Top 5 Ways To Relieve Stress

Stress can get the best of anyone, and learning how to not only manage it but relieve it can help with both mental and physical health. Stress can come in all shapes and sizes as far as symptoms go and can look different for everyone. This is why we recommend understanding your limits and triggers to best handle your stress and mitigate it to the best of your abilities. 

Signs and Symptoms of Stress

Though stress can look different for different people, there are common “signs and symptoms” of stress that are noticeable. Learning how to help release stress begins with understanding where it starts!

Your body will respond to stress in two different ways, emotional and physical. Many times people believe that stress can only be emotional, but this is not always the case. If left untreated, stress can cause many problems in your physical body. You may begin to feel sick, dizzy, or have sleep problems. But these are not the only physical signs that your mind and body have had enough, they can also include: 

• Chest pains 
• Rashes or itchy skin 
• Weight gain or loss 
• Muscle aches and headaches 
• Panic attacks 
• Difficulty breathing 
• Difficulty concentrating

It’s important to know your body so you can begin to identify when things feel off. We teach our students at Eva Carlston how to be aware of themselves and what ‘normal’ feels like to know when they need to take a break. Emotionally speaking, you may feel more anxious, depressed, uninterested in life, have a sense of dread, irritable, or unable to enjoy yourself. These emotional and physical symptoms shouldn’t be ignored and can be helped!

5 Best Tips To Relieve Stress

Most of the time, stress can be managed/relieved when we become aware of it and work towards relaxation. This may seem counterintuitive to “work” towards being “relaxed” but being consciously aware of it and achieving your goals might take a little bit of work at first. Nonetheless, here are the five best tips for relieving stress that we love implementing at Eva Carlston. 

Meditation: 

Meditation for relieving stress can help in numerous ways. It can help you process the thoughts that are in your head that may be causing your stress, to begin with. Also, it sets aside time during the day where you can be present with yourself and have a calming moment where you focus on either positive affirmations or things that help you feel happy. 

Music: 

Music can be a great tool to relieve stress! Whether you listen to a song that gets you pumped up, or a relaxing tune, music can help take your mind off things and give you a healthy outlet to let go of the things you’ve been holding onto. 

Keep a journal: 

Journaling is one of our students’ favorite ways to de-stress. Not only can journaling provide a way for you to vent and let out your feelings, but it also puts your thoughts into something you can look at. This can help visual people and allows you to say what you need to say that you may feel like you can’t tell others. 

Be Active:

Being active doesn’t mean you have to run a half marathon. Sometimes something as simple as dancing can relieve stress, or take a walk around the neighborhood. At Eva Carlston, our students will play a friendly game of basketball or participate in outdoor yoga. Physical activity is part of our regular daily routine because of it’s positive impact on stress management.

Laugh More: 

Laughing more when you’re stressed may seem impossible, but even fake laughing can cause positive physical changes in your body and give your mind a much-needed boost. Laughter is proven to engage and relieve your stress response, making you feel better all around. 

Stress can affect every part of our life, but it doesn’t have to be debilitating. Using the techniques that resonate with you and help you achieve a relaxed state of mind is worth it in our eyes. Helping reduce stress for our students is one of our main goals at Eva Carlston, we love implementing these activities and introducing new ones to ensure our students find what works best for them!