Techniques for Managing and Overcoming Stress

Nowadays, most people are aware that stress can have very serious consequences for their health. That’s why it’s very important that we try to manage and understand our emotions before they take a toll on our physical and mental health.

Stressful situations can arise in the professional and work environment but also in health, family, economic, academic, and other areas. It is common for stress in one area to affect all others.

To try to prevent it, we will tell you some tricks to relax in less than 15 minutes and reduce stress.

Stop your activities

One of the best ways to achieve calmness if you’re already feeling stressed is to stop interacting with the fact or person causing that reaction. We know that in modern life we do not always have the possibility to get away, but it is one of the best decisions we can make in such a situation.

Take a break, go out for some air, find a quiet place and disconnect. In cases where you cannot physically do so, try to mentally distance yourself from the stressor. If you have a good ability to imagine and visualize, it can help to evoke past moments when you have enjoyed relaxation and peace.

In this regard, the Stoic philosopher Seneca explicitly advised to take a deep breath and go for a walk around the block as soon as you begin to feel an uncontrollable increase in anger, which he considered a type of temporary madness, in his book dedicated to this emotion.

Breathe deeply

One of the first manifestations of stress is a faster and shallower breathing than we usually have. Therefore, it is very important that in that situation you focus on breathing deeply and evenly. This change will:

  • clear your mind,
  • lower your pulse rate,
  • oxygenate your brain

and this will help you calm down and feel more relaxed.

In practice, a symptom for you to detect that you are stressed is that you notice that your breathing seems to come from the upper part of your chest, even from your throat.

At that moment you have to try to breathe with the diaphragm, the muscle that is located under the lungs. To do this, start by placing one hand on the lower part of your abdomen just below the ribs and the other on top of your chest. Inhale slowly through your nose, counting to four, you should feel that at that moment your belly expands and the ribs. Then exhale slowly also counting to four. Repeat as many times as necessary until you notice that the breathing calms down and becomes deeper.

Relax your muscles

When we are stressed, we tend to tense our muscles often unconsciously. This automatically increases stress and aggression in us. Such a reaction will not only affect us physically, but also our thoughts, emotions, and senses. As stated by Will Johnson in his book “The Posture of Meditation”, “when we clench our body with patterns of tension and rigidity we become insensitive to our sensations and feelings. We restrict the natural circulation and expression of our breathing. We do not perceive all the sounds that are heard around us and within us. The visual field can quickly lose its sense of luminosity, color, and three-dimensionality.”

To reduce this tension we suggest this exercise that you can practice at home.

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  • Lie on the floor and breathe deeply, consciously contract or tense each of the muscles in your body and then release them gradually.
  • Start with the face, and if you have time, continue with the rest of the muscle groups: the neck, shoulders, arms, chest, stomach, buttocks, thighs, lower legs, feet, and toes.

At the end of the exercise, you will feel more relaxed than before having released the tension in each muscle.

Control Negative Thoughts

Another way to approach stress to reduce or eliminate it involves taking control of your thoughts.

Thus, when you feel overwhelmed by a stressful situation the first thing you should do is recognize that you are getting stressed.

Once you’ve done this, ask yourself if the reaction is proportional to the situation you are experiencing or if your mind is exaggerating. This cognitive technique helps detect defeatist and catastrophic thoughts and not be dominated by them.

The last step would be to work with that thought or feeling you’ve identified and assessed. It would involve visualizing it disappearing from your mind. For this, use an image to get rid of the worry, imagining it as a fog that dissipates or a wave that passes through your head leaving it clear or a light that dissolves it.

Exercise for at least 15 minutes

Physical exercise is key to relax and reduce our stress levels. Any cardiovascular work will have positive effects.

If you do not have a large space you can do it on the spot: do small jumps or squats or crunches or run without moving…

This way the body gets oxygenated, releases endorphins, the mind gets distracted, and the nervousness disappears. Additionally, it will increase your mood and self-esteem because you are working to stay in shape.

Aromatherapy

This method consists of using plant-based essences for therapeutic purposes. They can be inhaled or applied to the skin with a massage. There are essential aromas that help combat nervous imbalance, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and clear the mind in a short time.

To achieve this, inhale and exhale deeply three to five times to get the desired effect.

Plan Better

Although the activity of planning takes time, it becomes a good investment because it will return the feeling of having control and, therefore, will keep stress at bay.

Set Some Goals

There are times when you can end the situation that stresses you with just one action, but you will need to follow several steps over time. This is especially true when chronic stress has settled in your life.

In this case, the best thing you can do is develop a plan: set some goals and a timeline to achieve them.

Be Realistic

If, even having taken measures, you continue to be stressed, it is possible that the objectives or goals you have set are unrealistic.

Sometimes it is difficult to admit that we cannot meet something that has been proposed, or at least not in the set time, if this happens to you should set other times or limit your goals to adapt to reality