Stress is a part of life that occurs during major and minor challenges we face. It has also become an inherent part of our lives. You cannot control your circumstances to stress. You can, however, control how you respond to stress in the environment.
Overwhelming or chronic stress may affect your well-being. For this reason, it’s essential to have stress relievers to give your body relief. Many remedies and stress-relieving methods include herbal medicine, herbal teas, and other natural remedies.
Many of your favorite herbal remedies can offer you the stress relief and anxiety reduction you need. To top it off, they provide a range of other benefits, like tackling stress-related symptoms. For instance, insomnia, cardiovascular diseases, depression, and many more.
Let’s look at some natural and effective solutions for stress relief.
Before anything, keep a healthy diet
It’s important to note that for stress management, the best solution is to incorporate a healthy diet into your lifestyle. Unhealthy diet brings greater reactivity toward stress. Consuming high-fat and high-sugar foods may provide temporary relief to your long-term stress. However, once your blood sugar crashes, you might experience increased stress and anxiety.
To combat stress over long hauls, choose a healthy diet instead. Foods like avocado, eggs, and walnuts tend to support energy balance and mood regulation. They are the best option to maintain a manageable stress level as well as keep your body healthy to deter any other diseases or illnesses.
Avoid causing a spike in your blood sugar through refined carbs like potato chips and cookies. Remember that healthy diets are an essential component of taking care of yourself. Choose a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains for your daily meals.
Relieve stress through Aromatherapy (A popular use of herbs)
Aromatherapy has real and seen benefits in alleviating stress. When we look at herbs in general, we know how calming they can be. Adding those calming herbs into our teas has always provided a soothing effect. The same applies to aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is also one of the holistic stress relief methods.
Aromatherapy helps you to feel energized, relaxed, or more present in the moment. Research suggests that certain scents can alter your brain wave activity and even decrease stress hormones in the body.
Your sense of smell plays a vital role in the physiological effects of stress, mood, and working capacity. Electrophysiological studies revealed how various fragrances affect cognitive functions and other brain activities, measured by an electroencephalograph (EEG).
You can take aromatherapy through diffusers, body products, candles, and many other states. It all comes down to your preferences because, fortunately, all of these methods consequently yield the same results.
Consider stress relief supplements
You may have noticed how people take supplements to compensate for a lack of vitamins. The deficiency can intervene in how we function in our daily activities, so we resort to fast methods to consume various vital nutrients.
Similarly, an increase in a brain chemical called cortisol can cause a spike in your stress levels. A vitamin or supplement can help address your stress needs and nutritional deficiencies. It can ensure you receive the necessary vitamins and minerals.
Some stress support supplements are even created from herb extracts because of their effectiveness in reducing stress.
For instance, Ashwagandha is an adaptogenic herb thought to improve your body’s resilience to physical and mental stress.
Another effective supplement can be B vitamins since some research suggests that B vitamins may help reduce stress, lower homocysteine levels, and improve mood.
Time to go out for some exercise
Exercise is an incredible natural stress relief solution that can work in minutes. Embarking on an intense exercise regimen is not necessary to alleviate stress and experience the benefits of exercise on stress relief. Something simple as a walk can do wonders for your mental health as well as your physical health.
Taking a walk allows you to enjoy a change of scenery. Switching your environment is sometimes just what you need in a state of excessive stress. It can allow you to dive into a different frame of mind while bringing you the benefits of exercise.
Whether it’s a stroll around the block or a temporary escape from your office to take a break from your frustrating tasks, it can solve many issues. Walking is the simplest but most effective way to rejuvenate your mind and body.
Try Breathing
One of the top stress relief solutions is learning some and applying some breathing exercises. Breathing can create a sense of relaxation to swoop over your body, which is just what you need in a state of stress and anxiety.
Focusing on your breath or altering the way you breathe can significantly impact your overall stress level. Breathing techniques can calm your body and your brain within a few minutes.
You can do some breathing exercises at any time of the day, and no one around you will even notice. Whether you’re in a stressful meeting or sitting in a crowded area, take time out to breathe.
An example of an effective exercise is breathing through your nose and watching your belly fill with air. Then count slowly to three as you inhale. Hold for a second, and slowly breathe out through your nose when counting to three again.
Indulge in progressive muscle relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation is when you relax all the muscles in your body by group. If you want to practice it, try starting with a few deep breaths.
Once you’re done with that, practice tightening and then relaxing each muscle group. Start with your forehead muscles going all the way to the ones in your toes.
At first, it may be confusing or frustrating because you lack clear recognition. If yhou practice more, you’ll learn to recognize tightness and tension in the muscles, allowing you to relax comfortably. Every time you practice or indulge in this technique, your body will experience a feeling of relaxation sweeping through you.
This method is ideal for stressful situations, and like breathing techniques, it also enables you to practice it when you’re in a crowded area. No one will notice while you work on alleviating your anxiety and stress.
Reduce your caffeine intake
Many of us take caffeine to start our day to avoid slacking and increase productivity as much as possible. We take caffeine in the form of coffee, chocolate, tea, or energy drinks to stimulate our nervous system. However, An overconsumption of caffeine may disrupt your sleep pattern and, in turn, may cause stress and anxiety symptoms.
People have different thresholds for how much caffeine their body can tolerate. If you start noticing signs of being jittery or anxious, that’s your cue to cut down on caffeine and replace it with decaffeinated herbal tea.
Studies show that coffee can be healthy in moderation, and it is recommended to keep your caffeine intake under 400 mg per day.
It’s still possible to take less coffee, but you react with increased stress levels due to the sensitivity of your body. Monitor your individual tolerance to caffeine and adjust your intake accordingly.
Prioritize Self-Care
It’s essential for stress reduction and your overall mental health that you dedicate some time from your day to practice self-care.
Studies show that individuals who engage in self-care have reported having lower levels of stress and an improved quality of life. In contrast, a lack of self-care is associated with higher risks of stress and burnout.
Dedicating time for yourself is an essential component to lead a healthy life. This especially applies to professionals with stressful jobs like nurses, teachers, caretakers, and doctors. Dealing with jobs that involve other people can take a toll on you because of the unpredictability of people, so try working on your stress managment.
Cut off stress triggers
As stated above, self-care is essential, and maintaining your sanity is more important than anything in your life. If you feel that something is the constant cause of excessive stress, cutting it out of your life is a good idea. Get rid of things that add stress to your day so you can receive peace.
For instance, if watching the news causes you to stress out about the world around you, try reducing your worldly information intake. The same goes for social media usage or even consuming too much alcohol or tobacco.
All these things can cause a decline in your mental health and stop you from functioning properly. Making changes to your daily habits is instrumental in helping you feel good.
Bottom Line
Finding the right stress relief strategy may take some time and experiment, but you’ll eventually get there.
It’s important that you keep searching for methods to help manage your stress while also understanding that stress is an inherent part of life. It cannot be entirely eliminated, so we need to find our way around it. Learn and adopt some stress relief methods to help you navigate life and tackle the inevitable ups and downs you experience.
We hope you find this article insightful.