Living in a fast-paced world can often become overwhelming and stressful. Stress is a common response to pressures and challenges.

Stress can often be hard to avoid, so it's worth thinking about ways to try to help relieve it.

1. Exercise 

Exercise is often a good way to relieve stress as it releases endorphins (the 'feel good' hormone). Runners often refer to the happy feeling as 'runners high', a feeling of euphoria after completing a lengthy exercise/run (1).

Not only that, but exercise is a great way to take your mind away from current problems. Exercise allows you to focus on your body and the exercise rather than the thoughts in your mind. 

2. Being in nature

Being around nature has been shown to have a positive impact on your mental health. The mind website states that spending time in green space or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing.

For example, doing things like growing food or flowers, exercising outdoors, or being around animals can have lots of positive effects. It can:

• improve your mood
• reduce feelings of stress or anger
• help you take time out and feel more relaxed
• improve your physical health
• improve your confidence and self-esteem
• help you be more active
• help you meet and get to know new people
• connect you to your local community
• reduce loneliness
• help you feel more connected to nature
• provide peer support (2)

3. Having a nutrient-dense diet

We all know that there are tons of benefits of having a nutritious diet, but eating healthy/ having a nutritious diet could also minimize your chance of suffering from stress (3).

Stress negatively affects blood pressure and blood flow, nutrients in certain foods can help improve blood flow within the body (4).

4. Breathing exercises 

Breathing is often a very underrated way of relieving stressful or negative feelings in the body. There any many different breathwork exercises to practice and look into which have been found to help with managing stress (5).

5. Journaling/practicing gratitude

Writing your feelings down on paper is a great way to remove them from your mind and help shift the stress. A study conducted in 2021 concluded that journaling helps with reducing stress (6).

Practicing gratitude is also a beneficial way of helping reduce stress. Writing down what's going well in your life gives you time to focus on the positives rather than dwelling on stress and negative feelings. Practicing gratitude reminds you of all the positives in life. 

Make sure to share this blog with your friends or anyone who this blog may be helpful to!

IMPORTANT NOTICE* Advice is for information only and should not replace medical care. Please check with your GP before trying any remedies.

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