How To Reduce Stress In Your Life

Last Updated on: 31st May 2023, 06:55 pm

Why You Need To Reduce Stress

Stress is more common than ever, thanks to Covid 19. But if you have high stress levels, you are more likely to suffer for weeks or months. This can make your immune system weaker and you will be more likely to pick up illnesses. Stress causes you to have high blood pressure. you will feel tired, depressed and anxious. Stress can even cause heart disease. It is epinephrine that is harmful to your heart. It also makes you feel snappy with your work colleagues, family and friends, so you need to think about the reasons to reduce stress.

So you need to reduce the stress before it makes you feel any worse than you are. There are many ways to help you feel less stressed. We wanted to share some ideas to help you feel better.

Reduce Your Stress Triggers

Work out what is making you feel stressed. Are you stressed because of the people around you? Then you need to walk away from them. Toxic people are not good for you, even if you just take a break from them for a little while. If it is work that is making you feel stressed? Then you need to speak to your management and ask if they can help you to reduce stress in the workplace. It could be something that could be making you stressed online. Social media can be enough to wind you up to the point that it stresses you out. If this is the case, you need to switch off. Deactivate. Walk away.

When you realise what your triggers are, it is easy to work out ways to reduce the stress. Get back on to your own level playing field.

Play Online Games

Online games take your mind off everything and sometimes even I can lose a couple of hours playing online games. It helps to reduce stress because it is taking you away from the real world for a little while. You can find loads of online games. You get different kinds, like apps that have in-app purchases. Or you can get online games like the ones from Plays.org. We have written about some of the games here. These games are played on your device and they don’t need any in-app purchases. They even have old retro games like Dangermouse and Mr Bean. What’s not to like?

Playing this kind of game helps you to relax because they are not competitive with anyone else. You are playing against yourself and there is nobody trying to beat you to win. Games like on a Switch. Xbox or Playstation can be competitive and cause more stress because you don’t agree with other players.

You can play games like online games on your phone whilst you are on the bus. Or even just to relax in the evening, before bed. But they are great for relaxing you.

Excercise

Exercise is good for your physical health, but it is also really good to relieve stress in your life. Gentle exercises like Tai Chi and yoga are easy exercises for you to start with. They are also relaxing and meditative, so all of your worries go away for a while. Exercise releases endorphins, a natural substance in your body. These endorphins help you to feel a lot better about yourself and to maintain a positive attitude towards everything in your life.

If you choose to do exercise in a gym, then you get to meet new people too. This widens your friendship circle as well as feeling good at the same time. You could even join a running group, like Parkrun where you can run your stress off

Set Realistic Goals And Expectations

We all get stressed when we don’t make our targets, goals or expectations. It upsets us and that leads to stress too. Realising that you cannot be 100% successful at everything in one go is okay. There are things in life that you can control and things that you can’t control. Accepting things that you can’t control is okay, you can try again at a later time.

Sometimes you set goals that are unrealistic, thinking they are within your reach. If you want to lose 6 stone in weight, you start with losing half a stone. Then set a new goal of another half stone. The end goal is still there but you are reaching it in easy manageable steps.

Have a tick list with your goals and tick them off as you do them. Your goals don’t need to be done RIGHT NOW. They can be done over a month or a year. Give yourself something to work towards and enjoy it.

Think About You And Your Feelings

When you are stressed, turn your negativity around. Think about the things you do the best and smile. Also, be more assertive than you are. If someone makes you feel bad about yourself, tell them to stop. If someone is relying on you too much, take a step back and leave them to cope by themselves for a while.

You need to put yourself first, a friend of mine, Emma once had a toxic friend. When she stopped pandering to her friend’s attention-seeking phone calls and messages, her friend stopped all contact. She then told her family and friends that it was Emma’s fault that they had a falling out. What she hadn’t told them was that she was toxic and she had been dragging Emma down to the point of depression and pure dread when she called.

As soon as the friend stopped contacting Emma, her moods lifted and the absolute fear and worry disappeared. So get rid of the toxic and think about yourself and your own feelings. It really will help you.

Start a new hobby or have a chat with a friend, there are so many ways to put yourself first. But so many people won’t do it because they feel guilty. That needs to stop. You are worthy of spoiling yourself and you are worthy of a bit of self-love.