How to combat chronic stress?
This is a great tool to combat stress. You don’t have to write page after page about what’s going on in your life as if you were a teenager. A simple phrase or several (depending on how you feel) is enough. Recognizing what your stressors are can help you take the initiative to combat them. You just have to write what is happening and how you feel about that situation.
The simple act of writing can be a fantastic emotional release and can help you focus on issues other than those that cause you stress.
Change your perspective
Remember that nothing in life is stressful by nature. Stress is just a state of mind that varies depending on how a person perceives a circumstance. This does not mean that it is not real, but it does imply that you can change the way you see what happens to you. Psychologists call this “Cognitive Reframing” and it has been shown to be effective in many people and problems.
There are many ways to reframe. You can open yourself up to more possibilities, not be left alone with what you think at the moment when the stressful situation happens to you. Focus on what your weakness is and think with what strength you have that you can overcome it. It is about discovering new possibilities to deal with a problem.
Don’t forget magnesium
Magnesium deficiency can generate a state of hypersensitivity to stress. This is because magnesium helps reduce levels of cortisol in the body, the main hormone released during stressful situations and linked to most health problems. If your cortisol levels are always very high, you can also be at risk of disturbed sleep, depression, bad mood and loss of muscle mass.
A quick way to get magnesium is to eat nuts: walnuts, almonds and cashews are the ones that will offer you the highest magnesium intake.
Breath deeply
Sometimes stress comes on without warning. But many others you can feel how it arrives. In this case, the physiological response is normally to breathe faster, almost to hyperventilation. Do not do it. The next time you feel the sensation of stress, take a deep breath, take a breath through your nose, feel your gut fill with oxygen little by little and expel it through your mouth, also little by little. Repeat this activity for a while, whatever is necessary for your body to calm down and regain control over your emotions.
Deep breathing is so effective that once you’ve tried it, you’ll wonder why you don’t always do it. You can do it. In fact, it’s a change that can dramatically improve the way you feel.
Go for a ride
Exercise is great for stress. But it doesn’t have to be very intense and you don’t need to join a gym either. Sometimes the best way to combat stress is to take a walk. Just 10 minutes of walking can be enough to make you feel more relaxed and can get back to work.
Eat dark chocolate
It is well known that chocolate helps fight stress. But maybe what you didn’t know is that not just any chocolate. It has to be dark chocolate. What you can do is buy the chocolate with the highest percentage of cocoa that you can find or that you can eat, since not everyone likes it equally.
Drink tea
Probably when stress comes to you, you will tend to make yourself a cup of coffee to get through the day, to get active and be able to face work. However, you may not have realized that coffee increases cholesterol levels and increases the production of adrenaline, which is the hormone with which we respond to stress. This can lead to fatigue, anxiety, and mood swings.
known for its ability to reduce mental and physical stress, improve mood, and improve cognitive development. It has also been shown to be effective in lowering cortisol levels in the body.
Look for a hobby
When you have many obligations in life, it can seem that the only way you will become happy is to spend all the time you have to deal with them. However, it is extremely necessary to have moments that belong only to you, where you don’t have to worry about anything else.
These activities should consume your entire brain while you are doing them and should not burden you with guilt or shame. The social component helps. Regular social engagements have been shown to increase your happiness more than making more money at work. But a hobby doesn’t have to be social to help reduce stress. You just have to find something to disconnect your worries and make you feel good.