Modern life is incredibly stressful. Starting from waking up early in the morning to sleeping late in the night, we nowadays go through a lot of activities that are not only exhausting but are also stressful. Handling personal and professional life together can sometimes be very difficult and challenging. Impressing your boss, remembering your friends’ and loved one’s birthdays, satisfying self and making parents proud, fulfilling dreams etc, there’s a lot that we are running after and it undoubtedly involves a lot of efforts. But there are times when we are not able to achieve certain things of face a lot of difficulties in achieving them and thus we experience stress.
They say technological advancement is helpful in making our lives easier but the truth is we ended up being more trapped in a strange loop of messages, emails and several social media applications etc. “Long-term overexposure to stress hormones can cause increased risk of health problems such as anxiety, depression, heart disease, weight gain, and memory and concentration problems,” Dr. Nadkarni says. What you do and the people around you should be a source of reducing stress and not a cause of it. Stress is not what happens to us but what we response to the happenings around us. 98% of the problems would be solved if we stop over thinking things and calm ourselves down. Always remember, tough times do not last, but tough people do. On that note, let us tell you 3 best ways to beat stress in minutes:
- Wake up early: It might see a little difficult in the beginning, but trust us waking up early will not only help you give a fresh start to your day but giving yourself 15-20 min early in the morning will also keep you fit , healthy and your mind refreshed throughout the day. “Take time in the morning to centre yourself. A lot of people shoot out into their days like a rocket ship and it never gets better from there,” says San Francisco-based psychologist Leslie Carr, PsyD.
- Create a soothing space around: Research has suggested that bright colours like yellow and red keep you excited and soothing yet dark colours like grey, blue, green help you keep calm. “There are a lot of ways to surround yourself with colors that can ease stress throughout the day like at home, paint an accent wall; and at the office, drape a soothing-colored scarf over the back of your chair and change your computer screensaver,” says Molly Roberts, MD, president of the American Holistic Medical Association.
- Watch a cat video: No we are not kidding. There is a reason why we are saying that. Rose Hanna, a relationship counselor and professor of psychology and women’s studies at California State University Long Beach says, “After a stressful day, looking at these funny things actually activates the part of the brain that delivers tranquility and a calm physiological response. This decreases anxiety and helps tremendously with reducing stress.”
There are many other ways too, like, singing your heart out, taking a hot bath, laughing hard, doing a physical hobby (gardening etc), clenching and releasing fist and muscles, smelling the rose, etc.
So people, say your stress, “let’s break up”.
Happy living J
