How Can I Control Stress?

If you’re asking the question ‘how can I control stress?’, it’s likely that you’re feeling the impact of stress in your life – whether this is on your mental, physical or emotional health. Stress is often a major factor in mental health issues – since increased stress often leads to increased symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as poor sleep and poor diet. The good news is that there are several effective stress management techniques that are readily available to us – that have been proven to help to deal with the effects of stress on our bodies and minds. 

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction 

MBSR, or Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, is one of the most powerful and effective ways of addressing and reducing stress. Best of all, it is something that is easily accessible – with a lot of resources online that you can do at home. Mind Ease has several mindfulness exercises that use this method, such as a mindfulness meditation and a breathing meditation, which can be completed in under ten minutes. You can complete courses and training in MBSR, and it is a resource that you can use anytime, anywhere. 

Exercise 

We’ve all heard about how exercise is an effective stress management tool – it is a fundamental part of many people’s self care and wellbeing. But how does it help with stress? Research tells us that exercise increases endorphins (also known as the ‘runner’s high’) – as well as reducing the levels of our body’s stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. It also helps with our digestion and sleep, and can be a powerful stress reduction tool during busy and challenging times. If you’re struggling to find the motivation for exercise, see if you can incorporate it into your daily routine (eg. walking to the grocery store, or going for a run to get your morning coffee). Consistent, daily exercise is a powerful anxiety-reducing tool that can also boost your mood. 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

This therapy, also referred to as CBT, is one of the most effective anxiety and stress management tools available – and the good news is that you don’t necessarily need to visit a therapist to use it. Basic CBT encourages you to identify the triggering situations for stress and anxiety, and identify the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that occur for you. Becoming aware of triggering situations, as well as how our bodies respond to anxiety and stress, and learning how to shift our thinking in these times, can help us to disrupt the anxiety response. Mind Ease has a very user friendly Cognitive Therapy exercise to get you started!

Social Support

Research tells us that many of the negative impacts of stress are moderated – and impact us less – when we have adequate social support. This might be having good friends at a stressful job, or being part of a support group for those suffering from a health condition. It might even be a group of good friends who you catch up with weekly for coffee – or have Zoom calls with whenever you can organise it. Although therapy, exercise and mindfulness are effective in reducing stress, social support is one of those things that can truly shift us away from feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, to supported and energised. Hearing about other people’s experiences, as well as having the opportunity to share our own stories and experiences, can make a huge difference – if you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, you might want to make some time this week to reach out to understanding friends for a catch up, or research some online support groups. 

How can Mind Ease help me? 

If you’re feeling stressed, Mind Ease has a number of exercises that can help – including mindfulness meditation, cognitive therapy, deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. Making time to do at least one of these exercises each day – especially during stressful times – can make a big difference to how you feel and how much you are impacted by stress.

If you’d like reliable relief from anxiety, you can install Mind Ease for free here.