When stress becomes a regular fixture in your life, it can really affect you both emotionally and physically. Unless you take action, the problem could escalate and further compromise your quality of life. Here are a few simple, helpful things to try that could make a big difference.
Alleviate Stress With Healthy Food and Supplements
Many people fail to realize the correlation between what they eat and how they feel psychologically. In reality, your diet can have a huge impact on anxiety, motivation, and concentration. If you aren’t getting essential nutrients, stress may be just one of many serious consequences.
Furthermore, eating an excessive amount of unhealthy, ultra-processed food can exacerbate anxious feelings. Your gut has its own enteric nervous system that works in close communication with your primary nervous system. Overburdening your gut with stuff that’s hard for it to break can negatively affect the communication between these two systems.
Limit or eliminate processed foods in your diet. Also, consider taking natural supplements for stress that are formulated with vitamins, herbs, or fatty acids. Even when you are trying to eat healthy, it is tough to get a sufficient volume of nutrients with stress relieving properties. For example, zinc is not a common component in most of the foods you eat but it is essential for your health. Likewise, omega-3 is found in only a handful of foods.
Supplements are a great way to address deficiencies that you can’t easily address with dietary changes alone.
Stay Engaged With the People Who You Care About
When you’re stressed out, you’re probably not up for going out and doing fun stuff, and it may also feel harder for you to be there for the people who you care about when they need you. Nevertheless, taking advantage of opportunities to stay engaged with your inner circle can be crucial in dealing with stress and anxiety. Negative emotions can feel really isolating. Confiding in your support network will make you feel less disenfranchised and remind you to be grateful for the great people in your life.
If you don’t see a lot of opportunities to socialize or get together with people come up very often, get into gear and create them. Bear in mind that if you’ve been declining invites for a while on account of being stressed out or just being too busy, some folks might have just temporarily given up on trying to make plans with you. Ultimately, you need to make a concerted effort to remedy these types of situations. If you just aren’t getting many texts or calls to meet up and do something fun, you need to take the initiative. Spending time with friends and family for an exciting activity or just a simple get-together can be a big stress reliever.
Improve the Quality of Your Sleep
Getting adequate rest plays a key role in your brain’s production of specific hormones that regulate emotions. Also, you’re a lot more prone to stress when you’re suffering from fatigue. Sleep deprivation might make you feel unfocused, frayed, or downright irritable.
Unfortunately, elevated stress levels can be extremely disruptive to your sleep cycle, making it much harder for you to fall asleep and stay asleep. Establishing a good nighttime routine could counter some of the effects that racing thoughts and worries can have on your ability to drift off comfortably.
First, get into the practice of going to bed at the same time every night. A consistent, regular sleep cycle will make it easier for your body to wind down to prepare for rest and may also help to shut off some of the anxiety-driven activity in your thought process that keeps you up. Try to moderate your screen time because blue light may confuse your body’s natural circadian rhythm.
Lastly, consider meditation as a resource to help you wind down and alleviate stress. Taking just ten minutes to calm your mind and bring your focus into the present could empower you to retake control of your emotions.
