There are so many of us who are absolutely sick of feeling stressed all day, every day, and if you are one of those people, it can almost be overwhelming to see the wealth of options for treating our stress levels. We need quick ways, we need ones that benefit us over time, but we also need access to things that are not necessarily conventional. There are plenty of unique ways to reduce stress levels that you may find interesting but also, more importantly, effective:
Purify the Air
We need to remember that cleaner air is something that can help us with our overall well-being, and this could reduce our stress levels. If you are someone who is basically allergic to life, it can feel like hay fever season all day, every day, and therefore it’s hardly surprising that you feel miserable! Therefore, look at something that can purify the air and produce those negative ions.
A good example is beeswax because when it’s burned, beeswax candles release negative ions into the air which neutralize positively charged particles like pollutants, dust, and allergens. Knowing where to buy beeswax of the right types can ensure that you do feel that little benefit. Additionally, beeswax could create a relaxing atmosphere because it emits a natural, sweet honey scent and is naturally hypoallergenic, making it suitable for anybody with sensitivities or allergies. Let’s also not forget that burning a candle can be an excellent ritual that encourages focusing on the present moment and therefore helps our mindfulness.
Chewing Gum
You might see some people constantly chewing, but actually, research suggests that chewing gum may reduce anxiety and cortisol levels. Therefore, this can be a very effective way to manage stress throughout the day. It could also be a double whammy if you are trying to give up smoking and feeling stressed because of the withdrawal process.
You could chew nicotine gum, which can give you that craving relief, but also nicotine is a fantastic way for you to protect your brain capacity in little ways. The research is preliminary, but it could very well help you with focus and may, in the long run, stave off age-related cognitive decline.
The Body Scan Meditation
Those who struggle with meditating in a traditional sense can benefit from this approach. A body scan technique involves focusing on different parts of your body and consciously relaxing them. It combines deep breathing with awareness, and therefore, you can start to release the physical tension that may be plaguing you and promote mental calmness.
This is where practices like non-sleep deep rest have (NSDR) been shown to be very effective, as they can help you regain more relaxation, make up for lost sleep, and benefit you on mental levels as well as physical ones. NSDR is a very powerful tool that, if you did it every day, could give you a far better ability to deal with life.
Writing a Letter (But Not Sending It)
Sometimes we can pinpoint the causes of stress on one person or thing, and this is why writing a letter to that person can help us to vent in a very therapeutic way. When you write down your feelings in a letter, you can let things out without feeling the pressure to send them, and this can help you to clarify your thoughts and reduce anxiety.
Many people journal, and this takes it one step further. If you have a deep sense of anxiety toward someone, actually letting everything out is pivotal for that pressure valve that we feel within us. It also helps you to clarify your thoughts because if you feel that you need to let these things out, writing your thoughts down helps you to organize what you’d like to say and how you would like to say it.
Counting Backward
Distraction is an excellent technique, and focusing on the present moment makes it harder to dwell on anxious thoughts. We have to remember that, very simply, being anxious has to do with looking to the future or looking backward. We’re never in that present moment, and there are tools like meditation that can help, but if you feel you can’t focus, then you can engage in this simple mental exercise. Start by counting backward from 10, as this can help calm a racing mind, but if your focus is really good, then start with an even bigger number.
Imagine Living in a Different Era
Going forward in time can help you to put your stress into perspective. There is a tool that hypnotherapist Paul McKenna suggests, where you look further in time toward a few years before the end of your life and picture yourself happy, but you then need to ask yourself what it actually takes for you to be calm and content at the end of your life.
We’re all feeling like we are absolutely fed up with constant stress and anguish because of external factors. Therefore, going toward the end of your life and seeing what it takes for you to feel some sense of tranquility or being at ease can do a lot.
Small Practices and the Bigger Picture
Learning tricks to reduce your stress levels can come in many different shapes and forms. A lot of the time, we feel a great sense of anxiety because there is no sanctuary in our heads. The brain is not able to tell what’s real and what is imagined, and when we start to feed our brain the good stuff and force our minds to think about positivity rather than negativity, the best way to do this is to start telling ourselves that we are happy.
Sometimes we have tools that can help us to deal with those peaks of problems, but we also need to remember that it’s about the bigger picture, where we should ultimately focus on giving our brain the nourishment it needs, not necessarily through diet or exercise (although these are important), but by showing that we are feeding ourselves happiness, even if we feel anything but.
