Stress and Anxiety Relief

Stress and anxiety is something that everyone has to deal with almost daily. How it is handled is crucial. If it is not dealt with in a healthy manner, stress and anxiety can have harmful effects. Stress and anxiety decreases your resistance and makes you more susceptible to illness and disease. It can also affect mental well-being. While eliminating stress and anxiety totally from our lives is not realistic, there are several methods to relieve stress and anxiety.

Exercise

• Exercise is an effective tool to reduce anxiety. When anxiety hits, one has a sudden rush of adrenaline in response. Physical activity is a natural way to counteract your fight-or-flight response. Regular physical activity decreases the potential for stress. Routine exercise directly influences many physiological and psychological aspects that cause anxiety. Exercise reduces muscle tension and also produces endorphins, natural substances that can have a tranquilizing effect on the body.

Meditation

• Meditation has been shown to lessen anxiety. It teaches your mind to become more quiet and relaxed, and takes you through a process of releasing stress by relaxing the entire body. Meditation trains you to recognize the symptoms of stress, and it alters how your mind reacts. In successful meditation, you fully focus on one thing. With the majority of meditations, this focus is on breathing techniques. By keeping the meditation singularly focused, you end up letting go of stressful beliefs. Anxiety quickens the heart rate; meditation lowers the heart rate. When you meditate, your breath deepens, permitting more oxygen into the brain and blood. Deeper breathing slows your heart rate, which helps you feel calm.

Find Humor

• Laughter is another method to relieve stress and anxiety. Laughter improves the immune system by lowering the level of hormones that cause stress and increasing the amount of healthful hormones, such as endorphins. Also, laughter is a distraction from stress and anxiety. Facing situations with a sense of humor makes it less intimidating and provides a more positive outlook. Humor can be found everywhere. Try watching comedies on television or watching humorous movies. Go to a comedy club. Humor even exists in our daily lives. Don't take things so seriously.

Aromatherapy

• Aromatherapy is a method that uses the body's sense of smell to help increase your mood, relieve stress, and promote better health. Aromatherapy is an immediate means to feel relief from stress and anxiety. According to naturalhealthadvice.com, lavender, bergamot, sandlewood, and majoram are some of the most soothing scents. There are several methods to use the oils. A few drops can be placed on a cotton ball and then inhaled or the oils can be rubbed on the temples. Another method is to put some drops into a hot bath and breathe in the vapors. Also, try dampening a washcloth in the water with the oil and place on your face.

Positive Affirmations

• Positive affirmations can be a stress management tool. Positive affirmations are a helpful way to alter your thinking to move from negative to positive. With positive affirmations, you make a positive statement of what you want to see come to fruition. Repetition plays an important role. It helps to start your day off with a positive affirmation and repeat it throughout the day. Keep statements simple and phrase them in a way so they have already happened.