Healthy Lifestyle Changes To Manage Stress

Managing stress is sometimes not about finding ways to relax. But changing your daily lifestyle. By making healthy changes, you can reduce your stress. Instead of trying to find relief when life is stressful. Here are some healthy lifestyle changes to consider making to manage stress.

Easy Ways to Manage Stress

We all experience stress. But we don’t have to deal with it, we can manage stress in healthy ways. Adding healthy routines to your lifestyle can help. You can start exercising, getting more sleep, and eating healthier. Also, you can try meditating, journaling, and yoga.

Start Exercising

Getting regular exercise is important for your physical health. But it can also help you emotionally. A great way to manage stress on a regular basis is by getting your body moving. This keeps your mind occupied. Releases endorphins and serotonin in your brain. And can be a healthy way to distract yourself from your problems. 

Even if you don’t work out a lot, there are ways to start a new workout routine. You can start taking your dog for a long walk during the day. Or have a dance party in the living room with your kids. Check out these workouts for beginners for more ideas on getting started working out.

How Regular Exercise Helps With Stress

It Clears Your Mind

Exercise can help with stress by clearing your mind during those minutes when you are working out. When you work out think about the movements your body is making.

You are more concerned with your pace, breathing, or even how sore your body will be. So you’ll be less focused on whatever was stressing you out.

Exercise can clear your mind and start relieving stress one workout at a time.

You Can Release Endorphins

Regular fitness will also help you release endorphins. Endorphins improve your mood and benefit you when you are struggling with stress.

Endorphins are happy chemicals in your brain that are always there. But they need to be released. When your blood is pumping through exercise, you start releasing those endorphins.

It puts you in a great mood and you feel more energized. You’ll feel ready to take on the day. And it’ll be much easier to manage your stress.

It Keeps You Busy and Distracted

Stress is sometimes overwhelming because of everything happening in your life. Sometimes you need to distract your mind a little. And exercise can be a fantastic distraction.

Try to stick to a regular fitness routine that keeps you busy 30-60 minutes a day, several days a week. By doing this you are distracted and you’re not thinking about the stressful things in your life. 

Get Enough Sleep

Stress can cause problems with your sleep. But lack of sleep also leads to more stress. You should try to get 6-8 hours of sleep each night.

Here are some tips for getting better sleep:

• Create a bedtime routine
• Keep your cell phone out of the bedroom
• Turn the television off
• Sleep when your kids are asleep

For more tips check out Healthy Sleep Habits for Better Sleep

Become a More Organized Person

Organizing your life is also important if you want to make healthy lifestyle changes. The more organized you are in your daily home and work life, the less stressed you will be. 

Organize places in your home that tend to be chaotic. Check out these 8 Easy Decluttering Tips to Organize Your Home for more inspiration.

Eat a Healthier Diet

The foods you choose to eat or not eat can make a large impact on how you feel. When feeling stressed you need to feed your body nutritious foods. Instead of turning to junk food.

Vitamins and minerals like vitamin B and folate can trigger melatonin. And other happy chemicals in your brain and body. This can make you feel happier and relax your mind.

An easy way to get more B vitamins in your diet is from nuts. Nuts contain a lot of protein and vitamin B. Both can help you with your fight-or-flight stress response. It is also easy to add more nuts to your diet.

To get more folate in your diet eat green leafy vegetables. Folate can produce dopamine and keep you calm. Also, it can improve your mood and focus. Some good leafy greens to try are kale, spinach, and different types of lettuce. 

Try Yoga For Stress Relief

Yoga is a relaxing activity where you learn breathing exercises. Also to stretch your body and improve your balance. It can provide a lot of healing powers. Such as helping with any type of stress you are suffering from.

The practice of yoga relies on both the mind and body. So it can teach you how to relax your mind and body from head to toe. 

When you are doing yoga you focus on your breathing. Breathing exercises help give you the calm and relaxation you hope to achieve. Yoga can be difficult at first. You can stick to easier poses and then work up to the more difficult ones.

Journaling

An easy way to figure out what is causing your stress is by keeping a journal. You can record all your thoughts and feelings each day. Then look back on it when you have a stressful day. 

You’ll be able to pinpoint people or situations that led to your stress on those days. Look back on your journal entries often. So that you can find a pattern to discover what was causing your stress. 

Here is a post for starting a journaling routine.

Try Meditation

Meditation is a way to clear your mind and spend a few moments with no worries or concerns. By practicing this on a daily basis, you’ll be able to manage your stress. Meditation has several forms that can help you with stress.

Mantra  

Mantra meditation is when you choose a word or phrase that becomes your mantra. You relax your mind and repeat this word or phrase over and over again. Until you start clearing your mind of what is causing your stress.

Guided 

Guided meditation can be something you do on your own or with a recording. You’re guided through different images in your mind. The images could be you walking through a forest and listening to birds in the trees. Or feeling your feet in the warm sand of a beach and hearing waves crash next to you. 

Mindfulness 

Mindfulness is a state of being where you have full awareness of your mental and physical state. In mindfulness, you look to your thoughts and feelings. And experience those feeling without judgment of what they are.

Avoid These Unhealthy Methods To Manage Stress

These habits might seem like they are helping you manage stress. But these methods can actually make it worse. Avoid these unhealthy methods of dealing with stress.

• Over consuming alcohol
• Smoking cigarettes
• Binging on junk food
• Avoiding responsibilities
• Sleeping too much or not enough

The Last Thing You Need To Know About Managing Stress

Making healthy lifestyle changes can be difficult at first. But you can start with one change at a time. You can start an easy exercise routine. Write in a journal for 10 minutes before bed. Or meditate for five minutes in the morning when you wake up.

Adding these healthy changes to your life will help you manage stress. So your stress doesn’t take over your life.

I hope you enjoyed these tips on how to manage your stress. How do you manage your stress? Let me know in the comments:)