10 Highly Effective Stress Relievers for Your Life

Unfortunately, stress is an integral part of everyone's life. And while small amounts of stress aren’t all that terrible, the true problem lies in the high levels of it. Stress, when at high levels, can cause serious health problems – both mental and physical.

This is the main reason why we need to learn how to manage all that stress in our lives. We need to learn how to relieve stress and find inner peace and harmony.

So, if you are looking for effective ways to relieve stress in your life check out these several tips.

Practice mindful breathing

This first stress relieving technique is free, can be done anywhere and it doesn’t require much practice because you are already doing it regularly. That’s right, we are talking about breathing.

Breathing for all of us is a mechanical process of inhaling and exhaling – it’s what keeps us alive. However, apart from keeping us alive, breathing can relieve us of all the stress and anxiety in our lives.

How you may wonder? Well, by practicing mindful breathing. This kind of breathing is a powerful meditation practice and all you’re supposed to do is focus on your breathing for approximately five minutes. The benefits of mindful breathing are vast from reducing stress levels in your body, lowering your blood pressure to reducing depression.

All this with just a few minutes of concentrating on what we already do normally? Isn’t it worth a try?

Switch caffeine for herbal tea

Caffeine can increase your stress level regardless of much or little you consume it. Caffeine is infamous for its ability to cause anxiety, stress, insomnia, high blood pressure, and even addiction. And while caffeine can be good for you in moderation, many people don’t know how much caffeine they can tolerate.

If you are unsure and if you’ve noticed that coffee or energy drinks make you anxious – avoid them. Many will also argue that tea too contains caffeine. The truth is that tea contains less caffeine than coffee, especially white or herbal teas – so you can switch from coffee to herbal teas if your goal is staying away from caffeine!

Proper diet

You’ve probably heard of stress eating and you may have even noticed that you occasionally reach for chips or cookies when you feel stressed. And that’s where your mistake lays.

Snacks like chips and cookies are high in carbs that are responsible for spiking your blood sugar which only adds to your high blood sugar that happens due to stress and anxiety. This means that you’re doing yourself a disservice every time you reach for an unhealthy snack when you feel stressed.

To avoid this, try swapping your unhealthy habits with a proper healthy diet. When you feel like munching on something reach for healthy snack alternatives such as fruit, vegetables, and popcorn to name a few.

Exercise

In addition to a healthy diet, you can try exercising to lower your stress levels. Physical activity is known to reduce stress and improve both your physical and mental health.

Exercise, any kind of exercise – both low and high intensity – can relieve stress. This means that going for a walk around the neighborhood for a while can count as exercise.

Also, swimming, hiking, cycling, truly any sort of physical activity you prefer can only benefit you and help you reduce stress in your life.

Get a massage

According to many studies, a good massage can help you reduce the stress levels in your body. However, the hectic world we live in doesn’t really allow us to indulge in simple pleasures such as going for a massage when we need it.

You work the whole day and when you finally get home you aren’t in the mood to go out again, even if it’s for a massage. But that shouldn’t be an excuse not to get that well-deserved massage and relieve all the pent-up tension and stress in your body.

You can be home and still get a massage with some at-home massagers. For example, professionals at Relax For Life can inform you about their benefits. Portable neck massager relaxes the cervical vertebrae by kneading, pressing, and massaging the pressure points required to ease neck tension.

You’re sitting at home and having a massage – can it get any more relaxing than that?

Invite more music in your life

Relaxing music even though it sounds like a cliché, can help you reduce stress. Relaxing music has a calming effect on our bodies and our brains as it lowers our heart rate and pulse, and it also lowers our blood pressure and decreases levels of stress.

So, next time you feel stressed just play some relaxing classical music and watch the stress leave your body in a matter of minutes.

Meditate

What is meditation? It’s a process or practice of training one’s mind and creating a sense of peace and inner harmony. And even though its origins are deep-rooted in religion, meditation is less about faith and more about mindfulness, consciousness, self-awareness, and inner peace.

Meditation comes in many different forms and each of these forms has different benefits. For example, you can practice guided imagery where you focus on images that help you harness your senses of smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound. By doing this you are creating relaxing and positive images and experiences and in that way relieving stress.

Do yoga

Exercising yoga is literally for everyone – there is no being too old or young for yoga. And while there are many different types of yoga such as vinyasa, Hatha, ashtanga, aerial yoga, and many others – the main principle of all yoga types is the same – the union of body, mind, and soul.

Yoga can help reduce stress as it includes stress-reducing techniques like learning how to properly breathe, relax, and rid the mind of unnecessary thoughts. Currently, yoga is one of the most popular practices in the world and this is definitely due to its many positive benefits.

Find reasons to laugh

Laughing is good for the soul – it lightens your burdens, connects you to people, and inspires hope. And of course, laughing relieves stress and anxiety.

Apart from all the above, laughter improves the immune system, lessens pain, and boosts energy. The question then is why don’t we laugh more often?

Our sincerest recommendation is to find reasons to laugh every day. Spend time with friends who make you laugh, find humor in little things, watch funny TV shows, anything that will give you a reason to laugh more often.

Get a pet or a plant

Interaction with animals is said to be an effective stress reliever. This is especially true for pets such as cats and dogs, spending time with them decreases cortisol levels and lowers blood pressure – which in turn reduces stress.

Caring for our pets also reduces depression, loneliness, anxiety, and improves our health and energy levels.

If a pet seems like too much commitment to you, how about getting a plant? Apart from looking pretty and purifying the air, plants can also help you reduce stress levels in your body. They aren’t too much work like pets and yet they also help you relax.

Conclusion

And there you have it, ten highly effective ways that can help you relieve stress. Choosing the right way for you will take some trial and error, but it’s important not to give up.

Living with too much stress will slowly eat us away. Finding an effective way, a strategy to manage your stress and anxiety levels can only help you lead a healthier and happier life. So, don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today and start with something easy like taking some deep breaths.

Emma Williams is an Australian writer with a master‘s degree in business administration, who has a passion for anything lifestyle and design related. She spends most of her time redecorating and participating in house projects.