How to Reduce Stress and Anxiety: 25 Simple Tips!

Daily stress, whether from the traffic-choked commute, road rage, unhappy love life, or heavy workload at the office, is reaching stratospheric levels. While some optimal acute stress is good for humans as it tunes up the brain and improves our performance and health, long-term stress can lead to anxiety and degraded health, including mood swings, sleep problems, changes in appetite, loss of hair (see this Hairguard article) and even affect heart health. In such a scenario, it is quite possible for us to wonder how to reduce stress and anxiety.

Stressed people often eat unhealthy food, eat less, or eat more than what is required, leading to poor physical health. Stressed people may either oversleep or sleep less. This may hamper their recovery and growth. They are seldom left with the energy to work and often indulge in unhealthy practices like alcohol consumption and smoking to beat the stress. 

However, the good part about stress is that it can be easily controlled by observing a few daily rituals and thoughts, which will help you reclaim your life from stress and make you healthy and active again. 

How to reduce stress and anxiety? 

Here are a few simple and effective ways to relieve stress or ways to destress yourself at home: 

1. Identify The Stress Triggers 

Before attempting to de-stress yourself, first understand the source of your stress and anxiety. Do you know what exactly triggers this reaction and what your response to it is? Try eliminating some of the triggers that you have some influence over. 

2. Have A Positive Thinking

Staying positive or optimistic is a precursor to happiness. Positive thinking doesn’t mean that you dig your head in the sand and ignore the problems of your life. Rather, it means that you approach unpleasant life conditions in a more positive and productive manner. It also means hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. 

It is important to understand that our subconscious emotions can be either positive or negative, and this largely depends on what we feed our minds while we indulge in self-talk and process our emotions. Our attitude can be either optimistic or pessimistic. If you’re optimistic, you feed positive emotions and thoughts to your brain and come across as someone who has positive thinking. 

Positive thinking may lead to happy emotions, balanced thoughts, and a cheerful attitude. Laughter and happiness lower your stress by lowering your stress hormones. 

Read Also: Happiness is a choice, choose to be Happy!

3. Forgive Yourself

Forgiving yourself and others is the best possible thing you can do to regain your mental peace. Staying in the past doesn’t help anyone and is not worth missing the future. You don’t have to forgive a person for the sake of forgiving them; you have to forgive them for attaining your mental peace.

Also Read: It’s Okay to Not to be Okay!

4. Learn to Say No

If you really want to make yourself happy, reduce stress, lead a content & meaningful life, or simply have more control- Learn to say no! Know your limits and say no when you feel overwhelmed. 

5. Practise Gratitude

When it comes to increasing your happiness, improving your health, and coping with stress, there is no other powerful thing as gratitude. Consciously focusing on gratitude leads to greater emotional well-being.

6. Practise Meditation, Deep Breathing & Mindfulness 

Meditation is an inward-focused thought and is a great way to relax yourself even if you have a lot of stress. While meditating, find a comfortable place and focus on your breathing or some object like a flower or even a beach in Ibiza. The key is to stay focused and not let anything come to your mind. When you meditate, it de-clutters your mind from daily worries, negative thoughts, and troubling emotions while creating a space for positivity to seep in. 

Meditation calms your mind and soothes your nerves, chasing the stress away. Yoga and prayers are also a form of meditation and can relax your mind and body.

Deep breathing, as done in yoga, is also a good practice for getting in touch with your body. The ‘pranayama’ or ‘life force’ is at the center of Yoga as it is considered a source of energy and life for all living beings. The inhalation of extra oxygen while deep breathing can calm your nervous system while reducing your blood pressure and anxiety. 

Being Mindful and practicing mindfulness is a large part of the meditative horizon. It is a very effective approach to mental health as it prevents stress from being the problem. 

Mindfulness is a mental state which involves being fully focused on one’s awareness of the present moment. As you practice mindfulness, you accept & acknowledge your thoughts and feelings without any judgment. Mindfulness teaches that it is possible to calm your mind and ease stress with whatever you have in your present environment. 

Also Read: Holistic Health – Holistic Approach to Health & Weight Loss

7. Exercise Regularly

Exercise, or any form of physical workout like playing tennis, lets loose the mood-boosting hormones called endorphins. Exercise is not only one of the best ways to de-stress but also helps strengthen muscles and help you maintain a healthy weight. Physical fitness ensures you are better able to fight stress of any sort. 

Also Read: The 10 Fundamental Rules of Health and Fitness to Stay Fit & Active Forever

8. Go for a Walk

Walking alone is one of the simplest ways to calm your body and mind. It puts you in a meditative state, releases mood-boosting hormones, and decreases cortisol (the stress hormone). For ultimate de-stress, go for walking holidays to mountains and hill stations. 

Also Read: Reasons You Should Travel More Often – My Life Lessons

9. Treat Yourself with Mood Boosting Foods

Diet and nutrition are some of the best ways to de-stress yourself, as diet is linked to everything in our body, and it is certainly linked to your mood and stress levels, too. 

Occasional binging on stress-busting, comfort foods like burgers, pretzels, pastries, cookies, and other sweet treats and starchy foods definitely lift up your mood. As we eat such food, our serotonin (a brain chemical responsible for feeling calmness & relaxation) levels go up, imparting a feeling of contentedness and relaxation. 

The mood-boosting foods provide some instant satisfaction but limit your portion size and possibly overeating. So, whenever you are stressed, go out and have a chocolate ice cream and cheer yourself up!

10. Drink Tea & avoid Caffeine 

Green tea, chamomile tea, and jasmine tea are very soothing and refreshing teas that beat the blues. While Green Tea regulates your metabolism, Chamomile Tea promotes relaxation and helps you fall asleep. Jasmine tea is known to promote circulation and has therapeutic properties. Inculcate green, jasmine, and chamomile tea in your diet and destress yourself while avoiding caffeinated drinks, as caffeine is shown to worsen the stress response. 

11. Chew Gum

How do you reduce your stress and anxiety?  Chewing Gum is actually shown to address this answer and provide immediate relief. Pop one in your mouth and enjoy mood-boosting benefits. 

12. Squeeze a Stress Ball

Still thinking about how to reduce stress and anxiety? Squeeze a stress ball, and beat the stress out of your system. 

13. Sleep More 

Never underestimate the importance of sleep in regulating your mood and stress levels. An adult typically needs eight to nine hours of sound sleep every night to be able to be fresh and productive the next morning. Unfortunately, lack of sleep is also a key cause of stress. When you are stressed, you need more sleep to fight it off. 

Stress can cause you to lose sleep and lay awake thinking of problems in your head. Next time when you are stressed out, resist the urge to stay awake and catch up with sleep. You will wake up fresh and in a good mood.

14. Get Up Early

If you are not a morning person, then try getting up on time and be surprised to see how much you can accomplish before others are awake. You will have ample time to work out, read, drink tea, and spend time at ease before your actual day begins. This means more time at your disposal and less stress.

15. Unplug for some time 

Stress can follow you everywhere, and therefore, it becomes all the more important to escape stress by unplugging from the world for some time daily. Cut the cord. Avoid TV, news, digital gadgets, social media, and email, and take some time for yourself. Spend some time alone, enjoy your own company, and relax.  Talk to yourself and believe that everything is going to be okay. 

16. Connect with loved ones

To beat the stress, be around your loved ones and feel pampered. Having a strong and caring social network reduces anxiety and stress. Having a loving, caring, and stable partner or love relationship is even better. 

It is well known that women naturally respond well to physical affection from their partners. Such physical affection releases happy hormones called endorphins on the partner’s touch. 

Hugging loved ones, or a tender kiss especially, to your partner when stressed after a long day’s work is a good idea. A reassuring voice is going to put everything in the right perspective. 

17. Be a Proud Pet Parent

The very idea of having a furry friend at home to cuddle and play with sounds so destressing. Why not consider petting a dog? Research shows that people who are pet parents are happier and happier than others. Research also indicates interacting with animals decreases cortisol and increases the positive hormone oxytocin. Dogs can really save your life! Choose pets, choose to de stress! 

18. Get Massage & Spa with Aromatherapy 

Getting a massage or spa with aromatherapy is a great way to eliminate all the tension building up your muscles and mind. Chamomile, lavender, and eucalyptus oil can be very soothing and calming. They can be used in your massage oil or in your diffuser and offer immense soothing benefits. 

19. Take Hot Shower and Bubble Bath  

After returning from work, getting into a warm shower with all the day’s stress will relax your muscles, body, and mind. It will suddenly refresh you and pep up your mood. Pour in your favorite fragrant body wash and exfoliators, and pamper yourself. 

20. Clean Up

How to reduce stress and anxiety when at home? Look around at your house. The answer is right here. De-cluttering your physical environment and organizing your home space actually helps de-clutter your mind. Time to clean up and organize your closet and living room. 

21. Pursue your Passion

Indulging in fun activities and spending time on your favorite hobby like painting, gardening, dancing, playing a musical instrument like guitar or drums, reading light stuff, writing, watching movies, and listening to music can take you out of your current stressful situation, give you a much-needed break and help you focus on something which you enjoy. Music therapy, in particular, is very helpful and can be very relaxing. 

“Dance like no one is watching and pair this with singing by bringing out your Beyoncé.”

22. Return to Nature

Returning to the woods for forest bathing will instill a feeling of calmness.  Greenery is much more relaxing than pixels on the screen, so let the calmness of nature gradually seep in. 

23. Laugh it Out

Laughing, in particular, has been shown to improve your mood and decrease stress by tricking your nervous system into making you happy. Indulge in laughter therapy by watching some comedy shows and movies and beat out the stress.

24. Find a Relaxation Mentor

Finding a positive role model, aka mentor, who specifically excels in remaining calm and relaxed can help you stay calm and composed. Studies show that by looking at those who are good at being calm, you can also learn to stay calm. 

25. Rock the Rocking Chair

When stressed, sitting on the rocking chair can release endorphins, improve mood, and impart calmness. The answer to how to reduce stress and anxiety lies in your rocking chair!

Stress is an unavoidable part of our lives. While stress can’t be completely eliminated from our lives, we can still manage stress and even beat it. The answer to the question “How to reduce stress and anxiety” lies in following the simple life wisdom!