A 6-week study of university students found that participating in aerobic exercise 2 days per week significantly reduced overall perceived stress and perceived stress due to uncertainty. Plus, the exercise routine significantly improved self-reported depression.

Regular exercise has been shown to improve symptoms of common mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression 15 , Choosing an activity that you enjoy may help increase your chances of sticking to it in the long term. A review of research suggests that people who follow a diet high in ultra-processed foods and added sugar are more likely to experience higher perceived stress levels.

Being chronically stressed may lead you to overeat and reach for highly palatable foods, which may harm your overall health and mood.

Not eating enough nutrient-dense whole foods may increase your risk of deficiencies in nutrients essential for regulating stress and mood, such as magnesium and B vitamins. Minimizing your intake of highly processed foods and beverages and eating more whole foods can help ensure your body is properly nourished.

In turn, this may improve your resilience to stress. Whole food options can include:. While smartphones, computers, and tablets are often necessary, using them too often may increase stress levels.

A review of literature points out that several studies have linked excessive smartphone use with increased stress levels and mental health disorders. Spending too much time in front of screens is associated with lower psychological well-being and increased stress levels in adults and kids.

Furthermore, screen time may negatively affect sleep, which may also lead to increased stress levels. Setting aside time to practice self-care may help reduce your stress levels.

Practical examples include:. People who engage in self-care typically have lower levels of stress and improved quality of life, while a lack of self-care is associated with a higher risk of stress and burnout.

Taking time for yourself is essential to live a healthy life. This is especially important for people who tend to be highly stressed, including nurses, doctors, teachers, and caretakers. It simply means tending to your well-being and happiness.

Exposure to certain scents via candles or essential oils may be especially calming. Here are a few relaxing scents:. Using scents to boost your mood is called aromatherapy. Aromatherapy can decrease anxiety and improve sleep. Journaling may help reduce stress and anxiety and provide a positive outlet for your thoughts and emotions.

A study noted that expressive writing or therapeutic writing can benefit people managing chronic health conditions, including but not limited to mental health conditions like depression.

They noted that regular journaling may be linked to a higher quality of life, more proactive self-care behaviors, and other healthful behaviors, such as taking prescribed medications. Caffeine is a chemical in coffee, tea, chocolate, and energy drinks that stimulates your central nervous system. Consuming too much may worsen anxiety, according to a review of literature on the subject.

Overconsumption may also harm your sleep. In turn, this may increase stress and anxiety symptoms. People have different thresholds for how much caffeine they can tolerate. If caffeine makes you jittery or anxious, consider cutting back by replacing coffee or energy drinks with decaffeinated coffee, herbal tea, or water.

Social support from friends and family may help you get through stressful times and cope with stress. Having a social support system is important for your overall mental health. Not all stressors are within your control, but some are.

Putting too much on your plate may increase your stress load and limit the amount of time you can spend on self-care. This is especially true if you take on more than you can handle because juggling many responsibilities may leave you feeling overwhelmed.

Creating boundaries — especially with people who add to your stress levels — is a healthy way to protect your well-being. This can be as simple as asking a friend or family member not to stop by unannounced or canceling standing plans with a friend if you need more space.

Procrastination may harm your productivity and leave you scrambling to catch up. This can cause stress, which negatively affects your health and sleep quality. A study in medical students in China linked procrastination to increased stress levels. The study also associated procrastination and delayed stress reactions with more negative parenting styles, including punishment and rejection.

If you find yourself procrastinating regularly, it may be helpful to make a to-do list organized by priority. Give yourself realistic deadlines and work your way down the list. Work on the things that need to get done today, and give yourself chunks of uninterrupted time. Switching between tasks or multitasking can be stressful in itself.

Yoga has become a popular method of stress relief and exercise among all age groups. While yoga styles differ, most share a common goal — to join your body and mind by increasing body and breath awareness. Herbert Benson, editor of the Harvard Medical School Special Health Report Stress Management: Approaches for preventing and reducing stress.

The relaxation response is the opposite of the stress response. It's a state of profound rest that can be elicited in many ways. With regular practice, you create a well of calm to dip into as the need arises.

Following are six relaxation techniques that can help you evoke the relaxation response and reduce stress. Breath focus. In this simple, powerful technique, you take long, slow, deep breaths also known as abdominal or belly breathing.

As you breathe, you gently disengage your mind from distracting thoughts and sensations. Breath focus can be especially helpful for people with eating disorders to help them focus on their bodies in a more positive way.

However, this technique may not be appropriate for those with health problems that make breathing difficult, such as respiratory ailments or heart failure. Body scan. This technique blends breath focus with progressive muscle relaxation. After a few minutes of deep breathing, you focus on one part of the body or group of muscles at a time and mentally releasing any physical tension you feel there.

A body scan can help boost your awareness of the mind-body connection. Research is limited, but there may be a connection between stress and a positive ANA result. Diurnal cortisol tests measure your cortisol levels at various points from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed.

Many things in life can cause you to have an acute stress reaction, but sometimes these stressors become chronic and can cause serious side effects. Stress can impact your menstrual cycle due to changes in your hormones.

Stress may manifest in women in distinct ways, such as impacting a woman's menstrual cycle. Behavioral stress symptoms can look like social withdrawal or something more physical like nail biting.

While research is mixed, stress balls can be an effective tool for managing momentary stress and anxiety. Light to moderate alcohol consumption may lower the risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke by reducing activity in parts of the….

A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Sexual Health.

Birth control STIs HIV HSV Activity Relationships. Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, PhD, PsyD — By Nathan Reese — Updated on July 3, Tips to manage stressful situations. Listen to music. Talk it out with a friend. Talk yourself through it.

Eat right. Laugh it off. Drink tea. Be mindful. Online meditation options Read our review of the best online meditation options to find the right fit for you. Was this helpful?

Exercise even for a minute. Sleep better. Breathe easy. Learn more about stress relief.

Listen to HelpGuide's body scan meditation. Visualization, or guided imagery, is a variation on traditional meditation that involves imagining a scene in which you feel at peace, free to let go of all tension and anxiety.

Choose whatever setting is most calming to you, whether it's a tropical beach, a favorite childhood spot, or a quiet wooded glen. You can practice visualization on your own or with an app or audio download to guide you through the imagery. Close your eyes and imagine your restful place.

Picture it as vividly as you can: everything you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. Visualization works best if you incorporate as many sensory details as possible. For example, if you are thinking about a dock on a quiet lake:.

Enjoy the feeling of your worries drifting away as you slowly explore your restful place. When you are ready, gently open your eyes and come back to the present.

Don't worry if you sometimes zone out or lose track of where you are during a visualization session. This is normal. You may also experience feelings of heaviness in your limbs, muscle twitches, or yawning. Again, these are normal responses. Listen to HelpGuide's guided imagery meditation. What you may not be aware of is that you can experience some of the same benefits at home or work by practicing self-massage, trading massages with a loved one, or using an adjustable bed with a built-in massage feature.

Try taking a few minutes to massage yourself at your desk between tasks, on the couch at the end of a hectic day, or in bed to help you unwind before sleep.

To enhance relaxation, you can use aromatic oil, scented lotion, or combine self-message with mindfulness or deep breathing techniques. A combination of strokes works well to relieve muscle tension.

Try gentle chops with the edge of your hands or tapping with fingers or cupped palms. Put fingertip pressure on muscle knots. Knead across muscles, and try long, light, gliding strokes. You can apply these strokes to any part of the body that falls easily within your reach.

For a short session like this, try focusing on your neck and head:. Mindfulness has become extremely popular in recent years, garnering headlines and endorsements from celebrities, business leaders, and psychologists alike.

So, what is mindfulness? Meditations that cultivate mindfulness have long been used to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions. Some of these practices bring you into the present by focusing your attention on a single repetitive action, such as your breathing or a few repeated words.

Other forms of mindfulness meditation encourage you to follow and then release internal thoughts or sensations. Mindfulness can also be applied to activities such as walking, exercising, or eating.

Using mindfulness to stay focused on the present might seem straightforward, but it takes practice to reap all the benefits. But don't get disheartened. Using an app or audio download can also help focus your attention, especially when you're starting out. Listen to HelpGuide's mindful breathing meditation.

The idea of exercising may not sound particularly soothing, but rhythmic exercise that gets you into a flow of repetitive movement can produce the relaxation response. Examples include:.

While simply engaging in rhythmic exercise will help you relieve stress , adding a mindfulness component can benefit you even more. As with meditation, mindful exercise requires being fully engaged in the present moment, paying attention to how your body feels right now, rather than your daily worries or concerns.

Instead of zoning out or staring at a TV as you exercise, focus on the sensations in your limbs and how your breathing complements your movement.

And when your mind wanders to other thoughts, gently return your focus to your breathing and movement. Yoga involves a series of both moving and stationary poses, combined with deep breathing.

As well as reducing anxiety and stress, yoga can also improve flexibility, strength, balance, and stamina. Since injuries can happen when yoga is practiced incorrectly, it's best to learn by attending group classes, hiring a private teacher, or at least following video instructions.

Once you've learned the basics, you can practice alone or with others, tailoring your practice as you see fit. Although almost all yoga classes end in a relaxation pose, classes that emphasize slow, steady movement, deep breathing, and gentle stretching are best for stress relief.

Satyananda is a traditional form of yoga. It features gentle poses, deep relaxation, and meditation, making it suitable for beginners as well as anyone aiming primarily for stress reduction. Hatha yoga is also a reasonably gentle way to relieve stress and is suitable for beginners.

Alternately, look for labels like gentle , for stress relief , or for beginners when selecting a yoga class. Eventually you'll feel like you're forgetting something if you don't tune into your body during challenging times.

Here's how to make it habit:. Start small. Instead of testing your quick stress relief tools on a source of major stress, start with a predictable low-level source of stress, like cooking dinner at the end of a long day or sitting down to pay bills.

Identify and target. Think of just one low-level stressor that you know will occur several times a week, such as commuting. Vow to target that stressor with quick stress relief every time. After a few weeks, target a second stressor and so on.

Test-drive sensory input. If you are practicing quick stress relief on your commute to work, bring a scented handkerchief with you one day, try music another day, and try a movement the next day.

Keep experimenting until you find a clear winner. Have fun with the process. If something doesn't work, don't force it. Move on until you find what works best for you.

It should be pleasurable and noticeably calming. Talk about it. Telling friends or family members about the stress-relief strategies you're trying out will help you integrate them into your life.

As an added bonus, it's bound to start an interesting conversation: everyone relates to the topic of stress. The best part of sensory-based strategies is the awareness that you have control. No matter where you are or what you're doing, quick stress relief is within arm's reach.

Prevent pre-party jitters by playing lively music. Light candles. The flicker and scent will stimulate your senses. Wear clothes that make you feel relaxed and confident. Ease kitchen stress by breathing in the scent of every ingredient.

Delight in the delicate texture of an eggshell. Appreciate the weight of an onion. Children and relationships. Prevent losing your cool during a spousal spat by squeezing the tips of your thumb and forefinger together.

When your toddler has a tantrum, rub lotion into your hands and breathe in the scent. Too stressed to snooze? Try using a white noise machine for background sound or a humidifier with a diffuser for a light scent in the air. Creating a sanctuary. If clutter is upsetting, spend 10 minutes each day to tidy.

Display photos and images that make you feel happy. Throw open the curtains and let in natural light. During stressful sessions, stay connected to your breath. Massage the tips of your fingers.

Wiggle your toes. Sip coffee. On the phone. Inhale something energizing, like lemon, ginger, peppermint. While talking, stand up or pace back and forth to burn off excess energy, or take calls outside when possible.

On the computer. Work standing up. Do knee-bends in minute intervals. Suck on a peppermint. Sip tea. Lunch breaks. Take a walk around the block or in the parking lot. Listen to soothing music while eating.

Chat with a colleague. Your workspace. Place family photos on your desk or mementos that remind you of your life outside the office.

In traffic. Play music or listen to an audiobook. Take a different route to see something new. Do neck-rolls at stoplights. Sing in the car to stay awake and happy.

Public transportation. Take a break from reading, cell conversations, and music to tune into the sights and sounds around you. Try noticing something new, even if you're on the same old bus ride. Running errands. Wear a special perfume or lotion so you can enjoy it while you rush from place to place.

Carry a stress ball in your pocket. Waiting in lines. Instead of worrying about time slipping away, focus on your breathing.

You can find free apps and online recordings of calming scenes—just make sure to choose imagery you find soothing and that has personal significance. Guided imagery may help you reinforce a positive vision of yourself, but it can be difficult for those who have intrusive thoughts or find it hard to conjure up mental images.

Mindfulness meditation. This practice involves sitting comfortably, focusing on your breathing, and bringing your mind's attention to the present moment without drifting into concerns about the past or the future.

This form of meditation has enjoyed increasing popularity in recent years. Research suggests it may be helpful for people with anxiety , depression, and pain.

Yoga, tai chi, and qigong. These three ancient arts combine rhythmic breathing with a series of postures or flowing movements. The physical aspects of these practices offer a mental focus that can help distract you from racing thoughts. They can also enhance your flexibility and balance.

But if you are not normally active, have health problems, or a painful or disabling condition, these relaxation techniques might be too challenging. Check with your doctor before starting them. Repetitive prayer.

For this technique, you silently repeat a short prayer or phrase from a prayer while practicing breath focus.