How To Reduce Stress: A Mind Ease Guide

Feeling stressed? You’re not alone. Many of us struggle with excessive stress, whether at school, work or in our social life. While this is common, we don’t want to experience it too much or too frequently, as it can have many negative consequences for our health. 

In this article, we will review how stress can impact our lives, what are the most common triggers, and – most importantly – what we can do to find effective relief. 

While we can’t avoid stress completely, we can make sure we have enough regeneration after each episode – which will prevent it from having a harmful impact on our wellbeing.

What is stress?

Stress is a normal biological response to any challenges that we may encounter in life. It mobilizes our mental and physical energy to respond to difficult situations and to keep us safe and thriving. 

Psychologists distinguish negative stress, also known as distress, from positive stress, conversely called “eustress”. While distress can have detrimental effects on our health, especially when chronic, eustress can actually bring us many benefits.

It can even lead to a state of “flow”, where you enjoy yourself so much you lose track of time. But for this to happen, the challenge must not be too overwhelming and we must have sufficient opportunities to rest and recover.

Chronic strife can lead to long term damage to our psychological, physical as well as relational health. Some of its effects can include:

• Excessive worry, racing thoughts or restlessness
• Low mood, depression, hopelessness
• Difficulty enjoying things that were previously pleasurable (anhedonia)
• Muscle tension, pain, difficulty relaxing or sleeping
• Digestive issues such as nausea or diarrhea 
• High blood pressure, headaches, hormonal issues
• Changes in appetite and weight
• Increased irritability, conflict or aggression

To understand how these effects can happen, you can learn more in our article about the biological origins of stress. 

Stress triggers in life

Many things in life can trigger our stress response – from everyday matters like managing our workloads, financial worries or relationship conflict, all the way to bigger events like moving, having a baby or going through bereavement. Physical health struggles can also weigh us down mentally and may require extra emotional self-care.  

We may be particularly vulnerable to this if we have experienced difficulties in the past, such as childhood trauma, bullying or abuse, or if we have genetic vulnerability in the family towards mental health problems. In such cases, it’s all the more important that we take good care of ourselves and stay mindful of the amount of stress in our day-to-day lives.

As you can see, sources of stress  are all around us in the world and they are impossible to avoid. While we can have some control over the amount of stress in our lives, sometimes the most we can do is to learn how to better manage the effects of stress and how to sufficiently recover from it.

The best way to handle stress is to build up multiple pillars of support in our life. Below, you can learn about many techniques and activities that could form the right pillar for you. The more we can incorporate these practices into our routine, the greater our strength and resilience will be in the face of stress.

Ways to reduce stress

There are many helpful ways to understand and release the stress in our lives. Here are our best picks:

1. Track your triggers. When we understand what factors affect our wellbeing, we can take better steps to prepare ourselves for them and to recover afterwards.
2. Spend time on hobbies. With life’s incessant commitments and errands, it can be easy to forget our favorite past-times. But indulging ourselves in music, gardening, baking or home repairs – whatever gives you joy – can have significant benefits for our mental health. If you haven’t done your hobbies for a while, start with some small steps – 10 or 20 minutes here and there can help you slowly reconnect with your passions.
3. Lean on family and friends. During difficult times, it can feel extra hard to open up to others and to ask for help. But emotional and physical closeness with others can be extremely therapeutic – sometimes all it takes is a good laugh or a big hug for us to feel more at ease. 
4. Check in on your lifestyle. We always hear about the importance of exercise, diet and sleep, but it is easy to lose track of these factors when life gets busy. You can make a reminder in your calendar to regularly check on these areas and make practical adjustments if needed.  
5. Get organized. Sometimes the best way to tackle our stress is to take the practical approach and problem solve. Perhaps you need to write out all the tasks that need doing and schedule them into your calendar. Or you need to make a few phone calls to find helpful information. Either way, we recommend starting with small, measurable steps, like spending just 30 minutes on something. This way, you can focus on each sub-task at a time and never get too overwhelmed.
6. Practice self-compassion. While we all go through difficult times of stress sometimes, when we’re in the midst of it, it can easily feel like we’re all alone. Reminding yourself that stress is a natural part of life and being kind to yourself as you go through it can help empower you during the process.
7. Spend time in nature. The outdoors have a natural calming effect that can bring us comfort, peace and a fresh new perspective. Sometimes even just a quick walk in the park during a busy day can be just what we need to feel better. 
8. Take time off. We all need a break to get away every once in a while. If it has been some time since you took a proper holiday, consider booking a vacation to clear your head. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive or complicated – as long as it allows for a change of scenery, it will likely help you disconnect from your everyday stressors.

It is important to mention that some ways of reducing stress are unhelpful from the long term point of view. Using alcohol, nicotine or recreational drugs can provide relief in the short-term, but can cause physical and emotional problems if used in excess in the long-term. 

If you feel like stress is significantly affecting your physical health, we recommend checking in with your GP. To get further emotional support, therapy is also a great option. Couples or family counseling, as well as mediation, can be particularly helpful for dealing with any relationship problems.

Tips to reduce stress: Physical relaxation

Stress is a physiological process – it tenses up our muscles, speeds up our heartbeat and generally makes us prepared for fight or flight. As a result, relaxing our bodies can go a long way in helping us get out of the stress response and feel more at peace.

Here are some popular strategies to relax your body:

1. Get a massage. The combined effect of physical touch and release of tension can help us unwind after a period of overwhelm.
2. Have a go at yoga. Yoga has been shown to reduce stress through its positive effects on our emotions as well as our hormones.
3. Try progressive muscle relaxation. This is a technique developed by psychologists to help you reduce muscle tension during times of acute stress and anxiety. You can learn muscle relaxation in the Mind Ease app!
4. Do a mindful body scan. Body scan is a particular type of mindfulness meditation that encourages you to focus on different parts of your body. Many people find this extremely soothing and especially helpful for getting to sleep. In the Mind Ease app, you can find it in our In Flow With Fear activity.
5. Check on your sleep hygiene. There are many little tweaks we can make to our bedroom environment to increase the quality of our rest.
6. Nourish your cells. A good meal can help certainly your body relax! By including healthy ingredients like wholegrains, lean protein, fruits, vegetables and nuts, your body will have all the resources it needs to recover from hardship. Some drinks like green or herbal tea can also be both nutritious and relaxing.

Tips to reduce stress: Mental relaxation

Often when we relax our body, it relaxes our minds too! Nonetheless, there are many activities we can do to take care of our minds specifically. Some of these include:

• Practicing gratitude
• Performing visualisation exercises (which you can try in the Mind Ease app!)
• Reading for pleasure
• Reducing your negative thinking
• Spending time with loved ones
• Controlling your exposure to stressful news or social media
• Journalling about your thoughts and feelings
• Talking to a therapist or a psychiatrist

While stress is all around us, so are effective ways to combat it! The more of these strategies we have at our disposal, the less likely it will be for stress to overwhelm you.

We recommend picking a few of these techniques and starting slow – you don’t have to become the world’s best gardener or meditator. Every small step counts and even a few minutes here or there can help us take better care of ourselves.

Most importantly, if it ever feels like it’s all too much and it’s difficult to handle it on your own, there’s no shame in asking for help. Leaning on our family and friends, as well as reaching out to a mental health professional, can be excellent ways to protect our health from distress.