5 Tips to Stress Less

5 Tips to Stress Less

Today we share 5 Tips to Stress Less! Starting a Wellness journey means dealing with that stress in a productive way. Stress is defined as, “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” It’s no surprise that around 80% of Americans talk about being stressed beyond reason. How can we turn our thoughts around and start thinking positively? While a lot of current issues in the world are quite alarming it’s always good to focus on you and yourself locally.

Where Does Stress Come from?

Stress is our body’s reaction to pressure. Stress is very different in every person and can come from a multitude of factors. Pinpointing a stressor can sometimes be difficult and not so apparent. Social Media can actually play a role in causing stress? Parade.com says, “Decreased levels of anxiety and depression are but one mental health benefit of quitting social media. In fact, the amount of time you spend on these sites is directly related to whether or not you feel stressed out or happy.” If you can identify your stressor, then you can work on using an alternative. What’s an alternative to social media or other bad habits? Let’s get into our 5 Tips to Stress Less.

Meditate

What is Meditation? Meditation is, “The practice of intentionally spending time with our mind.” We’ve been so engrained to always “go, go, go” so when our body actually does slow down we don’t know how to handle that. Slowing down is good. Take a break, let your mind be quiet. If you’re just getting into mediating for the first time, what’s the first step? According to Headspace.com, “People might associate meditation with sitting in silence and stopping all of our thoughts and feelings to become calm. But that’s not really how the mind works, and neither does meditation. Rather than trying to stop our thoughts, we practice letting thoughts come and go.” For more meditation tips, check our Headspace’s article here.

Exercise

According to Mayo Clinic, “Exercise in almost any form can act as a stress reliever. Being active can boost your feel-good endorphins and distract you from daily worries.” Most of us have heard the word endorphins before, but for those who haven’t what are endorphins? According to Medical News Today, “Endorphins are chemicals produced by the body to relieve stress and pain. They work similarly to a class of drugs called opioids.” That’s wild! If you’re not feeling well, or feeling down, start some exercise. You don’t have to start off by running a mile. Always, always, always start small. you’re more likely to continue your routine if you gradually build one rather than going balls to the wall the first chance you get. Feeling down? Take a walk around the block to start making endorphins in your body. That’s it, that’s all you have to do. Walk around the block one day, turn it into two blocks, the next day. Once you’ve gotten your walking routine down then you can start to run and go from there.

Take A Break From Social

This was already mentioned but Social Media contains lots of downfalls for Wellness. Some may use it in a positive light to talk to friends, family, and loved ones and that is 100% okay. When you start endlessly scrolling on your feed, that’s when you start to have issues. One thing that is important to remember is that it’s not great to compare yourself to others when starting your Wellness journey. You are the focus of your Wellness journey, no one else. If you find that you’d still like to stay on social media, just do so in bits and pieces. Endless scrolling can come out of no where and before you know it you’ve spent 8 hours on your phone. It is okay to stay in contact and chat with friends on social media, just don’t be judgmental towards others and don’t let them be judgmental towards you.

Read

Screens, especially at night, can mess with our sleep cycles. The light from our screens can cause problems when trying to sleep, especially when trying to get a thorough night’s sleep. According to SCL Health, “The blue light emitted by your cell phone screen restrains the production of melatonin, the hormone that controls your sleep-wake cycle. This makes it even more difficult to fall asleep and wake up the next day.” Notice, a lot of our Wellness tips mention to stop looking at your phone and that can be overall great advice to start your Wellness journey. If you find your mind still wandering and you can’t fall asleep, grab a book off the shelf. Reading will exercise your brain and make it more tired. The fact that there’s no light will help as well. Just be sure to set your alarm before you start reading in case you fall asleep mid-chapter!

Do What Works for You

Those are our 5 Tips to Stress Less! We can’t reiterate this enough – you have to be true and honest with yourself above all. Start small and measure your success against yourself and no one else. If you’d like to read up more on Wellness we recommend this article by the Global Wellness Institute. The Global Wellness Institute according to their website, “provides valuable research and resources at no cost, fueling collaboration and innovation in the wellness industry.” Taking your Wellness into consideration is the first step in the process of creating a Wellness routine. How will you start yours? Check out our Wellness formulation to learn more.