Help Your Health By De-stressing
0It is now common knowledge that stress plays a large role in a person’s well being. Now that March/tax season is fast approaching, many of us are undoubtedly feeling our normal level of stress increase even just a little bit.
We would like to remind you to make efforts towards managing your stress level and lowering it to a healthy level. Here are five quick ways to stay cool, calm and collected during the most stressful season of the year!
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1. Find Your De-stressing Position: Many times, what causes stress is our Sympathetic Nervous System taking control and not allowing our Parasympathetic Nervous System to take over to calm us down. This can result in increased stress, anxiety, and nightmares. According to this article in the Huffington Post, laying on our backs with our legs parallel against the wall (90 degree angle) is a position that greatly stimulates the Parasympathetic Nervous System. Laying in this position and taking deep breaths will help calm you down at the end of any hectic day.
2. Take a break and eat a healthy snack: Often times during a stressful day, we forget to take a few minutes to adequately nourish our bodies. Energy comes from the consumption of quality foods and taking a snack break also provides a few minutes of “do nothing” time where we are not expected to perform, perform, perform. Some of our recommended snacks are almonds (high in healthy fats), carrot sticks (high in betacarotene), and yogurt (a good source of healthy dairy).
3. Take an active class at least once a week: Optimally, we would all have time for at least an hour of active activity a day. And no – we don’t mean walking back and forth around the office. Physical classes provide us the opportunity to be active in a stimulating and engaging way. For high cardio activity, try a local spin class. For something a little more fun and interactive, try a zumba or aerobics class.
4. Go to Your Happy Place: We all have different places that we find invigoratingly peaceful – may it be the ocean, or the mountains, or simply our backyard. Wherever it may be, be sure to visit this calming place at least once every other week and spend some time centering yourself. This practice, over time, becomes surprisingly effective in helping us manage the million things we juggle in our daily lives away from our favorite place.
We hope that this provides you some easy ideas for stress management – and we would love to hear your feedback regarding stress and how you deal!
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