While it may not be possible to completely avoid stress, there are many steps you can take to minimise its impact on your mental, physical and emotional health.
1. Follow An Anti-inflammatory Diet
An anti-inflammatory diet consists of unprocessed food such as fresh food, good lean protein, good fats such as avocados, nuts, seeds, extra virgin olive oil and oily fish. Whole grains and legumes are important for gut health and fibre and provide a wide variety antioxidants and phytonutrients. Eat organic as much as possible to reduce consumption of pesticides and toxins which act as endocrine disruptors and affect hormone balance.
Foods that can support general hormone balance include flaxseed and phytoestrogenic foods like soya. It is also important to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water.
2. Spend Time In Nature and exercise
It is important to get outdoors every day to spend time in the sunshine and engage in gentle exercise. This can help to boost your mood and regulate your sleep. According to a recent study, just 20 minutes spent in nature each day will lower stress hormone levels. This 20 minutes could be spent taking a walk, a light jog, or other non-strenuous activity.
Intense cardiovascular exercise can actually increase cortisol levels. Therefore, if you feel very stressed, replace strenuous exercise with lighter workouts that engage your nervous system, such as gentle stretching, tai chi and yoga.
3. Practice Good Sleep Hygiene
Try to achieve seven to eight hours of undisturbed sleep per night. This is because sleep is very important for detoxification via the glymphatic system, so a full night’s sleep will provide your body with the best chance to complete this hoovering process for optimal health.
In addition to achieving an adequate amount of sleep each night, you can avoid blue light by removing phones and laptops from the bedroom in order to reduce disruption to your body clock, and expose yourself to direct natural light first thing in the morning to increase melatonin production, encouraging a better night’s sleep the following night.
4. Set Boundaries
It’s important to achieve a good work/life balance and practice self care. You cannot give from an empty cup. Inspite of our culture of long working hours, set boundaries to say ‘no’ to extra work that is outside of your capacity, or responsibilities outside of work that might drain your energy. Remember that you cannot be everything to everyone!
5. Improve Your Social Contact And Find Your Purpose
Sharing thoughts and emotions with friends, family and colleagues is important for building strong relationships, which in turn contributes to better mental health and possibly lower stress levels. Research found that, People in areas with higher levels of social cohesion experience lower rates of mental health problems than those in areas with lower cohesion, independent of how deprived or affluent an area is.
Secondly, finding a purpose and having defined goals provides joy and contributes to better mental health. When we are engaging in something that we enjoy, whether it is a hobby or a career, this helps to reduce stress by increasing the ‘happy hormones’ dopamine and serotonin.
6. Organise and prioritise
There are many small steps you can take to manage your workload, stay organised and prioritise your well-being above all else. Set goals for yourself and break down your tasks into small chunks that you can easily achieve and check off your list as you go. Don’t take on more than you can handle, and choose to focus more on celebrating the things you have accomplished rather than dwelling on the things you haven’t done yet.
I hope you have found some useful tips that you can give a go. Change takes time so be kind to yourself, and start with small changes first. Once you notice the small changes have reduced your stress and made life happier and more successful, you won’t want to stop improving your stress levels!
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