“Hey did you hear about XYZ? Recently, he was hospitalized when he complained of chest pain. He is just 35 years old. Doctors think it was caused due to stress.” Sounds familiar to you? We all have been a part of such conversations during our daily coffee breaks. Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury to ponder over the details. Our day-to-day work demands us to go back to our routine. However, what we fail to realize is that this unfortunate incident could have happened to us.
It is easy to be stressed in today’s fast-paced world. With everyone juggling his or her work and personal lives together, it is common to feel overwhelmed at some point in time. However, if left unchecked, it can fester into something health-damaging results like stress. It can lead to a drop in your performance at work, fatigue, irritability and sometimes to a non-reversible health ailment.
Fortunately, there are some simple sleep and exercise solutions if adopted into our daily lives can help us reduce our stress levels and lead a healthy, productive and normal life. Here are seven tips that will help you reduce your stress levels:
1. Have a fixed sleep schedule and stick to it
One of the most effective ways to have sound sleep every day is to have a fixed sleeping schedule and sticking to it even on weekends. One of the best ways to do this is by following your natural body clock. Every individual is different and so are his or her sleeping patterns. While some prefer to stay awake late and rise late, others prefer to an early start to their day. In the beginning, it might seem difficult to follow such a pattern, the body will slowly acclimatize to the changes. However, if sleep still eludes you can try tweaking things a bit with an adjustable bed frame. This can help you get in the right position, that sweet spot which will immediately lull you into a deep and restful sleep.
2. Make sure that your bed accessories are comfortable and perfect for you
Your bedroom is your comfort zone. It is here that you unwind and relax after a long day. A comfortable mattress, a soft pillow and a warm duvet play an important in making the room comfortable and getting the much-needed sound sleep into our system.Thus, it becomes extremely important to invest in the basics. The mattress is one of the most expensive investments that you do. Picking out the right one is extremely important. You can choose to buy a memory foam mattress, a coir mattress, or a latex mattress according to your budget and needs.Once that is in the order you can then choose a soft pillow that will give the much-needed support to your neck. Don’t forget a snug blanket to go with it!
3. Make Workout a Daily Thing
When the stress levels are high, one of the best methods to get them under control is by working out. Exercising plays an important role in reducing the stress levels in our body. What happens during a workout is that our mind sends a signal to our pituitary gland to release the feel-good hormone endorphin into our bodies. This hormone elevates the mood and brings about a feeling of calmness and control. Now working does not only mean going to a gym. You can chart out our workouts according to what you prefer. Many prefer outdoor activities such as yoga, running, swimming etc. to go to a gym.
4. If Nocturnal, Try Meditating at Night
As we already know, sound sleep is necessary to keep ourselves stress-free. However many of us are unable to just that. We stay awake, tossing and turning in bed in hopes of some sleep. To change that, one can try meditating. An ancient practice of calming and relaxing the mind and body, it helps in reducing the stress levels in the body. When meditating, the body imitates the changes our body goes through when it is in the light sleep phase of the sleep cycle, our breathing rate drops, and our blood pressure decreases, in turn, decreasing the stress levels.
5. Optimize Your Diet
It is often said, “we are what we eat” and it here that we don’t pay much attention to. We tend to eat oily, processed food, which settles deep into our gut and remains there as a residue, stuck like a waste product which ultimately turns toxic and leads to gut complications. This hampers the overall health of the body which in turn disrupts sleep which in turn, leads to stress caused due to sleep deprivation.
By switching to a lighter diet like salads and fruits along with healthy grains, the digestive system is under less pressure and is able to function as smooth as a butter. Moreover, these food items are known to elevate mood levels and radically slash stress by aiding the release of good chemicals in the body. Moreover, when you acknowledge having a healthy diet, it makes you happy that releases endorphins which are essential to plummet stress levels.
6. Invest in Bedroom Accessories That Make Your Room Cosy
Would you like to enter a room that is chaotic, messy and looks like an epicentre of an earthquake? We are sure that will leave you very unsettled and not in a mood to sleep. In order to improve the aesthetics of your room, you can buy room accessories like vintage rugs, upholstery, drapes and many more from direct-to-consumer brands that will improve the aesthetics of your room and make it more inviting and cosier. A cosy room with ambient warm surroundings will not only help you sleep but also melt the anguish of the entire day and help you relax, reduce stress and ultimately, charge.
7. Take Help of Essential Oils
Essential oils are known to relax minds and remove stress upon usage. You can add a few drops to your bath, burn candles with essential oils or simply spray it in your room for calmness and tranquillity. You can also book a massage and request for essential oils to help you unclog your brain and improve your cognitive thinking that was blocked due to stress. Essential oils also help alleviate headaches, cold, lethargy, body aches (sometimes), memory blotch and many other ailments. Though they are yet to medically proved, essential oils have been credited for good results for centuries now.
Conclusion
So here you go, 7 lifestyle tips that you can deploy to reduce stress and improve productivity. Do you have other methods that can negate the effects of stress and improve overall productivity? Let us know!
Article Submitted By Community Writer