Stress is only helpful when you are in a life-threatening situation. Not when you are sitting at home doing nothing. Not when you are trying to sleep. A lot of people are experiencing stress on a daily basis, which is not great for your mental or physical health. Stress can really make you sick. So you have to fix it as soon as possible. Today I share how you can relieve stress now with these 35 tips.
Relieve stress now with these 35 tips
1. Postpone something. The first tip to relieve stress now is you should postpone something. I am not saying that you should do this every single time. But if you are feeling stressed and you see something on your to-do list that you can also do tomorrow or maybe next week. Postpone it.
2. Start your day without your phone. It is tempting to look on your phone the minute you wake up. But give your brain a minute to wake up. It can cause a lot of stress when you are spending your first hour of the day on your phone. Do something relaxing such as meditation or yoga.
3. Delete all news apps. I know a few people who have installed news apps and they are getting a lot of notifications during the day, which will give you the feeling you have to check it immediately. Delete those apps. First of all, those notifications are annoying, and second the news is never really positive news. And eventually, you will hear it if someone big happened.
4. Look at your to-do list. Is there something on your list that you can do later this week or even postpone it to next month? Or maybe there is something on this list, you don’t have to do.
5. End your day with 10 minutes of yoga or meditation. I love to do meditations at the end of the day because it will help me to sleep better and I feel so much more relaxed when I do a meditation.
6. Turn off the notifications on your social media. I only have TikTok, Whatsapp and Instagram on my phone but I turned off the notifications. If I get a message, I will see it when I go to the app.
7. Make your to-do list in the evening. And don’t do this just before you go to bed. Do it when you are finished with your dinner. Sit down and think about the things you really have to do the next day. Writing it down will clear your head and you are not thinking about the things you have to do all night because you already wrote it down. You know what you have to do when you wake up the next day.
8. Eat mindfully. doing things more mindful, will calm your mind and release stress. Just focus on the food you are eating. How does it taste like? Feel the texture etc.
9. Go to bed earlier. When I don’t sleep enough, I am grumpy the next day and I definitely feel more stressed. I just can handle more things when I slept great.
10. End the day with a hot shower or a hot bath. A hot shower wakes me up but I like to take a hot bath before going to bed. It makes me sleepy and relaxed. The perfect way to end the day. You will sleep better too.
11. Wake up earlier. Okay, I am not saying you have to wake up at 5 AM every single day. I am saying waking up half an hour or maybe an hour earlier is great too. Sleep is important to me so I make sure I get enough sleep every single day, but when I wake up early, I get so much more things done.
12. Talk about the things that are bothering you. Maybe it is not something big that is bothering you, but it will help when you talk about it with someone. This can be a family member or a best friend.
13. Walk for half an hour a day. This is a recommendation from our (Dutch) health institute. It is great for your body to exercise every single day. But it is also a great way to release stress. And it can also help to come up with a solution to your problem.
14. Start your day with a book. Reading has a lot of benefits and it doesn’t matter if it’s fiction or non-fiction. Reading is just a great way to relax your brain.
15. Leave 10 minutes early. I don’t like to be late but something can happen on your way to work or a meeting. Maybe there is a lot of traffic, which can cause a lot of stress. You will feel less stressed when you leave early.
16. Start your day with the most important tasks. Is your to-do list super long? Start with the most important things you really have to do today.
17. Make sure everything important is in your bag every single day. Leave your wallet and keys in your bag so you won’t forget those things.
18. Empty your inbox. An empty inbox feels great. Delete all the e-mails you don’t need to answer because it is just spam.
19. Go through your paperwork/documents on your desk and clean it up. An empty desk is better for your mood.
20. Pick one day for yourself. You don’t have to work every single day, you also need to take some time for yourself. So pick a day and do only fun things you want to do that day.
21. You don’t have to answer every single text message immediately. You don’t have to be available every single minute. Turn your phone off and wait for an hour or a day to answer that message or email.
22. Say no if you don’t have enough time or when you don’t want to do it. Doing extra things when you don’t have a lot of time, can cause stress. Doing things you don’t want and have to do will not make you happy, so say no to those things.
23. Drink a cup of tea/coffee in silence. Take time for yourself when you are drinking a cup of tea or coffee. Don’t hurry, just breathe. This will calm your mind and relieve stress now.
24. Live your life on your terms, Don’t follow the rest. It is your life, if you are not married or engaged by the age of 30, that is okay. This is your life. Don’t feel stressed about it.
25. Sit down when you are calling someone. Some people like to multitask, but it actually not that great to multitask. Focus on one task at the time. When you are talking to someone on the phone, listen to them and stop focusing on something else.
26. Give yourself time limits. Some people are perfectionists, which means it can take them forever to do something small. They want to do it perfectly. But there is no such thing as perfect. So if you are a perfectionist, give yourself a reasonable time limit to finish something.
27. Give yourself the time before you leave the house. Find where your keys are, fix your hair, go to the bathroom. Don’t do everything last-minute.
28. Not everything you do has to have a reason. Don’t read a book because someone told you, you should read 1 chapter every single day or don’t walk for 30 minutes just because it is healthy for your body. Do something that you’ve always wanted to do for no reason.
29. Have quality time with your pet. If you have a pet, spend some time with it. It will love the attention and apparently it is great for your stress levels when you are spending time with your dog or cat.
30. Turn your phone off when you are doing something stressful. If you have to give a presentation, you should definitely turn off your phone. Even better when you lock yourself up in a study/workroom.
31. You can’t control everything. You can control your life and how you respond to the circumstances, but you do not control the weather and other people. So let that go. Trust the universe that everything will be all right.
32. Slow-living. We live in a society where everyone is rushing through their days. But you will enjoy life more when you are doing things more slowly. Start your day slowly. Take time to cook your dinner, enjoy your cup of tea.
33. Meditation is a great way to release in just a couple of minutes. If you have never done it before, just start with focusing on your breathing for 5 minutes. You don’t have to meditate for an hour to get the benefits of meditating. So take 5 minutes for yourself and relieve stress now with a short meditation.
34. Write down the three things that give you energy and make time to do those things. It is a great thing when things are giving you more energy because that means you really enjoy doing it.
35. Realize that stress only exists in your head. The last tip to relieve stress now. Stress will not disappear if the situation changes, it will go away when you change your perspective. But this means that you have control over it. With these tips, you can calm your mind and feel better fast.