Stress is never a fun thing to have to deal with. But, as adults, we all must find a way to manage our emotional response to these triggers to help improve our mental health. We do not have the vision to see into the future. So, although we cannot predict stressful situations, we can try our best to anticipate them and come up with sensible solutions to deal with them in the moment.
I have spent too much dwelling on situations that I have little control over, often finding myself drained of all of my mental and spiritual energy by the end of it. Over the years, I learned how to manage my stress by focusing on different methods to take my mind off of it and re-align my energy with positivity.
My Top Six Stress Management Tips:
1. Meditation
This is something that I’ve learned to use as a coping technique over the years.
Being a personal trainer and entrepreneur can definitely have its stressful days. From early mornings to the occasional late night, there have been plenty of times I had to shut down all operations temporarily so I could focus on my mental health. Even shutting things down for a few minutes can make a world of difference in terms of your mental well-being.
It is super important to eliminate all distractions when you are getting into the realm of meditation. Find a quiet, clean space where you can comfortably sit or lie down and focus on drawing all your energy toward a single mantra like “You are bound to do great things”. Or focusing on a single sound or one visual reference to keep your mind centered. It is natural for your mind to drift away from this focus but as you become more mindful in this focused practice you will be able to re-direct your negative thoughts and quiet the demons.
For my lifestyle, it’s very beneficial that I meditate at least once a day for 2-3 minutes, sometimes including some tranquil meditative music from my music playlist, it really makes a world of difference. Taking equally deep inhales and exhales allows me to relax my physical body while calming my mind down in the process. Try it out and see if it works for you, it never hurts to try something new that can benefit you in the long run.
2. Let GO!
I had to learn to let go of the things that I did not have control over and I’ll be honest, it is not as easy as it sounds.
I struggle with this occasionally and have to re-align my focus and intentionally re-align my energy from the negative thoughts. Sometimes I have to realize that I am not attached nor bonded with these negative thoughts and they are merely more than anxiety posing as my inner thoughts.
For the things that I cannot change, I learn to adapt in a way that allows me to endure whatever conditions I face. To be best of my ability I will always be firm in setting my boundaries and not allowing a situation to compromise my morals and values, while being flexible enough to not let my emotions get the best of me and take me out of my true character. This is a practiced art and something that I will have to work on for the rest of my life. And that’s okay because we have to be willing to put in the work for our mental health no matter how difficult it may seem.
3. Face the Unknown
Breaking the monotony in my schedule has allowed me to manage my stress in ways that are more entertaining and fun.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the daily grind of work, eat, sleep, and repeat to the point that you feel exhausted spiritually and start to feel like a robot. There are those days that it’s okay to make it a half-day. It’s okay to play hooky sometimes from work and give yourself a mental health break. Especially for individuals working career jobs where the structure of work life can have a negative effect on your personal life.
Take time to go to a matinee movie by yourself, or a nice walk during your way or talk to an old friend you haven’t spoken to in years. Switch up your routine and step into the unknown, we don’t know what will break ourselves out of a stress mindset until we learn how to evolve from the routine.
Try something new that you haven’t done before, allow yourself to experience something that could ultimately improve your mental health for many years to come.
4. Keep Calm
I am far from a guru at keeping calm. Thus, I had to bring much attention to this point because my stress management plan is my constant reminder to chill out and focus on what I can control.
Losing my temper means that I’m also losing my focus and that can be so mentally draining. I’ve learned from some of the best people who’ve been through stressful situations on how to keep calm.
We have to separate our egos from the equation and not look at unfortunate events as a personal attack from God or the universe. Sometimes bad luck is just how the cards are dealt, and as random as they are sometimes it’s easy to forget to have gratitude when things are going in and in harmony.
We should not expect perfect life or good days 24/7, but our perception of everything will determine how we view the world. If we believe that only bad things happen to us, our brains will naturally focus on the negative aspects of life, ignoring the great things we should be grateful for every day —like LIFE. As long as we have air in our lungs and are able to live another day on this earth, we are fortunate.
Re-aligning my focus has given me more gratitude and has allowed me to remove my negative emotions during those bad days.
5. Get a Strong Support System
It’s important to surround yourself with positive people who are there to listen and re-direct your thoughts when you’re having a bad day and negativity starts to take over. It is natural to go through those emotional highs and lows but it’s important to know that you are not alone.
Find a strong support system of friends, family, counselors, neighbors, and whoever you feel that you can trust and build those connections with them. Having your voice heard can make a huge difference in how we feel. As humans, we all seek that emotional validation even if we never speak of it.
We need those bonds to help us navigate through life and remind us that we are not alone, we all struggle and need each other for support.
6. Get Up and Exercise
You must exercise your body the same way that you must exercise your mind—consistently. The body builds up eustress (positive stress) from exercise, which can help remove distress (bad stress) from the body.
Each workout should be tailored to your needs and capabilities, allowing you to focus on mindfulness during your most stressful days. The release of dopamine and serotonin from exercising is very beneficial to our mental health as we may not be getting those positive hormonal releases throughout the day if we are constantly in stressful situations.
It’s important to try to work out for at 30 minutes on most days (150 minutes per week) to get the most out of these benefits. The goal of each workout is to allow your mind to focus on the present moment and not the things that you cannot control from the past or the future.
Be sure to recover properly after each workout session with the proper nutrients and quality sleep at the end of each day.
There are plenty of ways to relieve stress from your life and each person’s methods will differ and that’s okay. It’s all about finding what works for you and building that foundation each day. It’s important to be kind to yourself and others during these stressful times as we are all sensitive to the negative energy that’s out there in the world.
We all have a personal responsibility to manage our stress to help improve our mental health, as our actions and reactions not only affect ourselves but others as well. Try one of these stress management tips today or add some of your own and stay mindful in your journey–we are capable of powerful things when we can think positively.
