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How to Reduce Stress and Anxiety: 5 Proven Tools

By Operation Meditation

Stress is a normal part of everyone’s life, and it can help us to grow and develop as people, and to accomplish tasks, at work for example. Stress leads to our bodies producing adrenaline, which gives us the “fight or flight” response – this can be useful as long as the stress then disappears.

If you experience high levels of stress in your day to day life, then you would benefit from learning some stress management techniques. There are a number of natural stress-reducing methods that you may wish to try.

Meditation for stress relief

Meditation, if done correctly, is an extremely useful technique for promoting relaxation and a calmer state of mind. This technique alters the brainwave patterns from beta to alpha brainwaves, which leads to increased calm and harmony, and decreased levels of anxiety being experienced.

Meditation also adjusts the levels of chemicals in the brain and body. It leads to increased production of GABA, which is known to stabilise a person’s mood. Disorders such as anxiety often result from the levels of GABA in the brain being too low. Levels of melatonin will also increase as a result of meditating regularly, which will also help to relieve stress.

Get active

Cardiovascular exercise such as running or cycling is an excellent way to help relieve stress and anxiety. Getting active, whether on your own or with other people, will help you to burn off steam and feel better overall. It also helps to improve your overall health, which will reduce stress levels too. Even if you just go for a walk, it will help to clear your head and forget about the stressful events in your life.

Alter your diet

Stimulants such as caffeine increase the levels of adrenaline in your body, which is a hormone that can make you suffer more with stress and anxiety. Reduce the amount of tea or coffee that you drink, or switch to a decaffeinated version, particularly in the afternoons, and you will start to see an improvement. Caffeine can also be found in cola drinks, and chocolate can also act as a stimulant in the same manner as caffeine does. Reducing all of these will make your stress levels easier to manage.

Take regular breaks

Many people, when they are at work, are guilty of working through their lunch hour instead of taking a break. This will have the effect of increasing stress and anxiety levels because you are constantly focused on the job. Make sure you take all of the breaks that you are entitled to have, and don’t make the mistake of staying in the office. Get up and move away from your desk – have your lunch somewhere else, or you will end up working.

Remember to breathe

Whenever you feel as though the stress is starting to build up to a problematic level, close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing for a few minutes. Deep breathing can help to return your heart rate to its normal level, in contrast to stress causing an increased heart rate. You may want to stop and breathe deeply for up to five minutes at a time, and this should help to calm your nerves significantly.

Stress is a problem that affects the lives of almost all adults. These are some natural ways to help relieve stress and anxiety without needing to resort to medication. Learning to deal with stress and related conditions such as anxiety is going to become increasingly important as the pace of life continues to increase, particularly at work, and as people are expected to work longer hours.

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