How to Manage Stress the Right Way: The Ultimate Guide to Keep You Calm, Cool, Collected
Stress is something that almost everyone experiences. It’s normal and healthy to feel stressed once in a while. If stress becomes constant and lasts too long, it does more harm than good. This article will help you healthily manage stress so that it no longer negatively affects your life.
What is Stress?
Stress is an internal state that your body goes through when responding to a situation. It’s an instinctive reaction to external triggers that prepares you for threats, challenges, and emergencies.
When stress is triggered, it causes your autonomic nervous system to activate, leading to physiological responses that create biochemical changes in your body. These biochemical changes can affect your mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
Why We Experience Stress
Understanding how to manage stress helps to know why we experience stress in the first place. We experience stress when we’re overwhelmed, uncertain, or out of control in some way.
The stress response is an automatic biological reaction. It happens without you being aware of it. When your body perceives a threat, stress hormones like cortisol are released. They cause physiological changes in your body, such as increased heart rate, blood pressure, and sugar levels.
These changes give you the energy and motivation to either fight or flee the threat.
How to Manage Stress
When you’re better able to manage your stress, you’ll also be better able to maintain good mental health. You can use these strategies to help reduce or eliminate stress and prevent it from becoming constant or extreme.
– Get enough sleep
When you’re sleep-deprived, your body experiences the same negative effects of stress that it would when you’re fully stressed out.
– Limit your caffeine and alcohol intake
Caffeine and alcohol are stimulants that can cause stress and anxiety, making it difficult to sleep.
– Eat a healthy diet
Eating a diet rich in fresh, whole foods reduces your risk of stress-related health problems like heart disease and diabetes. A healthy diet includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.
– Exercise
Exercise is one of the best ways to manage stress. It reduces stress-related hormones, and studies have shown that it can even reduce depression and anxiety.
How to Stay Calm When You’re Feeling Stressed
Stress can be triggered by various situations and factors, but there are ways to combat it. You can reduce stress and anxiety in your life by practicing mindful self-care.
This can be as simple as taking a few minutes each day to do something you love, like reading a book or gardening, to relieve your anxiety. You can also perform breathing exercises.
When you’re stressed, your breath becomes rapid and shallow. Practicing slow, deep breathing can help to calm you down and reduce the stress and anxiety in your body.
Conclusion
Stress is an inevitable part of life. Managing your stress is a great way to prevent it from becoming too intense. It’s important to remember that stress is normal, and everyone experiences it from time to time. When your stress is triggered by positive events, it can even be a good thing. But when it’s caused by negative events, thoughts, or feelings, it becomes unhealthy.
The author of this article is a therapist from the Sensera app. Sensera is a daily 10-minute self-therapy app. It’ll help you to cope with various mental problems (anxiety, self-esteem, and relationship issues). Feel better with CBT audio sessions and exercises. Download now to become happier!
