Imagine a world where we could be free from excessive stress and live our lives without worrisome, fearful, or anxious feelings. Unfortunately for most people, ongoing stress is something that they are bound to experience. Whether it’s the occasional stress, or a more chronic, ongoing stress, it’s likely that stress is a part of your life in some way.
While some stress is good to experience from time to time, chronic stress can have many negative effects on us as humans, including both our mental and physical health. This means that stress management is an important skill for just about anyone to learn. Our ability to mitigate our mind and body stress responses helps us to improve our health and help us achieve more “stress-free” lives.
The concept of stress management is also incredibly relevant in 2021 as many of our lives have been changed and shaped by COVID-19. Maybe you’re still adjusting to old changes, or are even taking on new ones. Either way, it’s important to get a handle on stress management.
We’re here to discuss a little bit more about stress and help you learn some helpful tactics for managing it best!
An Overview of Stress Management
Do you know the true meaning behind the word stress? Simply put, stress is a feeling you experience as a response to a certain event. It’s usually a feeling of anxiety which results in an internal tension that can either be emotional or physical.
Stress can be thought of as the fight-or-flight response. This is our direct response to stressful situations as we either stay and fight against the situation or flee from it.
Those stressful situations release hormones which can increase your heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar. That means unmanaged stress levels can result in a number of different physical and mental problems – definitely something you want to have under control!
While it’s not necessarily possible to be entirely stress-free, your ability to manage your stress can have a major impact on your wellbeing.
Common Symptoms of Stress
Here is a quick breakdown of some of the common symptoms someone will experience when dealing with stress.
- Teeth grinding: Clenching your jaw and grinding your teeth is a common symptom for those dealing with stress. It’s common for teeth grinding to happen at night while you’re asleep which can lead to jaw pain or even headaches.
- Sweating: When your heart rate increases because of stress it also increases your body temperature. An increase in temperature can cause sweating as the sweat glands become activated in order to help you cool down. If you have more active sweat glands you could be even more prone to sweating.
- Headaches: Similar to teeth grinding, stress can cause tension which means our muscles contract for longer periods of time than usual. This tension can lead to headaches, especially with those who suffer from chronic stress.
- Burnout: Stress can cause you to reach peak exhaustion, whether that is mental or physical exhaustion – also known as burnout. Burnout can be tough to manage as it often leaves you feeling depressed or unable to complete certain tasks.
- Nail-biting: Some people will display their symptoms of stress through physical nail-biting. The repetitive action of biting your nails can feel relieving for some as a short-term stress coping mechanism.
Now that you know more about stress, what stress management is, and some of the symptoms you might experience when dealing with stress it’s now time to look at some tactics for handling your stress.
Stress Management Tactics in 2021
What are some of the best ways to manage your stress and ensure you’re doing everything within your reach to stay as stress-free as possible? We’ve developed this list of stress management techniques to help you gain a thorough understanding of the options available to you.
That way you’ll be better prepared to fight against any of the physical or mental stresses that may get thrown your way. Read on to learn more!
Get Your Exercise
You may or may not be aware that moving your body can do wonders for your ability to manage stress. It also happens to be incredibly physically healthy for you!
Exercise is great for stress because it allows you to release endorphins which produce a feel-good effect in the body. This feel-good effect can help to ease stress and help you feel a lot happier. That’s because endorphins increase your dopamine production. It’s all very scientific!
Moral of the story: get up and get moving if you’re starting to feel the stress coming on.
Practice Yoga
Another physical tactic to practice stress management is through yoga. Yoga acts as a stress reliever as it helps with the health of your body and mind.
There are even certain types of yoga that focus on mindfulness as you take part in low-impact physical movements.
If yoga isn’t your thing, you might try Tai chi. This practice focuses on standing poses with consistent movement, rather than holding your poses in place.
Try Out Meditation
When you need to relax and de-stress, meditation can be a life saver. Whether it’s mindfulness meditation or walking meditation, any type can be a major help when it comes to managing your stress.
This practice allows your mind to focus on something other than what might be stressing you out. It also helps you to gain perspective on the stressful situation and shift your mind towards positive thinking.
Get a Better Night’s Sleep
If you’re losing sleep then you aren’t necessarily going to be well equipped to manage stressful situations during your day. Sleep is an important part of our ability to function in our normal day-to-day, let alone handle the stressors that come our way!
Ensuring you’re getting an adequate night’s sleep is an essential part of how you manage the stress in your life. If you would like to learn a little bit more about creating an effective bedtime routine, be sure to check out our tips for providing a better night’s sleep!
Deep Breaths
Deep breath in, deep breath out. Did you know deep breathing is a tactic some find effective in helping to refocus the mind?
Deep breaths can help to calm your body down in the physical sense, which has a direct impact on your mind. You might try yogic breathing or other breathing exercises to really master deep breathing for stress.
Practice Positive Self-Talk
The way you talk to yourself is a direct reflection of your ability to manage stress. Your internal monologue just might be what’s contributing to your stress levels. So, if you speak negatively to yourself, then it’s likely you’re not doing yourself any favors when it comes to stress management.
For example, instead of beating yourself up for not getting something done, tell yourself that you can and will get it done. Be nice to yourself!
Avoid Your Triggers
Triggers are the things that can send your stress levels spiraling. For some it could be missing your morning coffee, and for others it could be a negative person in their life. Whatever it may be, make positive choices for yourself and do what you can to avoid your triggers.
Setting yourself up for success in managing your stress is the best way to get started.
Use Technology for Stress Management
It’s amazing what technology can do for us when it comes to managing stress. One of the amazing technological tools available is the revolutionary Xen by Nuevana which is a technology that works to stimulate the vagus nerve.
This vagus nerve is the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system (the system that regulates a variety of body processes that take place without conscious effort). When it becomes stimulated, mood and stress levels, sleep focus and cognition, and athletic performance can all be improved.
This stimulation can be especially helpful when attempting to manage stress as it helps you to enter into a relaxed state. Simply use the Xen Headphones to connect to a handheld device. The headphones will then generate an electrical current, stimulating the vagus nerve and helping you to feel a lot less stressed and a lot more at ease.
Going Forward
It’s important to remember stress management isn’t something that can be learned over night. Instead, we recommend that you try out a few of these stress management tactics to see which ones are going to be most helpful to reaching your goals.
Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to figure out which ones are going to work best for meeting your goals. The key is recognizing your need for stress management and then seeking options to help you.
If you would like to try stress management with Xen by Neuvana, you can shop the entire Xen by Neuvana collection here. Or if you’re looking to learn more, you can browse through our FAQ page. This is where you’ll learn when to use the Xen by Neuvana technology, how it feels to use the Xen headphones, and much more!
For Further Reading:
