7 Quick Ways to Manage Stress with Ease

In a previous post, What Is Really Making You Sick? Plus Natural Solutions that Really Work, I talked about the physiological effects of long-term stress. I listed 7 solutions for dealing with stress effectively, including a cool tip on understanding how your left brain/right brain dominance relates to stress management.

In today’s post, you will find 7 more quick ways to manage stress with ease. I wrote this to support the last post, because who isn’t interested in more ways to effectively deal with stress? After reading of both these pieces, you should be floating on air!

How to Manage Stress with Ease

Solution #1: Take a Deep Breath

Taking a deep breath or two adds oxygen to your system, which instantly helps you relax and brings you into the present moment.

This deep breath will help you take a step back and maintain your composure, by taking you out of the ‘reactive and emotional’ limbic parts of your brain. Instead, the deep breath will activate the higher centers of the brain which is critical for you to work through a stressful situation rationally and objectively.

Now take a deep breath, count to ten (more or less, as the situation warrants), stand up, and stretch. Remember, relaxation is the opposite of stress.

Stand up and smile. Try it! You’ll like it and feel better!

Solution #2: Take a Short Walk

If you’re at work, take a bathroom break or get a glass of water. Do something that changes your focus. When you change your focus, you release the resistance to the stress and you don’t feel as though you are in ‘eye of the storm’.  Then when you come back to the problem, chances are it won’t seem nearly as insurmountable.

If you can get outside for a few minutes, even better! Fresh air is some of the best medicine to ground us and bring us back to center.

Solution #3: Stop and Smell the Roses

All sorts of things happen to everyone, and sometimes crummy things happen to good people.

It can be intense, I know. Yet if stressful events are allowed to build up and wall you in, eventually stress will stop you from enjoying the good things in life.

Too often we put the pleasantries of life on the back burner, telling ourselves we don’t “have time” or can’t “make time” for them. However, the use of our time and the quality of our attitudes are actually the only things we can completely control.

While we can’t “make” a day that’s longer than 24 hours, each of us chooses how we start our day.

Start by saying thank you when you put your feet on the ground. If you are interested in other practices on gratitude and healing, check out my previous post, The 1st Step To Finding True and Lasting Health.

Solution #4: Sleep On It

Every coin has two sides, and every issue has pros and cons. Before bed, make a list of them both, then put the list away and take a second look tomorrow. Sleeping on a situation sometimes changes the minuses to pluses.

Every cloud has a silver lining—after all, rain makes things grow! Find the good in your stressful situation by listing the negative surges and determining what it will take to turn them into positive changes.

7 Quick Ways to Manage Stress with Ease

Solution #5: Know and Accept Your Limitations

Knowing yourself and accepting your limits may be the most important way to manage stress effectively.

Taking on one more “little thing” may end up being the “straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

It’s okay to say, “No, I can’t this time,” or “possibly later.”  Do your best to under-promise and then OVER-deliver.

Solution #6: Get Help When You Need It

Ask for help from a colleague to solve a work-related problem, recruit help from your spouse or partner at home, or seek professional help to effectively manage your stress and find the causes.

The main point is to ASK. Don’t expect people to be mind-readers (even if you think they should be), and don’t think you have to do it all yourself. No one gets through life without help. No one.

Getting the help you need is, in itself, a major stress management tip.

Solution #7: Practice Progressive Relaxation

Progressive relaxation is especially beneficial when stress keeps you from getting a good night’s sleep. Considering insomnia tops the list of health concerns in this country, especially among women, progressive relaxation is a good practice to learn.

Here’s how to do it:

While resting and breathing, start by focusing on your toes and tell them to relax. When you feel them relax, move up to your feet, ankles, calf muscles, thighs and so on, all the way up to the top of your head. Sometimes it helps to clench the muscles for a few seconds and then release, feeling a wave of relaxation.

Though we can’t always control what life throws at us, or how we might feel about it, we can control our reaction to it. This in turn helps us manage AND mitigate our stress.

Have you implemented any of these techniques? Please share in the comments below your success with us!

If you want to learn a simple technique that is my secret weapon to zap stress and anxiety on the spot, click here to get my FREE 60 Second Stress Buster Meditation. It’s a natural way to dissolve the stress in your life so you can live more refreshed and in the present.

I’m Wishing You Well,

Dr. Jessica