Doesn’t matter who you are, at some point in your life you’ve had to deal with stress. We’re all affected by it differently, and some of us are affected more severely, but we’re all affected.
Whether it’s work, school, family, relationships or a million other things, if there’s something that can be worried about, there’s someone out there worrying about it.
There’s some over-the-counter medicines you can get for stress, and of course you can have something prescribed if it’s serious enough, but all of that stuff is packed with chemicals.
You don’t know what you’re actually putting into your body when you take medication for stress. The thing is though, you don’t actually need that stuff.
There’s actually quite a few excellent, natural stress relievers. Here’s five of them you can try the next time you find yourself stressed out.
1.Lavender
Lavender is actually one of the more well-known stress relievers and this is actually just one of many reasons why lavender is good for your health.
Lavender is a sedative that is commonly used as an alternative treatment for anxiety and for issues of restlessness too.
It has been known to release any kind of tension that might be present in your breathing passages, which allows for your breathing to regulate.
This means that you’ll have more oxygen reaching your brain and that will allow you to think more coherently. This soothes your anxiety and helps you calm down.
This function is good for many issues, ranging from anxiety to things like depression and nausea too.
A good way to get this into your system is to get something like a lavender-infused pillow that you can sleep with.
That way you’ll be inhaling the chemicals for the entire time you spend asleep. And it’s a very pleasant scent to drift away to too.
2.Meditation
I know this one might sound obvious, but I think that there’s actually a bit of a misconception as to what meditation actually is.
Just sitting quietly and taking deep breaths may help you with stress and anxiety, but that’s not really meditation. There’s a lot more to the practice of meditating than that.
What you actually need to do is reach a state known as ‘mindfulness’. It’s not an easy thing to do and in spite of a relaxing result, achieving this state is not necessarily a relaxing process.
It takes a lot of concentration and quite a bit of practice too. You have to set aside five or ten minutes a day to do nothing but meditate.
You can’t listen to music while you’re doing it, you can’t have any distractions really, you must be fully focused on being mindful.
Once you’ve done it enough, you will start to enjoy the process and you’ll notice an increased calmness overall. But you have to put the effort and time into it.
3.Keeping a Journal
To be aware of how you’re feeling on a consistent basis, is the first step to overcoming the things that are preventing your happiness.
The only way to do this, is to keep track of your emotions. If you keep a daily journal of how you’re feeling you can do this.
First thing’s first, familiarize yourself with some of the causes and symptoms of stress so that you can recognize these as you’re making records.
Then set aside some time every evening to get your journal out and jot down how you felt during the day.
If any moments of positivity or negativity stand out to you, write about them in you journal and also make sure you write down anything that may have triggered a negative emotion.
If you’re not entirely sure on what’s causing your stress, this is a good way to nail that down. You can recognize patterns and get a sense of how you react certain changes.
Definitely give this is a shot, it will help you by letting you know what to avoid.
4.Chamomile
This is another one that many people are already onboard with. This is actually something that’s been used for relaxation as far back as Roman times.
Of course back then they didn’t consume it the same way we did. Chamomile tea comes in many forms these days and as long as the chamomile leaf itself is present, it’s all beneficial.
The reason for this is a compound present in the leaf known as apigenin, which is linked with sleep and tranquility.
It’s the perfect thing to have just before bed if you’ve had a particularly stressful day. One cup per day will help you relax, help you sleep and there’s other health benefits too.
Chamomile is known for being an excellent immune booster, which is great for people who suffer from stress.
Oftentime being anxious will open people to feeling rundown and coming down with colds and flus. If you’ve got chamomile in your diet this becomes less likely.
5.Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
If you’ve heard of this before it’s probably been in reference to the actual therapy sessions that people pay for.
And CBT as it’s commonly abbreviated to is something that you can be guided in, but that’s for more serious cases.
I’m not suggesting that you pay for it, I’m suggesting that you challenge your own brain. Give yourself some therapy.
The idea is that you change the way you think about your personal situation, and choose to embrace the things that are out of your control.
If you practice mindfulness and keep a journal too this will be easier. When you find yourself panicking, retrain yourself into embracing the things that are triggering your stress.
And since you should have a good idea of what’s causing anxiety if you’re tracking it, you should be able to look ahead and prepare for embracing these triggers.
If you think that you could actually use some professional CBT, then be all means go for it, but it’s definitely worth researching the practice and trying it yourself.
Conclusion
Stress is no fun, I think we can all agree on that, but it’s really not something that any of us should have to deal with.
Trying to take charge of your own mental state might seem hopeless, especially at the height of your anxiety, but if you know how to approach it, you can make a lot of changes.
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