How Can I Relieve Stress in this New year?

The beginning of a New Year can bring about a lot of change with new jobs, new schools and new routine. With change a lot of people feel stressed, anxious and overwhelmed. Stress is your body’s response to change or adjustments. Stress can show itself in mental, physical and emotional forms. Everybody responds to stress differently but the one thing that we all have in common, is that everybody does experience some form of stress throughout their lives.

Some emotional symptoms of stress are:

·      Anxiety

·      Irritable

·      Agitation and anger

·      Depression or unhappiness

·      Loneliness

·      Moodiness

Some mental symptoms of stress are:

·      Worrying

·      Memory mishaps

·      Poor judgement

·      Mind on overload

·      Unable to be positive

Some physical symptoms of stress are:

·      Feeling nauseous

·      Irregular sleeping habits

·      Tight chest and rapid heart rate

·      Low sex drive

·      Poor immune system resulting in frequent cold and flu

·      Irregular bowel movements 

With the many different symptoms of stress, we thought we would give you some tips on how practicing mindfulness and heartfulness regularly can help relieve stress in the moment.

Breathing – Being mindful of your breathing is the quickest and easiest way to minimize stress in the moment. Simply take five, slow, deep breaths in through the nose, hold for the count of 6 and then release out through the mouth.

Movement – Holding a few yoga poses can stretch your entire body, allowing muscle tension to release. Also taking a stroll outside can do wonders for your body and mind.

Positive Thinking – Repeating a positive sentence to yourself when you are feeling overwhelmed can help to trick your brain into believing it is happy. Repeat, “I am calm. I am brave. I am amazing.” You can say those sentences in your head or out loud as many times as you need to reassure yourself through the day. 

Gratitude – Listing three things that you’re grateful for when times are stressful is a great way to change your perspective instantly. You can physically write a list or just make a mental note of people, places, things and experiences you a thankful for.

Generosity – Giving your time, services, money or items to others in need can make you feel helpful, happy and loving. Being generous doesn’t have to be handing over your life savings to a charity. It could simply be letting someone in front of you at the checkouts when they only have a few items and you have a trolley load. Or the classic – opening a door for someone.

Smile – When feeling stressed and things just aren’t going right…take a moment to SMILE. One smile has the possibility to change the perspective of many other people. When you smile at someone, they will reciprocate the smile. Whether you feel it or not, you have tricked your brain into thinking it is happy. Now that person you smiled at, will smile at some else, and they will smile at another person, and so butterfly effect of smiling takes place! And it all started with YOU.

Those six simple activities can be done on the spot to help reduce stress in the moment. When you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed and showing signs of stress just remember pause and practice one or more of the above acitivities. The more you practice mindfulness and heartfulness to easier it will become a healthy habit.