Stress can be tough to evade, but with these tips anyone can learn to slow down and enjoy the moment. To begin, meditating and breathing exercises are a sure fire way to manage stress. Simply begin breathing in for 3 seconds, hold your breath for 3 seconds and then breathe out for 3 seconds. This will lower your heart rate, blood pressure, and ultimately allow your muscles to relax a bit, which clears the mind. If under stress that you want to deal with immediately, definitely try breathing exercises.
Can Exercise Help?
Another way to manage stress is to exercise. Exercise is known to increase the “feel good” chemicals into the brain such as serotonin and norepinephrine. People often report the great feeling they have after exercise as “runner’s high” because it does have such a profound effect on the body and mind. Exercising makes us feel good, allows us to blow off steam, and is great for our bodies. Finally, eating right is a major key to dealing with sleeping problems, illness or even depression. Loading the body with high fat, high carb food can make you feel lethargic and moody, which can lead to lack of exercise, sunlight and even water. What your body takes in is what your mind uses as fuel, so choosing poor eating habits can definitely lead to illness and depression.
What about Food?
Making sure you are eating a balanced meal of vegetables, starch and protein is essential to keeping your body’s hormones in balance, a fundamental tool in battling the negative effects of stress. Instead of fighting stress after it happens, prevent it by treating your body right with healthy nutrition, plenty of both physical and meditative exercises.
Max is a consultant for Point Above, a mindfulness, leadership and business coach based out of New Orleans, Louisiana.
