8 Ways to Reduce Stress for a Healthy Mind

By Kacey Mya Bradley –

Stress can make itself apparent in many different forms, and dealing with too much for an extended period of time can be harmful in many ways. You can’t always control the situations in your life, but you can choose how you respond to your circumstances.

It’s no secret that as we age our physical or athletic ability may begin to decline, but you’re never too young or old to have a strong mind. One of the biggest steps in getting there is learning how to recognize and deal with stress.

Here are some helpful tips on how to strengthen your mind by learning how to effectively manage and deal with stress.

Not All Stress is Bad

It’s common to think of stress as stemming from negatives in your life–a rough family situation, work piling up at the job, etc.–but in reality that’s not always the case.

One of the first keys to managing stress is to seek and locate the source, keeping in mind that there could be both negative and positive factors. It’s very important to know what stresses you out in the first place, so try to be mindful of this aspect of your life.

Stress is defined as the way people feel when forced to take on more than they’re used to dealing with in a “normal” situation. Yes, that could be from negative causes such as losing a job, ending a relationship, or financial difficulties, but stress can also stem from positive factors in your life.

For example, if you’re getting married, starting a new job, received a promotion or relocated to a new city, the end results are likely to have a positive impact in your life, but that makes those situations no less stressful at the time you’re dealing with them.

8 Ways to Reduce Stress

We now know that stress can take many different forms, and likewise there are many different ways you can deal with stress. No one method is foolproof – Different methods may work better or worse for different people. Here are eight things to try if you’re beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed.

1. Be proactive. Stressful situations rarely mend themselves on their own, so it’s important for you to ask yourself what you can do about the sources of your stress. Think about the pros and cons of dealing with the source of stress head on, and take action where it makes sense.
2. Smile. This sounds simple enough, but if you’ve dealt with stress before you know that squeezing out a smile can be challenging. It’s easy to smile when you’re relaxed and happy, but smiling also helps you move your neurochemical balance toward calm.
3. Stay positive. This is another one that can seem impossible if it feels like the world is falling down around you. But just remember that it’s really not. There may be aspects of your life constantly causing stress, and it can be hard to deal with particularly if you have no control in those situations. One thing you can control, however, is the way you respond to stress, so when you do make sure you come at it from a positive angle.
4. Take a break. No, it’s not healthy to completely avoid or ignore the source of your stress, but it can be very helpful to at least take a break from it. No matter what it is that’s causing your stress, be it a big project at work or a rocky relationship, take 20 or 30 minutes out to concentrate on something else. It may help you come at your problem from a different perspective when you return to taking it on.
5. Breathe. Or more importantly, breathe in a healthy manner. Taking time for a handful of very deep inhales and exhales can work wonders. It gives you time to reflect and a brief moment of physical relaxation. It also helps oxygenate your blood, which will help you feel more relaxed.
6. Try Stretching or Pilates. This goes hand-in-hand with breathing, since learning to properly breathe deeply is a key component of any form of exercise. Pilates is a wonderful way to strengthen your core while also promoting longer, leaner muscles from the slow, gradual stretching movements.
7. Visualize calm. Often times the first step to accomplishing anything is getting yourself to visualize it happening first. Dealing with stress is no different. If you want to feel calm, simply visualize yourself doing so.
8. Eat healthy. It’s all too easy to depend on comfort food when dealing with stress, but eating unhealthy will only add to your problems in the long run. In a stressful situation where you might not be able to control how you feel, you can at least take control of what enters your body and feel good about living a healthy lifestyle.

As mentioned, there is no one correct way to manage and deal with stress. A best practice is to identify the stressors, put together a plan with how to deal with them and take control of those aspects while remembering not to worry about what you can’t control.

This will result in a stronger mind armed with the ability to take on any stress that confronts you.

Kacey is a lifestyle blogger for “The Drifter Collective.” Throughout her life, she has found excitement in the world around her. Kacey graduated with a degree in Communications while working for a lifestyle magazine. The Drifter Collective: An eclectic lifestyle blog that expresses various forms of style through the influence of culture and the world around us.