The definition of stress is the feeling of worry that causes mental tension. While it’s normal to feel stressed from time to time, constant feelings of anxiety can become detrimental to your health. Here are our tips and tricks for alleviating stress so that you can feel lighter and more focused.
Common Causes of Stress
The most common causes of stress can vary based on your lifestyle, habits, and schedule. Some reasons include job dissatisfaction, long work hours, job loss, chronic illness, divorce, loss of a loved one, moving, emotional problems, and more. Identifying what causes stress can streamline your goal of alleviating pent-up aggression, anger, frustration, and overwhelming feelings.
Tips To Alleviate Pent-Up Stress
Learning various tips and tricks to alleviate stress can help you feel less rigid and allow yourself to relax, especially after a hard day. Observing your emotional habits, making small changes to your routine, and identifying stress inducers are a few ways to feel better.
Consider Your Diet
Nutrition can contribute to how you feel throughout the day. More importantly, nutrition can impact stress levels in various ways, especially when consuming foods that are high in fat and sugar. While these foods can add short bursts of energy, blood sugar eventually crashes, leading to mood swings and increased food cravings. Ingesting high amounts of alcohol and caffeine can also lead to increased stress.
Eating foods high in protein and fiber can increase alertness, maintain satiation, and decrease feelings of stress. You also want to eat fruits and vegetables with high amounts of vitamins and micronutrients, including vitamins A, C, and E.
Pick Up Exercises
Picking up physical activities can help your body release pent-up stress and allow you to soothe your emotions. You can slowly increase your exercise by doing 30 minutes of walking, yoga, swimming, and jogging. If you want to increase your strength, weight training and calisthenics can increase your muscle strength while releasing endorphins to help you release stress.
Eliminate Stress Inducers
You need to recognize your triggers and causes to understand your constant feelings of stress. Write down where you feel most stressed throughout the day, such as at work, commuting, during class, or even at home. If you struggle with recognizing your stress causes, tracking your feelings and thoughts in a stress journal can help you determine and eliminate your stress patterns before they start.
