics to diminish pain), and can also give you some time to appreciate the nature outside. (2)
3. Listen to Good and Quality Music
Another way that you can easily do anywhere is by listening to music, research shows that listening to music can down lower blood pressure, heart rate, and reduces anxiety. Tired of the old classical music? Try some new beats to calm you down.
4. Have a Good Laugh
As the Bible saying on Proverb 17:22 says “A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” or in the most common quotations “Laughter is the best medicine.”
Laughter is really the best medicine aside from making you lighten up your mood, it also lower downs cortisol which the body’s stress hormones and give you an endorphin boost! Start watching your favorite Netflix Comedy Sitcoms, read a comic book, or be with the person that usually makes you laugh.
5. Gum
You heard me right, Gum! Did you know that by chewing a piece of gum you can easily lessen stress? A study shows that people who chew gum improves the levels of anxiety, mood, and fatigue. (3)
6. Meditation
Clearing your brain with thoughts kinda look hard, even the most experienced people who meditate still have their voices on their head when they’re trying to meditate (4). But meditation is simple and easy to do even for beginners like you!
Try these easy steps to start up your meditation:
- Find your happy place, sit or lie comfortably
- Close your eyes gently
- Do not control your breath, just breathe in naturally
- Focus your attention on your breath
- Continue the above steps in case your thoughts wander
Do these steps for 2 to 3 minutes to start, or you can also try it for longer periods.
7. Spend time with your loved ones
There are times that reaching out to the people you trust the most lifts up your mood. Start talking to your loved ones and share your difficulties, the best people are always there to support you on your hardest times.
8. Last but not the least, Master the Art of Giving
Have you ever give someone something without expecting a return? Doesn’t it feel so good? Well, the answer here is “Prosocial Behavior”. Prosocial Behavior or intent to benefit others is a social behavior that benefits other people as a whole, this includes helping, sharing, donating, co-operating and volunteering. (5)
Looking for ways to this, here’s one that we can share:
Be a volunteer and join groups or organizations that promote helping others, this can be the places that provide food to the homeless or organizations that assist specific diseases, like cancer or diabetes. Remember, you can donate your time and not just your money without expecting any returns.
By doing these easy steps you can easily combat stress and have a positive attitude in life and will easily lessen your stress.
