I was a little stuck on what to write about this week because I feel like writing about three positive things in my life every week is getting pretty boring. So, since I’ve realized I’ve been more stressed than usual, I decided I’m going to write about different ways to help with stress and anxiety.
We all have really stressful days or weeks sometimes, and it’s nice to know how to deal with it before it becomes too much and extremely overwhelming. I don’t know about you, but if I let the stress get to me too much, I usually end up with a mental breakdown and eventually become more stressed. The one major thing that I would say has helped me to relieve the stress that I feel is just stepping back from what I’m doing and take maybe 5 to 10 minutes to just relax. Taking deep breaths and coming back down to a calm state always seems to take my mind from a hectic state and gives me a few minutes to just relax and take a break from my stress.
If that doesn’t work or you’re not someone who is big on taking deep breaths and being centered, there’s other methods to destress. One of the big ones would be exercise. From a personal standpoint, I try to exercise everyday. It lets me release that stress I’m feeling and just give myself an hour of my time for myself and to focus on myself. It’s a great way to get out that stress and it takes you away from all the work you have or craziness of that day. I feel that if I don’t exercise on a day, I tend to feel more stressed and can definitely tell a difference between days I do or don’t exercise. Exercising has been linked to lowering your stress hormones, in the long run. I would definitely say take advantage of this method, because not only does it help with stress, but it also has other amazing health benefits for you.
Another way to relieve stress is to spend time with your family or friends. I know for me, when I’m with my friends I tend to forget about all that stress and just enjoy my time with them. Social interactions can help reduce depression and anxiety and is also shown to benefit in the stressful areas as well. Having people who are there for you in stressful times can help you and improve your overall health as well.
There’s obviously so many other ways to cope with stress, but in my experiences these have been the most beneficial for me, and I wanted to give my experience to you. Stress can take over our lives sometimes to it’s always good to find ways to cope with it and to try and lower it. And don’t forget to always stay positive as well!
Hi Molly, thank you for this informative post! I also find that creative outlets and reading are good ways to cope with stress. I write poetry when I’m anxious, and tend to “vomit out” poems the more stressed I get. I liked what you said about deep breathing. Box breathing is a good technique for calming yourself down when you’re panicking–breathing in for four seconds, holding it for four seconds, breathing out for four seconds, and holding it for four seconds. Great work!
Hey Molly, I love this idea for your blog! Teens in today’s world have to manage so many different things that stress seems inevitable. I think all of us can agree that having coping mechanisms to manage stress can be very beneficial. Keep up the great work!