Atleast 70% of the American population have accepted to be under the influence of stress and anxiety.
Stress can be really hard on your health and can affect one’s life drastically. Stress and anxiety share many of the same emotional and physical symptoms but their causes differ tremendously.
Some of the main emotional and physical symptoms of stress and anxiety are:
Emotional symptoms:
- Sleepless nights
- Lack of focus
- Excessive worry
- Irritability.
Physical symptoms include:
- Rapid increase in heart rate
- Headaches
- Muscle tension
- Shortness of breath
There are two types of stress- positive stress and negative stress.
Taking stress, to do your work before the given deadline is the positive stress whereas, stress resulting in sleep deprivation, insomnia, poor concentration is the negative stress.
In simple terms, it is basically a response from your body to a threat in a given situation.
While stress is a short term experience, anxiety, on the other hand, is a long term mental disorder that can be triggered by stress.
The bad part, it does not simply vanish after resolving the issue that was causing it. Anxiety hangs around for a long time and causes problems and issues in your social, occupational area of functioning.
Though, if there is a will, there is a way. Both the disorders are nothing but mostly related to the state of your mind.
In this post, we have covered some proven ways using which you can counter stress and anxiety.
Top 10 Ways to Deal with Stress and Anxiety:
- Exercise:
Exercising regularly is the most productive way to deal with stress and anxiety. We are pretty sure that you must have heard this from every other doctor, therapist or psychiatrist.
There is a reason why exercising regularly is important keeping in mind that most of us are corporate professionals who rarely get time to spend some time on our body.
Exercising makes your body strong and makes your mental stress go away by increasing the level of dopamine.
A person who exercises on a regular basis is less likely to be a victim of stress and anxiety.
It decreases the production of stress hormones in your body and helps you in sleeping better at night. Generally, you should sleep around 7-8 hours daily.
Exercising daily makes you more confident about yourself.
- Cuddle with your partner:
Positive physical contact can help in releasing a hormone called oxytocin.
This hormone helps in lowering the heart rate and blood pressure, both of which are main physical symptoms of stress.
Cuddling, kissing, hugging and sex helps in relieving stress. Not only humans but Chimpanzee also follow this technique to deal with stress.
Though, if you don’t have a partner, you can also try using a weighted blanket which is also a great alternate of cuddling.
- Natural supplements:
Some natural supplements to relieve your stress and anxiety are:
- Omega-3 fatty acids:
Studies show, the person who received omega-3 supplements daily experience 20% less anxiety symptoms.
- Green tea:
Green tea contains many helpful antioxidants which makes your body healthy. It also lowers the overall stress and anxiety by increasing serotonin levels in your body.
- Ashwagandha:
It is a herb that is used in Ayurvedic medicine to reduce stress and anxiety.
- Reduce your caffeine intake:
Caffeine is mainly found in coffee, tea, energy drinks, chocolate. High doses can increase anxiety. Generally, you can drink 4-5 cups of coffee in a day. Different people have a different level of a threshold for how much caffeine they can tolerate.
Drinking around 1-2 cups is safe.
- Keep a journal:
Writing everything down is a good way to cope up with stress.
Being grateful for what you have and what you have achieved in your life is one way to deal with stress.
By keeping a journal, you can remember all the good things that happened in your life. The happy memory can make up for all the stress.
- Chew gum:
Chewing a piece of gum is an easy stress relieving technique. It doesn’t take much of your time. According to the scientist, chewing gum can make your brain waves similar to those of relaxed people.
It increases the blood flow in your brain if chewed strongly making you less stressed.
- Spend time with your loved ones:
Spending time with friends and family will definitely help you in relieving stress and anxiety.
Friends and family listen to your problems and help you in resolving them.
A study found that men with no social connection are more likely to have stress and anxiety. Thus, having a good friends circle is very important.
- Laugh (I’m serious):
Laughter therapy has helped a lot of people in relieving stress and anxiety. It helps in relieving stress by relaxing your muscles.
Many older people use this technique to live a healthy and stress-free life.
- Yoga and Meditation:
Both yoga and meditation are a popular method to relieve stress and anxiety.
In Yoga and meditation, you take deep breaths and perform different kriyas to relax your body and clear your mind. It also lowers your blood pressure.
- Listen to music:
Listening to soothing music has a relaxing effect on your body.
Listening to classical, Celtic and Indian music can be particularly soothing, including listening to your old favourite songs is equally effective too.
Nature sounds are also very calming. They are generally used in transcendental meditation.
We are sure that by applying the above methods, you can definitely keep a long distance from stress and anxiety.
Though, fixing any problem would take time, patience and dedication. We suggest that you practice the methods and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
As they say, you’ve got just one life. Spend it in the most efficient way.
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