Easy and Effective Ways to Kill Your Stress

Say goodbye to your stress with these simple ways

“Thank God I have the day off,” I think to myself as I sip a hot cup of matcha in an attempt to ease my headache. I’m usually pretty good about regulating my stressors, but this week was jam-packed with work and I neglected to find the time.

Thankfully, it is a cold, rainy day which gives me some time to chill out and reflect. I’m currently sitting at my bedroom desk with the windows cracked listening to the light drizzle of rain along with the chirping of birds. Their melodies soothe me as my fingers hop to and fro over the keyboard.

I decided it would be a good idea to remind myself about ways to diminish stress during the day. I think we could all use a little more peace in our lives. Besides, if we’re always stressed out, we’ll never be able to savor the little things that make up the human experience.

Too much stress can be harmful to the brain. It makes you groggy, angry, and simply not yourself. And the worst thing would be to take that stress out on others around you at work and at home.

The following will provide you a few practical and easy ways to limit stress as well as cultivate a sense of peace and calm throughout your day. You’ve most likely heard of these ideas before but forget to utilize them. I hope they can help minimize your stress and allow you to find more enjoyment in your day.

Limit Your Screen Time

Never before have humans had occupations where we spend 8 hours a day looking at screens. Oddly enough, when we come home, our primary form of entertainment involves watching television or surfing the web. Like drinking or smoking, it is an addictive pleasure that becomes hard to break away from.

Screen time is detrimental to both physical and mental health. To stare at a screen, you have to be stationary. Humans are used to moving, walking from place to place and this sedentary behavior is unnatural compared to our ancestor’s nomadic lifestyle.

Perhaps this is why a study found that greater than 6 hours a day of screen time contributes to depression.

I know when my eyes are fixated on a screen for a long duration, I start to feel tired and irritated. Only after I get some form of physical activity and some fresh air outdoors do I feel rejuvenated.

Social media and texting are a huge problem too for your mental health. Your phone provides quick dopamine hits, so it’s no wonder why you’re so tempted to look at it. However, when the text or notification doesn’t come, you don’t get the rush you’re craving and this can contribute to depression and anxiousness.

The other problem with phones is that they’re so accessible. If your anything like me, you struggle to not check your Instagram feed and your calendar while lying at night in bed. Using screens close to bedtime can affect sleep quality as the blue light disrupts our circadian rhythms by suppressing melatonin.

“But what about night mode,” you ask?

I’ve always been one to put my devices on night mode. When it came out, I thought it was perfect for me as I like to continue working late into the evening. Unfortunately, staying up on the screen just made me even more tired. When I looked into it, night mode which increases the warm, yellow colors and tones down the blues, is actually worse for sleep because it mimics daytime.

Tips for limiting screen time —

• See what you can do at work with old-fashioned pen and paper. You may find you can reduce your screen time by an hour or two throughout the day. If your a writer, jot a storyboard on paper instead of a word processor.
• Instead of watching TV when you come home, try reading a book. You’ll get the same stress relief you would from the TV, and it’ll also make you smarter.
• Refrain from using your phone 1 hour before bed. This will give your body enough time to produce adequate levels of melatonin to allow for a restful sleep.

Go for a Walk in the Forest

The Japanese are known to be some of the longest-living people on earth. Not only do they eat healthily, but they also practice healthy habits to limit stress. One of these habits is forest bathing or the act of walking through the forest and fully immersing themselves in it.

Forest bathing is known to reduce stress, blood pressure, and heart rate as well as increase feelings of well-being.

I make an effort to get a healthy dose of nature each day. When I’m in the forest, my mind can relax. I do nothing except listen to the birds, breathe in the fresh air and feel the ground beneath my feet. If I feel inclined, I’ll sit by a stream and meditate for a minute or two. I have nowhere to go and nothing to do so while I’m in nature I am a free spirit.

I have nowhere to go and nothing to do so while I’m in nature I am a free spirit.

Maybe you don’t have time to get to the park during the workday or it’s too far away. That’s alright though! Most office complexes have landscaping around the perimeter. You can gain similar benefits by simply sitting and observing the trees and flowers there.

How to forest bathe

• Enter the forest without an agenda or even a set path to follow. Allow yourself to wander aimlessly; let your feet take you where they want to go. This is good for relaxing your mind as you don’t have to make any decisions.
• Explore your senses Listen to the stream flowing, feel the bark on the trees, be aware of how clean and crisp the air is.
• Limit distractions I’d recommend silencing your phone or leaving it in the car for immersion purposes, but if you’re unfamiliar with the area, bring along your phone or a map just in case you get lost!

Practice Diaphragmatic Breathing

One surefire way to increase your stress levels is to breathe through your chest and shoulders. When you breathe using these muscles, it creates tightness in your neck and upper traps, leading to pain, and inflammation — both of which contribute to stress.

While we can’t hit a button to turn on or off our stressors, we can use breathing to influence our body systems and in turn, lessen our body’s reaction to stress.

Diaphragmatic breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system through the stimulation of the vagus nerve, which signals the body to ‘rest and digest.’ Athletes in particular have a higher parasympathetic drive which is why they appear so calm and poised in and outside competition.

The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle that sits at the base of your lungs. It contracts and goes down on the inhale to bring air in the lungs, and passively relaxes on the exhale to push air out.

How to breathe using this muscle

• Sit or lie down with one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach.
• Breathe and monitor with your hands where the air is flowing. Ideally, your chest should have little to no movement, and your belly should pouch out slightly.
• Envision your diaphragm contracting down and outward. Breathe all the way in and exhale all the way out. A nice easy video to follow is here.

Important reminders

• Take care to monitor your breathing throughout the day. Is it in your stomach promoting relaxation or in your chest increasing stress?
• Check in every hour or so for a moment to observe how you are breathing. Is it short and rapid or long and drawn out?
• Practice makes you perfect. Check back in on how to breathe properly if you are just learning or forget how to use your diaphragm.

Phone a Friend

Humans are social creatures. Sometimes we need to vent our problems to someone else. Ever wonder why you feel so much better after chatting with a friend?

Talking out your issues openly helps your mind work it out. This process of verbalizing your feelings is known as affective labeling and is proven to help regulate stress.

When you’re stressed, your amygdala (the region that deals with fear and aggression) gets put on overdrive. This causes your brain to think irrationally as it becomes solely concerned with leaving the threatening situation to survive. By talking it out, your brain uses the prefrontal cortex which deals with logic, reason, and decision making. This decreases stress and allows you to make well-thought-out decisions.

Working at a physical therapy clinic, I had many patients come in angered by the doctor’s short consultation. They felt that the doctor didn’t care about their issues. Many of them associated me with the doctor and gave me attitudes initially.

I always asked them to give me their story and sure enough, when they finished talking it out they were in a better mood and I was able to earn their trust.

I always feel better after chatting with a friend in a time of distress. At times, it seems as if my friends know more about me than even I do. They are able to look at my issue from an objective point of view, recall past experiences and tribulations that I’ve overcome, then give me the motivation I need to keep going.

Sometimes hearing, “I believe in you,” and “I’m here for you no matter what happens,” is all you need to help you calm down.

Final Thoughts

I hope these tips help you instill calmness in your day. Life can be tough to handle sometimes. I find little mindful moments go a long way to help lessen the burden.

Plus, slowing down and enjoying each moment will bring about a calm focus that will translate to work.

Thank you for reading. You may join my mailing list to get mindfulness tips.

If you want to read more of my writings, you may check out the following articles.

• 3 Ways to Improve Your Focus Today
• I Had to Lose the Woman I Loved to Find Myself
• Hiking in the Grand Canyon Taught Me About Life, the Planet, and Myself

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