Lifestyle Changes That Can Help You Relax

Avoiding stress in life is impossible since it is unpredictable. No matter how many affirmations, mantras, or precautions you put into place to try and prevent the feeling of stress, there will always be moments in life where you will feel strain and pressure.  

It’s surprising how everyday activities can impact our stress levels, such as travelling to work or shopping and create tension that can continue to build throughout the day. On the other hand, other factors may be causing your stress levels to rise, such as deadlines, looking after your children, or you might be experiencing issues within a romantic or work-based relationship.  

To make it worse, sometimes we can pinpoint the aspects in our lives that are causing us stress, and other times the pressure can catch us off guard and take us by surprise. To manage these periods of stress better, we need to actively implement steps into our daily lives to help us relax and lower our stress levels.  

From practising breathing techniques to spending more time with friends and family, there are various lifestyle changes we can make to promote the feeling of relaxation in our daily lives. Here are a few suggested lifestyle changes to help you power down and de-stress.  

Change Your Diet  

Maintaining a balanced, healthy diet can reap many rewards. One of them is helping individuals maintain balanced stress levels since our stress levels and a balanced, healthy diet are closely linked. When we are under pressure or feeling in need of a pick-me-up, we often resort to consuming sugary, fatty foods as these food groups contains additives that make these foods so pleasurable to eat.   

However, although foods high in fat and sugar may be pleasing during the moment, the high soon wears off and leaves us feeling hungrier than before or sluggish. Because the refined carbohydrates and added sugars make our insulin levels rise, which makes our blood sugars drop and cause feelings of irritability, tiredness, and cravings for more.  

To minimise your stress levels, ensure that you eat a balanced, varied diet containing all the main food groups with added focus on fruits and vegetables and a limited amount of fats, refined carbs, sugars, or salts. Doing so reduces inflammation and promotes healthy blood flow and pressure in the body, a factor that high-stress levels increase.  

Engage In Exercise  

We understand that exercise might sound like the last activity you’d want to participate in when stressed. However, no matter how small, incorporating exercise into your life has been proven to manage and improve your stress levels. Health professionals have proven that when you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins that work in tandem with the receptors in your brain to numbs the amount of pain you feel.  

Commonly called a ‘runner’s high’ amongst members of the running community, this feeling produces a similar effect as morphine. Because as endorphins are released throughout your body, it creates a positive sense, making the exercising individual feel exhilarated. All of this works together simultaneously to make us feel the pleasurable sensations that we do after a heavy workout which ultimately helps lower our stress levels, feel better about ourselves and prevent issues with our mental health such as anxiety, depression etc.  

According to health professionals, adults should aim to engage in around one hundred and fifty minutes of exercise per week, even less if it’s intense physical activity. We’re not suggesting that you must start training to become a professional athlete; anything that gets your body moving is enough. You can always work towards higher intensity if you wish.  

Start by stretching your legs around the office by doing some light yoga or a quick walk during your break; anything that gets your blood moving and those endorphins pumping will relieve a stressful situation and improve your mood.  

Make Stress-Relieving Purchases  

Now we’re not telling you to go out and start impulse buying everything you see; instead, there is a large selection of products on the market nowadays that can help you destress. A quick Google search for ‘best stress-relieving products’ will pull up thousands upon thousands of hits, all peddling different products and claiming that there the best.  

However, with so many results, it can be hard to navigate through them all to find the ones that will work best for you. It can be hard to recommend products for managing stress, as everyone is different, and what may work for some may not work for others. We can, however, outline some of the most sought stress-relieving products for inspiration.   

Some of the most popular purchases to help manage stress levels are subscriptions to mobile applications that practice meditation, face masks, stress balls, colouring books, essential oil diffusers and workbooks. On the other hand, if you’d like to adopt a more natural approach towards bettering your health, you could consider purchasing products from Naturally CBD.  

For more insight, consider browsing their CBD online shop in the UK for a range of natural products that can help you maintain your stress levels and other health benefits. Peruse their website today for more information or follow their blog to keep up to date with more CBD related topics.  

Practice Breathing Exercises  

Telling someone to ‘take a deep breath’ when trying to relax may seem counterproductive but focusing on your breathing and practising breathing exercises are proven ways to reduce stress levels. This suggestion is one of the easiest to practice, as you’re simply focusing on your breathing and nothing else.  

Start by sitting or lying down in an environment that is free of noise, then start taking deep breaths through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Alternatively, you can breathe through your nose if it feels more manageable. A common approach for this practice is the 4-7-8 breathing method, which involves breathing for four seconds, holding it for seven, and then exhaling for eight.   

Focusing on your breathing and nothing else allows you to focus on the contraction of your lungs as they expand and deflate. When you’re stressed, your breath will come in short, shallow pants, heightening the negative sensation, whereas deep breathing oxygenates your blood and helps your mind return to normal.  

XOXO

*This is a guest post.