We all experience situations that are so stressful we feel the urge to scream out loud – but we are not in a place where we can let off steam.
Maybe you’re running late for an appointment and missing every light. Or need to pick up a prescription on the fly but find six people already in line when you get to the pharmacy. How can you keep your blood pressure from soaring and get yourself back on track?
Behavioral care manager Charissa Reynolds, MSW, at Health First Medical Group, says there are proven ways to deflate stress that you can do anywhere. “I love these because they’re completely portable,” she says, “and you don’t need any equipment except yourself.”
It’s important to learn how to manage stress before it becomes chronic, which can harm your health, taking a toll on your body both physically and mentally. Chronic stress can lead to symptoms such as low energy and headaches, or eventually contribute to more serious conditions such as autoimmune diseases, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity.
Reynolds says that some of these techniques may feel like little things, but little things help make big things that can contribute to better overall wellbeing. She shares five quick stress-busting techniques that can help you in the moment and allow you to calm down, refocus, and go about your day.
1. Take a few deep breaths
The reduction of stress and anxiety is one of the major benefits of deep breathing exercises, according to University Hospitals, a nonprofit academic medical center and community hospital network in Ohio.
Reynolds says you don’t have to breathe deeply for long, but the rhythm is important. “I usually suggest a 4-4-6 rhythm (inhale for four seconds, hold the breath for four seconds, exhale for six seconds). Your time segments can be different than mine, but they need to be consistent. Even if you’re not in a specific stressful situation, you should try to do these twice daily, each time for at least one minute each.”
At first, it may feel unnatural to breathe deeply, but practice comes with numerous benefits. Deep breaths are more efficient, allowing your body to fully exchange incoming oxygen with outgoing carbon dioxide. Deep breathing is fully proven to beneficially affect your mind, emotions and mood by changing your brain chemistry.
2. Play
“Think outside the box,” suggests Reynolds. “Get creative. Explore new ideas. Get outside of yourself.
“Allow yourself to escape in time and then come back to today’s life gradually.”
You can do something as simple as play with a stress ball, suggests the American Institute of Stress. Picking up a stress ball and giving it a few hard squeezes can break a stressful train of thought.
While play may seem frivolous or even silly when we’re adults, especially if we are feeling stressed, it is actually vital to our well-being. University of Wisconsin Health psychologist Shilagh Mirgain, Ph.D., explains that play helps relieve stress, boosts creativity, improves our mood and outlook, and keeps our minds sharp. It also improves our relationships with others.
“In play we find the freedom to color outside the lines of our life. There is a learning that comes from this unstructured time. It allows us to tap into our imagination, try different things and not be afraid to fail along the way,” she said.
3. Cue up a meditation app
“There’s a wide range of apps and YouTube videos that can help you relax, and they range in length from five to 30 minutes,” says Reynolds, “and they’re so easy to watch.
“Calm and Headspace are great apps, and I also like guided meditation apps. My family practices guided meditation together.”
The Mindfulness App provides more than 300 options for learning and practicing meditation, from beginning to advanced. You can choose a meditation from 3 to 99 minutes in duration, meditations of many diverse types, mindfulness notices, meditation soundtracks, and more.
The scientifically proven benefits of meditation are extensive at this point and most major spiritual traditions extoll the practice as a means to greater happiness and mental clarity.
Mayo Clinic says that meditation can help you relax deeply and calm your mind. During meditation, you focus on one thing. You gradually let go of the distracting stream of thoughts crowding your mind and causing stress. This process can lead to better physical and emotional well-being.
4. Make a list
Having a lot to do can, in and of itself, cause stress. For some people, keeping a to-do list can be a big help. “But you have to give yourself permission to NOT finish the list,” says Reynolds. “You need to learn to give yourself grace on those days when you just don’t get it all done.”
An article in Harvard Business Review says that when we write down information, we feel relieved from the need to hold onto it mentally. With the number of tasks we have to do each day, we can’t solely rely on our ability to remember them. To-do lists serve as a reminder for what you need to accomplish. When we check things off, it’s proof that we were able to get stuff done and that makes us feel good.
5.Step outside
Spending time in nature is a powerful way to relieve stress and anxiety, improve your mood and boost feelings of happiness and well-being, says Reynolds.
Just 20 minutes connecting with nature can help lower stress hormone levels, according to Frontiers in Psychology. An article on the UC Davis website noted that nature can help improve thinking, reasoning, and other mental abilities, physical wellness and mental health.
If you are stressed while commuting home in rush hour traffic, try getting off the road and stopping in a park or other greenspace to meditate for a few minutes or take a short walk while traffic dies down. Any of these stressbusters will help you relax, says Reynolds, which will, in turn, benefit your overall well-being and mental health.
Charissa Reynolds is a Health First Medical Group (HFMG) behavioral care manager. She earned a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from the University of Central Florida and is currently finishing the requirements to be a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). She is accepting new patients at HFMG-Gateway, 1223 Gateway Dr., Melbourne, and HFMG-Seaside, 1220 A1A, Indialantic. Call 321-434-3100 for an appointment.