Small and easy tricks to keep energy high even in the most intense periods
It is often difficult to navigate between work, family, friends and all those thousand and more commitments, even beautiful ones, that are part of our daily life. Precisely for this reason, it is important not to underestimate the symptoms of stress.
First of all, you need to become aware of your stress and then carve out time, even and especially when it seems there isn’t any.
Taking time for yourself means paying attention to your health and well-being, disconnecting and recovering our natural biorhythm.
Now let’s see together some small but effective things that each of us can do to reduce the level of stress:
- Dedicate yourself to any sporting activity, preferably outdoors, surrounded by green meadows and woods, and in the blue of infinite skies and stretches of water.
Much research has now shown how physical exercise, if practiced without excesses and regularly, can prevent and relieve symptoms of anxiety and stress, help relax muscle tension and help you sleep. It’s good for mood and helps release tension. In short, sport is a valid aid in order not to implode. You can run, walk, soccer, bike, canoe or whatever you want but surely it’s better that it’s a physical activity of suitable intensity and that you like and are passionate about, only in this way it will be easier to maintain constancy . Yes, constancy is essential, because going for a run twice a month is not enough to obtain a beneficial effect on stress.
- Establish a strict sleep schedule.
Sleeping is, in fact, the remedy for almost every ailment and is essential, especially in periods of intense and prolonged stress. But to be restorative, sleep must be of good quality and even better in the evening/night time slot, continuous for at least 6-8 hours
- Practice relaxation techniques , meditation , mindfulness , neurofeedback and dedicated disciplines such as yoga or tai chi.
These activities teach you to know, control and manage the physical responses related to stress: shortness of breath, contracted muscles, confused mind, etc.. When you start to relax and control these reactions, you learn how to reach a state of relaxation, instead of the state of voltage. You learn to be aware of your breathing, to recognize if it is free and fluid or short and tense, and you learn breathing, such as the diaphragmatic one, which are very effective in releasing tensions.
- Adopt a healthy lifestyle and adequate nutrition . For example, it is important to know that eating properly means eliminating packaged foods, rich in sugars and sweeteners that favor the increase of cortisol in the blood. And as we have seen in other posts on stress, it is the elevation of cortisol that activates a whole series of body responses that create aging, disease, behavioral disorders, serious psychological disorders, etc. So support your body and seek out the healthiest possible diet.
- Maintain those beautiful social relationships : both those that give energy, those of laughter and light-heartedness; and those with people who are experiencing the same situation as you and with whom you can compare notes and feel understood.
- Seek help from a psychotherapist to learn how to manage anxiety and how to change dysfunctional behaviors.
Better if you choose a psychotherapeutic approach that focuses on the difficulties present in the here and now, so that you can directly address the emotional and behavioral reaction styles in stressful situations.
Initially, the patterns and habitual thoughts that maintain the typical symptoms of stress are identified. Subsequently we move towards the enrichment of these patterns and thoughts, in order to integrate them with thoughts that are more functional for one’s well-being.
- Change the way you look at the world and everything you do and experience during your day. In fact, finding a positive aspect, even in the most boring activities to perform, manages to make the situation less harmful to the body.
If you’re so stressed out and busy, that the thought of adding even one of these things into your life feels stressful, stop now. Stop because it’s time to reset priorities.
