Defy Aging With These 5 De-stress Tips

1. Establish Peaceful Mornings

Sometimes we forget to destress from the get-go entirely. This is not a smart move because waking up can be an incredibly stressful experience. This is because your stress hormones like cortisol are at their highest in order for you to take on the challenges you’re going to encounter for the rest of the day.

Ideally, what this means is we should all use the early mornings as a time to feel more grounded and reconnect with ourselves. It’s also okay if you don’t have a lot of time to spare, even just a few minutes of deep breathing and some bed stretches can really help start your day off on a good note.

You will leave room to reconnect with yourself and in turn destress the body and mind. Take a few calming breaths in the morning so you can create a more centered start to your day.

WebMD recommends the following steps:

I Am Here (1 minute): Close your eyes and turn your attention to the breath as it moves in and out of your body. As you breathe in, think to yourself, ‘I am.’ As you exhale, think, ‘Here.’ Repeat this cycle a few times as you breathe: ‘I am … here. I am … here.’

Take note of how your body and mind respond to this simple statement.

You’re Not Done Yet

These steps to destress happen throughout the day and you need to keep doing them to create a habit.

The next important time of the day is mid-morning when you are generally well into your daily responsibilities. Whatever that might entail, you should still have quite a bit of fuel in the tank and might even still feel fresh and energetic, which can mask the signs of stress which are already in your built-up in your mind and body. That’s why it’s good to take a pause and just take a moment to relax and shake the stress away before it sets in later.

WebMD recommends taking a:

Breath Minute (1 minute): Try setting a one-minute timer to take calm breaths. Concentrate on really slowing down your exhalations, for one minute. Count how many breaths you take during that minute. Whatever number you count to is your breath number. Let’s say that my breath number is six. Whenever you feel stressed during the day, pause and take that number of slow, calming breaths. It will take about a minute to destress, and you won’t need a timer. Note if the mind starts to settle simply by returning to its breath.

2. When You’re Hungry, De-stress First

There’s no doubt that mealtimes help us destress. However, sometimes people can get a little carried away and use this as a time to indulge frequently to escape life’s endeavors. Unfortunately, this has a limited destress factor with longer-term stress. Having said that, lunchtime is a great way for us to rest and digest our nervous systems.

When it’s time to eat, it’s also a fantastic time to wind down the body and reduce stress hormones from your system. You must make eating as soothing and as nourishing as possible. It shouldn’t add stress to your life. However, if ignored it can be a problem, especially if you find yourself regularly shoving back food at your desk. Taking a lunch break is not a waste of time and will improve your work performance.

3. The Afternoon Slump

It’s not at all uncommon to start feeling tired and fatigued by the afternoon. This is when energy levels sink. Your body is pretty tense and the brain starts to see this as additional stress. It really helps to take a few moments out of your afternoon to breathe, destress and let go of tension, especially mid- to late-afternoon. This is important because you are deliberately telling your body to let go of physical tension which ignites the calming part of your nervous system. Doing this allows you to destress your mind and emotions so that your evening and sleep are peaceful.

Muscle Relaxation (2 minutes): Psychologists suggest sitting in a quiet place with your eyes closed. Start by taking three calming breaths, exhaling for a count of five. Squeeze your hands into fists, hold for a moment, then completely let go of the tension in your hands. Take three more calming breaths. Now shrug your shoulders up toward your ears, creating tension, and then let your shoulders relax. End with three more slow breaths. Notice how you feel now. We hope you were able to destress afterward.

4. Early Evening and Dinner Time

We must take our nighttime routines seriously because the quality of sleep we get significantly affects our stress and anxiety levels. When you start getting ready for bed, it’s beneficial to let go of the tensions and stress you’ve experienced during the day. It’s good to choose a routine that will help calm the mind about 30 to 60 minutes before sleeping. It’s ideal to put aside all technology and try doing relaxing activities like reading, light stretching, or drinking a cup of Chamomile tea.

It might even help to try doing some relaxing yoga before dinner time just to unwind and destress the body before eating a healthy meal. It’s also a fantastic way to sneak into a bit of meditation and mind-body activity.

5. Time For Bed

This is the time of day where we should all be curling up into a comfy bed and getting some quality shut-eye in. The irony is that this time of day is when our minds are generally the most active. They tend to tick away about all the things you should or shouldn’t be doing things that went very wrong, or unresolved problems. All this does is trap you in a messy state of worry, panic, and anxiety. That’s why you need to destress before sleeping.

If you get into the mental habit of obsessing over problems at nighttime it can harm your body and create stress or anxiety that will disturb your sleep.  If you can, it’s better to focus on the things that did go right and what you’re grateful for. This is more positive and allows the brain to destress. Knowing that you’ve got lots of good things in your life means you can rest well. This is an important practice that will set the tone for a restful sleep and a happier morning.

Gratitude and Sleep (3 minutes): Place a pen and paper at your bedside so they’ll be there when you go to bed tonight. Just before you turn off the light to sleep, write down three things you’re grateful for about your day. Your gratitude list might include the people you love, daily experiences (like the food you eat), something you did well today. Anything that makes you feel good will destress your mind. Allow what you write to fill your mind as you turn off the light and go to sleep.

The Bottom Line

The key is to breathe, meditate and move. But the best way to destress is to do what makes you feel the best. Give these a go and see it as an experiment to help your body destress better. This will help your mind, body, and soul find better ways to connect to the things you care most about.

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