12 Ways to Deal With Stress

1. Talk to Someone

I know this might sound just not good enough or too simple. However, talking to someone is actually the most effective way to deal with both stress and all types of mental illness.

Whatever you do, don't push your loved ones away while attempting to cope with your stress. This will only make things worse.

2. Avoid Alcohol

If you have been turning to alcohol to deal with stress, don't feel bad because I was making the same mistake too. It turns out drug addiction itself is a stress causing factor. Not to mention dehydration won't help you either. You need to take care of yourself if you want the stress not to take over your life.

With that said, I'm sure one glass of wine a week is fine.

3. Avoid Coffee and Nicotine too

Both caffeine and nicotine are stimulants, so they actually increase your level of stress instead of reducing it. I know that the thought of completely cutting out either is so ridiculous to most people that they just give up on the whole thing, so all I am going to say is just reduce your intake a little.

If you get really stressed at work, try drinking tea or even herbal tea at work instead of coffee.

4. Try Going for a Walk

Getting any type of exercise would be beneficial, going to the gym would obviously do more than going for a walk. However, that doesn't mean that going for a walk would hurt you. Also, you can always go for a long walk.

5. Take a Nap

Try getting more sleep in general. If you have super busy life, don't try to cut out sleep to get everything else done. Apparently sleep is super important for a wide variety of reasons, so if you are feeling stressed, make sure to count a few more sheep.

6. Take a Long Bath

Not only are baths fun, but suddenly being put in a warmer temperature also reduces blood pressure. So bathing can really help. You can even use bath bombs and scented soap, make a self-date out of it.

7. Try Meditation or Yoga

You actually don't need to go to an expensive class to do either of these two things. If you want to try meditation, just simply think of a calm place to put yourself in mentally. The goal is to remove yourself from the present and away from whatever is causing you stress. If you want to do yoga you can start by doing some deep stretches and basic breathing exercises. If you go to a class tho, you can get pretty damn good and even count it as your exercise.

My personal favourite is called 'Progressive Muscle Relaxation'. It when you tense up the muscles in a certain part of your body, hold it for ten seconds, then let go. You should aim to do all the muscles in your body over a period of five minutes or so. Even do the muscles in your face by doing weird face expressions, or just make a really angry face. If you have one place on your body that holds a lot of stress, like your shoulders, do that place three or more times.

8. Do Something You Like Doing

For me thats cuddling with my dog and blogging. For some people it's something as simple as drawing, cooking or hanging out with friends.

If you can't think of something of the top if your head, no problem. Just start a new hobby. You don't have to pick this hobby right away, you can try a few small things first.

9. Eat More Healthy

Simply drinking water can help reduce stress significantly. However, there is no need to stop there. Foods with a high level of vitamin A can also be of some help. This includes oranges, salmon and my personal favourite: green tea.

Reducing sugar from your diet doesn't hurt either.

10. Avoid Negative Thinking

Don't beat yourself up too much and don't admit defeat before you are defeated. You can try something as simple as picturing positive things. One thing you can picture is yourself succeeding. Another things is relaxing in your happy place. A more structured thing you do is to put something up in your room that is happy. At school, my Don put happy faces everywhere to achieve this. I would personally recommend a quote you like, or a nice picture. With this new happy thing in your room, you will t hink of something positive every morning as soon as you wake up.

11. Be Honest

Keeping secrets actually causes stress, so if this is one of the main causes of your high stress level. Maybe it's time to let the truth out. Otherwise, being honest about a couple small things might help too.

12. Chew Gum

I wanted to end this article with something simple to try. Apparently, the act of chewing gum can help relieve stress. This is something you can do at work without your co-workers asking too many questions. It can also help if overeating is one of symptoms you get from your stress levels.

Please Take Care Of Yourself

If you don't deal with your stress, it can turn into a nervous breakdown. More importantly, high stress levels also increases your chances in getting all kinds of health problems. As scary as it is to think of, stress can even increase your chances in getting a heart attack. So please, take care of yourself.