Stress in small doses can be useful. It adds strength, and helps you stay focused and alert. But when it becomes chronic, it can overwhelm, damage your health and affect your overall quality of life. That’s why it’s so important to know how to deal with it.
1. breathe
When you are stressed, adrenaline, known as the fight or flight hormone, flows through your body. Your heart beats faster, your muscles tense up and it’s hard to gather your thoughts. Doing a simple breathing exercise will help you calm down enough to try to find a way out of a situation:
- Take a slow inhale through your nose, draw air into your abdomen and feel it fill up.
- Hold your breath for 1-2 seconds.
- Exhale slowly through your mouth. The exhalation should take a little longer than the inhalation.
- Wait a moment and take another breath.
Deep breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, which runs from the base of the brain to the abdomen. This activates the secretion of a neurotransmitter (acetylcholine) that has a calming effect on the nervous system, lowers the heart rate, relaxes muscles and allows sober thinking.
2. be master of your time
Do you get stressed when you find it hard to keep up with all your responsibilities? Create yourself a list of things to do in the following days. This will help you prioritize properly and relieve you from having to remember all the important and urgent things. Also, learn to say „no.” It’s very difficult to say no when a person you like asks you to do something, even if your schedule is already busy enough. In such a situation, say you need to think for a while and ask yourself two questions – do you want to do it and do you have the time. If the answer to either is „no,” be assertive.
3. get enough sleep
It is said that the amount of sleep needed to rest the body and mind is an average of eight hours, but this is actually a very individual matter. If you sleep too little, you can feel stressed, have mood swings and have trouble thinking clearly and being productive at work. That’s why better sleep is a simple way to improve your quality of life. If you have trouble falling asleep, make sure you take time to relax in the evening. Let it be at least 10 minutes. During this time, take a warm bath. This will help your body reach the perfect temperature for rest. You can also do some simple stretching exercises or a few yoga poses. Try to relax your muscles and don’t move too vigorously while doing so. In the evening, listen to quiet music or read a book. Watching TV or using a computer or smartphone causes a lot of blue stimulating light to reach the brain, making it harder to fall asleep.
A 2018 study found that people who sleep less than six hours a night are significantly more likely to develop atherosclerosis1. This is a chronic disease in which cholesterol deposits build up in blood vessels. It turns out that along with an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise, poor sleep may be among the main risk factors for atherosclerosis. Previous studies have shown a link between sleep deprivation and high blood glucose levels, hypertension and obesity. Insufficient sleep does not allow the body to properly rest and recover, increasing the risk of cardiovascular failure. Also, stress can indirectly increase levels of bad cholesterol, contributing to the development of atherosclerosis. It is no secret that chronic tension can lead to unhealthy eating habits and overweight, which are obvious risk factors for high cholesterol.
4. don’t get upset
Stress and anxiety are closely related. What can you do to be less anxious? The first step is to distinguish situations that require your attention from unnecessary worry. If you can do something about a problem, take action or consciously refrain from doing it. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. This is better than standing still and constantly stressing. If the situation is beyond your control and there is nothing you can do, your anxiety will not change anything. Usually, just because you worry doesn’t make the situation better or worse. There are also problems for which there is no good solution. If this is the case, make it clear to yourself and try to put your thoughts on a different track. It’s not easy, but the more often you analyze your feelings in this way, the better you’ll deal with them.
One very effective way to worry less is to pour your concerns onto paper. Being able to see them helps you gain a better perspective. Write down what you are afraid of and what might happen. Be specific. In a while, go back to the notes and see if it was actually as bad as you expected, and what you did to deal with the situation. This will help you better understand yourself and distinguish between situations when your concern is useful and those when you are worrying unnecessarily.
1 Association of Sleep Duration and Quality With Subclinical Atherosclerosis, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Volume 73, January 2019.