10 tips to minimise your stress

With an endless amount of bills, deadlines, work commitments and home responsibilities stress has become an inevitable part of our daily lives. Being overcommitted and overscheduled can be overwhelming and stressful but thankfully there are ways to ease the tension.

To help you cope with everyday life and relax a little more, here are 10 ways to reduce your stress load.

1. Make time for yourself

It is important to set aside regular time for yourself each day to do something you enjoy. It could be reading a book, writing down your thoughts, having a coffee at your favourite café, going for a walk or taking a long bath.

Taking this time out to relax, unwind and get in touch with you the individual outside the rest of your roles can help minimise stress and overwhelm and clear your head.

2. Take regular breaks

When you're extremely busy taking a break can be the last thing on your mind. Not wanting to lose your place or momentum you can often think "I'm too busy to have a break". But breaks are even more vital when you’re under pressure to help prevent burnout. Even just sparing 5-10 minutes every 60-90 minutes to stretch or go for a walk, can help to clear your head, minimise your stress and leave you more relaxed.

3. Accept a little imperfection

Often a lot of the stress we experience comes from our own self expectations and a need to be perfect. But sometimes you need to let go of your high expectations and perfectionist ways for your sanity, stress levels and schedule. It is fine to be committed to excellence and take pride in everything you do; it just doesn't need to be ‘perfect’ all of the time.

4. Get a life!

Balance is vital to minimising your stress, so make sure you set aside time to have a life outside of your work and the everyday routine. You need time out with friends and family, to have fun and enjoy life. Not only will you feel better for it, you will also be more relaxed and productive.

5. Ask for help

This is easy to say but often hard to do, especially if you are highly independent or proud. Though if you want to avoid burnout you do have to swallow your pride and give up control on occasion - especially in your busy times.

6. Get moving

Exercise, in addition to its many health benefits, can help to reduce your stress and anxiety. Helping your brain release feel-good chemicals, a walk around the block, yoga class, aerobic exercise or any other choice of movement can be a great way to deal with stress and change your mood.

7. Learn to say ‘no’

Every time you say “yes” to something you are inevitably saying “no” to something else. Trouble is we don't tend to notice since more often than not we are saying "no" to ourselves. For our own health and happiness though we need to get into the habit of saying “no” when we are already overcommitted.

So start introducing “no” a little more into your vocabulary especially when the task, favour or event doesn’t fit within your schedule or priorities.

8. Avoid people who stress you

If there are people in your life who continually cause stress limit the amount of time you spend around them, or if you can end the relationship entirely. Life is too short to spend it around toxic people who bring you down.

9. Build in wind-down time at the end of the day

We all need time to unwind at the end of the day and slow our thoughts to sleep more peacefully. From tonight make sure you build in wind-down time for yourself after you have finished working, studying and tidying.

10. If normal stress tactics don’t work seek help

If you find you are still suffering significantly from stress despite trying stress minimisation tactics and making lifestyle changes, there could be other underlying causes at play like:

• Inadequate sleep
• Irregular eating patterns
• High GI diets
• Basic nutritional deficiencies, which compromise mood (e.g. Magnesium, B1, B6, Folate, B12 and Zinc)
• Side effects from prescribed medications (Corticosteroids)
• Thyroid issues
• Pyrolle disorder (which can be improved with Zinc and B6)
• Changes in gene expression
• A reduction in the MTFHR enzyme

In these cases we recommend you talk to your health practitioner to discuss your symptoms and undergo some simple tests (if needed) to identify and address any other issues that may be impacting on your health.

Many of these can be causes can be identified and addressed simply by talking to your health practitioner and undergoing simple tests. If you would like to know more, call us today on 1300 744 123.

How do you minimise stress?