Home » Misc » Positive ways of dealing with stress

Positive ways of dealing with stress


Tips for Coping with Stress|Publications|Violence Prevention|Injury Center|CDC

Many of us are facing challenges that can be stressful, overwhelming, and cause strong emotions in adults and children. Public health actions, such as physical distancing, can make us feel isolated and lonely and can increase stress and anxiety.

After a traumatic event, people may have strong and lingering reactions. Learning healthy ways to cope and getting the right care and support can help reduce stressful feelings and symptoms.

The symptoms may be physical or emotional. Common reactions to a stressful event can include:

  • Disbelief
  • Feelings of fear, shock, anger, sadness, worry, numbness, or frustration
  • Changes in appetite, energy, desires, and interests
  • Difficulty sleeping or nightmares, concentrating, and making decisions
  • Physical reactions, such as headaches, body pains, stomach problems, and skin rashes
  • Worsening of chronic health problems
  • Worsening of mental health conditions
  • Increased use of tobacco, alcohol, and other substances

It is natural to feel stress, anxiety, grief, and worry during traumatic events such as mass shootings, natural disasters, or pandemics. Below are ways that you can help yourself, others, and your community manage stress.

Top of Page

Healthy Ways to Cope with Stress

Feeling emotional and nervous or having trouble sleeping and eating can all be normal reactions to stress. Here are some healthy ways you can deal with stress:

  • Take breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including those on social media. It’s good to be informed but hearing about the traumatic event constantly can be upsetting. Consider limiting news to just a couple of times a day and disconnecting from phone, tv, and computer screens for a while.
  • Take care of yourself. Eat healthy, exercise, get plenty of sleep, and give yourself a break if you feel stressed out.
  • Take care of your body.
    • Take deep breaths, stretch, or meditate.
    • Try to eat healthy, well-balanced meals.
    • Exercise regularly.
    • Get plenty of sleep.
    • Avoid excessive alcohol, tobacco, and substance use.
    • Continue with routine preventive measures (such as vaccinations, cancer screenings, etc.) as recommended by your healthcare provider.
    • Get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible; get a booster shot if you are age 18 or older.
  • Make time to unwind. Try to do some other activities you enjoy.
  • Talk to others. Talk with people you trust about your concerns and how you are feeling. Share your problems and how you are feeling and coping with a parent, friend, counselor, doctor, or pastor.
  • Connect with your community- or faith-based organizations.
  • Avoid drugs and alcohol. These may seem to help, but they can create additional problems and increase the stress you are already feeling.
  • Recognize when you need more help. If problems continue or you are thinking about suicide, talk to a psychologist, social worker, or professional counselor.

Check out Taking Care of Your Emotional Health for more information and resources.

Top of Page

Helping Others Cope

Taking care of yourself can better equip you to take care of others. Helping others cope with stress through phone calls or video chats can help you and your loved ones feel less lonely or isolated.

Helping Children and Youth Cope with Stress

Children and youth often struggle with how to cope with stress. Youth can be particularly overwhelmed when their stress is connected to a traumatic event—like a natural disaster, family loss, school shootings, or community violence. Parents, caregivers, and educators can take steps to provide stability and support that help young people feel better.

Top of Page

Tips

Tips for Parents and Caregivers
It is natural for children to worry when scary or stressful events happen in their lives. Talking to your children about these events can help put frightening information into a more balanced setting. Monitor what children see and hear about stressful events happening in their lives. Here are some suggestions to help children cope:

  • Maintain a normal routine. Helping children wake up, go to sleep, and eat meals at regular times provide them a sense of stability.
  • Talk, listen, and encourage expression. Listen to your child’s thoughts and feelings and share some of yours. After a traumatic event, it is important for children to feel they can share their feelings and that you understand their fears and worries.
  • Watch and listen. Be alert for any change in behavior. Any changes in behavior may be signs that your child is having trouble and may need support.
  • Stressful events can challenge a child’s sense of safety and security. Reassure your child about his or her safety and well-being. Discuss ways that you, the school, and the community are taking steps to keep them safe.
  • Connect with others. Talk to other parents and your child’s teachers about ways to help your child cope. It is often helpful for parents, schools, and health professionals to work together for the well-being of all children in stressful times.

Tips for Kids and Teens
After a traumatic event, it is normal to feel anxious about your safety and security. Even if you were not directly involved, you may worry about whether this type of event may someday affect you. Check out the tips below for some ideas to help deal with these fears.

  • Talk to and stay connected to others. Talking with someone you trust can help you make sense out of your experience. If you are not sure where to turn, call your local crisis intervention center or a national hotline.
  • Take care of yourself. Try to get plenty of sleep, eat right, exercise, and keep a normal routine.
  • Take information breaks. Pictures and stories about a disaster can increase worry and other stressful feelings. Taking breaks from the news, Internet, and conversations about the disaster can help calm you down.

Tips for School Personnel
School personnel can help their students restore their sense of safety by talking with the children about their fears. Other tips for school personnel include:

  • Reach out and talk. Create opportunities to have students talk, but do not force them. You can be a model by sharing some of your own thoughts as well as correct misinformation.
  • Watch and listen. Be alert for any change in behavior. Are students withdrawing from friends? Acting out? These changes may be early signs that a student is struggling and needs extra support from the school and family.
  • Maintain normal routines. A regular classroom and school schedule can provide a sense of stability and safety. Encourage students to keep up with their schoolwork and extracurricular activities but do not push them if they seem overwhelmed.
  • Take care of yourself. You are better able to support your students if you are healthy, coping and taking care of yourself first. Eat healthy, exercise, get plenty of sleep, and give yourself a break if you feel stressed out.

Top of Page

Mental Health and Crisis

Resources and Social Support Services

  • Food and Food System Resources During COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Disaster Financial Assistance with Food, Housing, and Bills
  • Coronavirus Resources for Renters
  • US Department of Labor Coronavirus Resources
  • If you are struggling to cope, there are many ways to get help. Call your healthcare provider if stress gets in the way of your daily activities for several days in a row.
  • During times of extreme stress, people may have thoughts of suicide. Suicide is preventable and help is available. More about the risk of suicide, signs to watch for, and how to respond if you notice these signs in yourself or a friend or a loved one, can be found here.
  • Free and confidential crisis resources can also help you or a loved one connect with a skilled, trained counselor in your area.

After a natural disaster, it’s normal to feel different and strong emotions. Coping with these feelings and getting help when you need it will help you, your family, and your community recover from a disaster. Resources to help with coping and stress after a natural disaster are available for teens as well as parents and professionals.

If you are in crisis, get immediate help:

  • Call 911
  • Disaster Distress Helpline: call or text 1-800-985-5990 (for Spanish, press “2”) to be connected with a trained counselor.
  • Call or text 988
  • Chat at 988lifeline.org
  • National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 or text LOVEIS to 22522
  • National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-4AChild (1-800-422-4453) or text 1-800-422-4453
  • National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or Online Chat
  • The Eldercare Locator: 1-800-677-1116  TTY Instructions
  • Veteran’s Crisis Line: 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or Crisis Chat or text: 8388255

Find a health care provider or treatment for substance use disorder and mental health

  • SAMHSA’s National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and TTY 1-800-487-4889
  • Treatment Services Locator Website
  • Interactive Map of Selected Federally Qualified Health Centers

Top of Page

For Everyone

  • How Right Now
  • Coping with a Disaster or Traumatic Event
  • General Public: Care for Yourself [348 KB, 1 page]
  • Young Adults: Care for Yourself [839 KB, 1 page]
  • HHS ASPR TRACIE COVID-19 Behavioral Health Resources external icon
  • Food and Food System Resources During COVID-19 Pandemic

For Families and Children

  • Helping Children Cope during the Pandemic
  • Helping Children Cope with Emergencies
  • Coping After a Disaster [1. 9 MB, 20 pages]– A Ready Wrigley activity book for children age 3-10
  • Teen Depression
  • Family Caregivers: Care for Yourself [732 KB, 1 page]
  • Students: Care for Yourself [688 KB, 1 page]
  • Food Assistance Programs

For People at Higher Risk for Serious Illness

  • Serious Illness Care Program COVID-19 Response Toolkit
  • Older Adults: Care for Yourself [911 KB, 1 page]

For Healthcare Workers and First Responders

  • Emergency Responders: Tips for Taking Care of Yourself
  • Disaster Technical Assistance Center
  • First Responders: Care for Yourself [770 KB, 1 page]
  • Clinicians: Care for Yourself [685 KB, 1 page]

For Other Workers

  • Working Adults: Care for Yourself [818 KB, 1 page]
  • Critical Workers: Care for Yourself [719 KB, 1 page]
  • Teachers: Encourage Your Students to Care for Themselves [976 KB, 1 page]

Top of Page

Ways to Manage and Reduce It

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

In this Article

  • 1. Exercise
  • 2.Relax Your Muscles
  • 3.Deep Breathing
  • 4.Eat Well
  • 5.Slow Down
  • 6.Take a Break
  • 7.Make Time for Hobbies
  • 8.Talk About Your Problems
  • 9.Go Easy On Yourself
  • 10.Eliminate Your Triggers

These days it’s hard not to get overwhelmed once in a while. Between juggling work, family, and other commitments, you can become too stressed out and busy. But you need to set time aside to unwind or your mental and physical health can suffer.

Learning how to manage your stress takes practice, but you can -- and need to -- do it. Here are 10 ways to make it easier.

1.Exercise

Working out regularly is one of the best ways to relax your body and mind. Plus, exercise will improve your mood. But you have to do it often for it to pay off.

So how much should you exercise every week?

Work up to 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise like brisk walks or 75 minutes of a more vigorous exercise like swimming laps, jogging or other sports.

Focus on setting fitness goals you can meet so you don’t give up. Most of all remember that doing any exercise is better than none at all.

2.Relax Your Muscles

When you’re stressed, your muscles get tense. You can help loosen them up on your own and refresh your body by:

  • Stretching
  • Enjoying a massage
  • Taking a hot bath or shower
  • Getting a good night’s sleep

3.Deep Breathing

Stopping and taking a few deep breaths can take the pressure off you right away. You’ll be surprised how much better you feel once you get good at it. Just follow these 5 steps:

  1. Sit in a comfortable position with your hands in your lap and your feet on the floor. Or you can lie down.
  2. Close your eyes.
  3. Imagine yourself in a relaxing place. It can be on the beach, in a beautiful field of grass, or anywhere that gives you a peaceful feeling.
  4. Slowly take deep breaths in and out.
  5. Do this for 5 to 10 minutes at a time.

4.Eat Well

Eating a regular, well-balanced diet will help you feel better in general. It may also help control your moods. Your meals should be full of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and lean protein for energy. And don’t skip any. It’s not good for you and can put you in a bad mood, which can actually increase your stress.

5.Slow Down

Modern life is so busy, and sometimes we just need to slow down and chill out. Look at your life and find small ways you can do that. For example:

  • Set your watch 5 to 10 minutes ahead. That way you’ll get places a little early and avoid the stress of being late.
  • When you’re driving on the highway, switch to the slow lane so you can avoid road rage.
  • Break down big jobs into smaller ones. For example, don’t try to answer all 100 emails if you don’t have to -- just answer a few of them.

6.Take a Break

You need to plan on some real downtime to give your mind time off from stress. If you’re a person who likes to set goals, this may be hard for you at first. But stick with it and you’ll look forward to these moments. Restful things you can do include:

  • Meditation
  • Yoga
  • Tai chi
  • Prayer
  • Listening to your favorite music
  • Spending time in nature

7.Make Time for Hobbies

You need to set aside time for things you enjoy. Try to do something every day that makes you feel good, and it will help relieve your stress. It doesn’t have to be a ton of time -- even 15 to 20 minutes will do. Relaxing hobbies include things like:

  • Reading
  • Knitting
  • Doing an art project
  • Playing golf
  • Watching a movie
  • Doing puzzles
  • Playing cards and board games

8.Talk About Your Problems

If things are bothering you, talking about them can help lower your stress. You can talk to family members, friends, a trusted clergyman, your doctor, or a therapist.

And you can also talk to yourself. It’s called self-talk and we all do it. But in order for self-talk to help reduce stress you need to make sure it’s positive and not negative.

So listen closely to what you’re thinking or saying when you’re stressed out. If you’re giving yourself a negative message, change it to a positive one. For example, don’t tell yourself “I can’t do this.” Tell yourself instead: “I can do this,” or “I’m doing the best I can.”

9.Go Easy On Yourself

Accept that you can’t do things perfectly no matter how hard you try. You also can’t control everything in your life. So do yourself a favor and stop thinking you can do so much. And don’t forget to keep up your sense of humor. Laughter goes a long way towards making you feel relaxed.

10.Eliminate Your Triggers

Figure out what are the biggest causes of stress in your life. Is it your job, your commute, your schoolwork? If you’re able to identify what they are, see if you’re able to eliminate them from your life, or at least reduce them.

If you can’t identify the main causes of your stress, try keeping a stress journal. Make note of when you become most anxious and see if you can determine a pattern, then find ways to remove or lessen those triggers.

Health & Balance Guide

  1. A Balanced Life
  2. Take It Easy
  3. CAM Treatments

10 ways to deal with stress

The frantic pace of modern life often threatens a person with stress. Various troubles can completely demoralize a person: problems in the family, numerous minor failures, conflicts at work.

Therefore, everyone needs to know how to relieve stress.

1. Take a break. The main source of stress is overexertion, so rest helps to deal with it. But this does not mean that you need to sit in front of the TV all day, have an active rest, go to nature, to fresh air.

2. Vitamin therapy. Stress causes the human body to turn on all internal reserves, in order to maintain its performance, eat healthy foods rich in vitamins C (apples, tomatoes, rose hips) and B (dried fruits, cabbage, beets, almonds, chicken liver, fish, etc. .).

3. Proper nutrition . Another way to relieve stress is to eat foods that improve your mood. As you know, an indispensable assistant in the fight against stress is the hormone of happiness - serotonin, and foods such as bananas, almonds, chocolate and many others contribute to its production. But not all foods will help you fight stress, limit your intake of sugar, caffeine and fatty foods as much as possible. Stop snacking if you're not hungry. If insomnia is your constant companion - ventilate the room at night, limit your caffeine intake, do not eat before bed.

4. Aromatherapy. The beneficial effects of aromatic essential oils have been known since ancient times. Essential oils of rose, lavender, jasmine and cypress have a calming effect.

5. Psychological assistance. Intimate conversation as a way to relieve stress is very effective. Sometimes a person in a state of emotional stress simply needs to speak out, often in order to see the problem from a different angle, it is enough just to voice it. Friends can help you deal with stress. Also, if you find yourself in a difficult life situation, you can apply for qualified assistance directly to the institution "Bykhov District Center for Social Services for the Population" or by calling 77 - 724, the National Children's Help Line (phone - 8-0801-100-1611).

6. Extreme in the fight against bad mood . Another effective way to relieve stress is to expose the body to a new type of stress.

7. Go in for sports. Sports help to deal with stressful situations, and they also make the body more resistant to emotional influences. This is a great way out for many - to do physical exercises. And, it doesn't matter which ones. Perhaps it will be running, push-ups, cycling, strength training. Try it and you will see that it really works! The greatest effect will be from exercises where regular repetitions are needed (for example, running) makes the body relax. And this, in turn, makes your body and brain respond to stress adequately.

8. The oldest system - yoga . With the help of yoga, you can relax, understand yourself, and also strengthen your muscles. Try to meditate. Close your eyes and breathe deeply and slowly. On each inhalation and exhalation, repeat some pleasant phrase or word. This simple exercise can bring the body into balance, help to relax and relieve stress.

9. Be careful. Avoid situations that may lead to emotional distress.

10. Smile more often. If you smile more often, you can cause a good mood on a subconscious level. Praise yourself. Positive feedback stimulates the production of the hormone cortisol, which is responsible for neutralizing stress.

It is possible and necessary to deal with stress, the main thing is to choose suitable methods of relieving stress for yourself, and for this you can resort to the above tips.

Psychotherapist Tereshchenko A.V.

20+ ways to deal with stress


Irina Balmanji

We are programmed to work in a calm environment, where only occasionally spicy notes of stress slip through.

When you feel threatened, the hormone cortisol spikes, your blood sugar rises, your heart rate increases, and your breathing quickens. All this allows you to confront the impending threat. But the body's settings should return to their original state as soon as the crisis has passed.

On the other hand, if you exist in an environment of endless stress, where quiet episodes are a pleasant variation rather than the rule, then stress destroys your brain and body. In this case, it will be useful for you to master the techniques that doctor Mithu Storoni talks about in his book “No Stress”. We share the advice of the author.


No Stress

Emotion Control

If you can't control your emotions, the stress response will not be long in coming. At the same time, it does not matter at all whether you are worried about real events or mentally winding yourself up.

When heterogeneous emotions are left unattended, power can easily be seized by the not-so-pleasant half of them. You will see everything in black, noticing only depressing moments and remembering unpleasant events with more enthusiasm than those that are pleasant to you. The world will turn into an incomprehensible and unpredictable game, so you will notice that you are haunted by constant anxiety, and a breakdown is just around the corner.


Once the emotional brain is left unattended, it becomes much more vulnerable. Source

Here are some helpful techniques and tricks to help you manage your emotions better.

EMERGENCY METHODS

Emergency methods are designed for superficial work with negative emotions - at the moment they appear.

1. Play. If you are upset, but trying to hold back the avalanche of negative emotions, you need to distract yourself with something. It is important to engage the rational brain in a task that requires unconditional concentration as soon as possible. For this, attention-consuming games on a smartphone that train working memory and logic are quite suitable.

2. Enter the flow state. The flow state implies complete immersion in the process of activity, when all thoughts and sensations that are not related to it disappear. The case must be difficult enough to interest the rational brain, and at the same time feasible. It is best if the activity includes several small tasks and you need to try hard to solve each of them.

The state of flow cannot be achieved during relaxation or rest, it can only be experienced during vigorous activity. The longer you stay in this state, the longer you will be able to keep your emotional brain in check.

Try to think of your work as an opportunity to enter a state of flow, rather than as a source of stress, and then you will feel happier.

LONG-TERM METHODS

Concentration, self-control, conscious choice of actions and cognitive reappraisal are indispensable helpers in the fight against stress. If you constantly train and develop these qualities, you will be able to tame negative emotions for a long time.

1. Use the meditation-concentration technique. Try to concentrate all your attention on a certain object - any thing that is in sight, or a thought up image.

During meditation, one should not allow any extraneous thoughts, and if this does happen, again transfer all attention to the chosen “target”.

Practice daily. People who practice meditation regularly find it much easier to keep track of their thoughts and emotions than those who have never done it.

2. Switch your attention to something pleasant. Catch a depressing thought, move away from it and quickly switch to something positive or neutral.

For example, if you had a meeting with ten clients, and four of them did not even smile at you, focus on the six kind people - then you will have a pleasant memory of this event, and you will immediately forget about the gloomy four, unless you indulge dark thoughts about how terrible everything was.

Every time another negative thought creeps up on you, know that you are at a fork in the road and it is in your power to choose a different path. Try to always shift your attention to the positive side of events. If it becomes a habit, your world will change.

3. Practice self-control skills. If you regularly exercise self-control, then it will be easier for you to succeed in other situations where you need to control yourself.

Strengthen the muscle of self-control at every opportunity. We constantly have to make decisions. Have another drink with friends or go home and go to bed early so that you can have a workout tomorrow? Watch another episode of the series or finally write a blog post? Eat a piece of chocolate cake or make yourself a healthy vegetable salad?

By resisting temptations, you exercise self-control and improve your ability for emotional self-regulation.

4. Think of a pin. The French philosopher Emile-Auguste Chartier wrote about how important it is to find a pin in any incomprehensible situation in his work “On Happiness”. It would hardly occur to a nanny rocking a crying child that he is screaming not for his own pleasure, but because of a pin in his blanket, which pricks and causes discomfort. And until the woman finds her, the baby's anxiety will grow.

If you also find the pin, you will better understand what is going on. Stop worrying about someone misbehaving towards you after learning that the abuser recently lost his job and thus vents anger. Stop considering yourself a victim of circumstances if you understand that the main source of stress is just a “pin”.

5. Look at the situation from the outside. If you recall unpleasant events and try to imagine yourself as an observer, and not the main character, there will be less grief. Be a spectator, not an actor, and you will shed the burden of negative emotions and take a sober look at things.

6. Ask yourself the right questions. If you are successful, you can ask "Why?" If you are defeated, it is better to ask the question "How?"

Picture this: you just lost a bike race because you recently had the flu and haven't fully recovered yet. See what happens when you consider how and why you failed, and then compare the two.

W = "Why?"

O = I'm a bad cyclist / I'm a loser / I'm sick / I'm not lucky / I never win races.

B = "How?"

R = The race was more difficult than the practice. Before lifting, I began to suffocate, which I did not expect at all. And then he could no longer catch up with his opponents. I noticed that after the illness I became less hardy. I may need more time to recover my strength.

How? allows you to minimize the unpleasant aftertaste from defeat and protect yourself from self-deprecating thoughts. In addition, it helps to understand what to do next and how to correct the situation.

7. Put everything on paper. If all the unpleasant things are behind you, and you are still under the power of negative emotions, try to write a factual account of the event - you will wake up the rational person in yourself and get distracted from the negative.


Research has shown that writing down a situation can help reduce social anxiety. Source

Cortisol under control

Long-term exposure to the body cortisol (stress hormone) is a health hazard. Therefore, it is very important that:

- after the disappearance of the stimulus, the release of cortisol ceased;

- during the stress response, exactly as much cortisol was produced as needed: no more and no less.

There are several powerful ways to get cortisol under control.

1. Don't overthink yourself. Throughout your life in your head, there is a continuous shooting of a film - a recording of memories. If you rewind the tape immediately after a stressful situation and rewatch an unpleasant episode (knowing you are not good at managing emotions), your emotional brain will be so powerfully fueled that it will reinforce the stress response.

The body will continue to gush with stress hormones, even if you are just thinking about it, and not experiencing it in reality.

Therefore, after experiencing a traumatic situation, gather your will into a fist and try to disconnect from what happened, focusing your attention on something else. By curbing your thoughts, you will not let your brain sink into negativity.

2. Physical activity. Another way to bounce back after stress is light physical activity. If you're at work, take a vigorous walk around the block on your lunch break. Walking or running to music lifts your spirits.

Even better if you exercise regularly. Systematic training has a positive effect on the psychological state, reduces the response to stress and increases the ability to recover from a stressful episode.

3. Use the power of the breath. By adjusting the frequency and depth of breathing, you can soften the reaction to stress and recover faster. If you are healthy, try to slow down your breathing rate for 15 minutes to about 6-7 breaths per minute.

4. Contemplate nature. A randomized cross-sectional study showed that people recovered faster from severe stress if they had previously enjoyed nature.

Walking to the nearest park or relaxing in greenery at least once a day is a powerful and free stress reliever that is always available and has a lasting effect.


Contemplation of nature helps to calm down, even if you just look at the picture. Source

5. Smell lemons. One study found that inhaling the scent of lemon for 15 minutes normalizes the heartbeat and pressure and calms. Volunteers actively inhaled the scent of lemon for 30 seconds, then rested for 30 seconds, and so on for 15 minutes.

6. Correct setting. To mitigate the hormonal response to the approaching stress, just a change in mood is enough. One way to apply this wonderful method at work is to focus on the goals of your team or the entire company. Try to perceive colleagues as members of your team, and not as competitors; help them, show care, as if observing a certain ritual.

Even in an atmosphere of fierce competition, this approach has its advantages, as it helps to stay calm and focused for a long time.

7. Avoid negative, constantly stressed people. The mood is contagious. Communicating with a calm person, you are very likely to calm down too, and surrounded by sincerely rejoicing and positive people, "catch" their joy. So avoid negative people!

Biological clock setting

Chronic stress destabilizes the normal functioning of the biological clock, and disturbed sleep patterns and circadian jet lag increase chronic stress. It turns out a vicious circle.


If your biological clock is not working properly, then everything is not going according to plan. Source

Do your best to adjust your biological clock and you will be able to mitigate the effects of chronic stress. Below are a few tips to help you tune your biorhythms.

MORNING

- Wake up and immediately open all the curtains, exposing yourself to the bright morning light.

- Have a hearty breakfast at the same time every day.

- After breakfast, stay in bright daylight for at least 30 minutes.

DAY

- At least three times a day try to be in bright daylight: after breakfast; at lunch; in the period from 16 to 18 hours.

- Do sports in the morning. If this is not possible, schedule a workout for 16-18 hours, no later.

EVENING

- Have dinner as early as possible. Dinner should be light.

- Use a program that reduces blue light from your computer screen.

— Dim the lights.

- After dimming the lights, stop eating!

- Avoid intense exercise and physical activity.

- Avoid noise. Do not turn on the TV at high volume.

- Avoid stimulating influences.

- Do not go to social networks and do not view "posts" and channels that cause you anger and negative reactions.

- Avoid caffeine and alcohol.

BEFORE GOING TO SLEEP

- Turn off all electronic devices.

- Read a paper book.

Take a warm bath.

- Keep your bedroom cool, but keep your feet warm.

In search of joy

Fatigue and lack of time make us give up activities that we consider optional, and first of all we deprive ourselves of "insignificant" joys - everything that we do solely for the sake of pleasure.

Once you succumb to the routine of chronic stress, the desire to do what used to bring joy disappears. Life seems like a series of obstacles, and this blocks motivation.

If you stop doing what you like and plunge into a state of chronic stress, you will finally get bogged down in a swamp of despondency. Pleasure should be taken as seriously as the need to go to work or take a shower; find time for them every day.

Never neglect or sacrifice pleasure for "more important" things.

Try to look for moments of pleasure in everyday life and find them, no matter what your occupation is. Here are some strategies.

1. Plan for a pleasant experience. Choose three activities that bring you pleasure. Review your schedule for next week and find a way to include them there. Make a step-by-step action plan, even if you don't think it's necessary, and cross off points as you go.

2. Use the principle of completeness. A person usually wants to deal with any unfinished business as soon as possible. When we succeed, we experience pleasure.

If the amount of work seems overwhelming, the best strategy is to break the task down into small steps. By completing each small step, you will feel satisfied and motivated.

3. Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is a state when we pay attention to what is happening around us, and do not live "on autopilot". If you don't focus on experiencing the present moment, you may not be able to notice what brings you joy.

For example, you are drinking coffee while looking at the computer screen, and you do not feel the pleasant taste. But if you set aside just five minutes for a break and enjoy the aroma and taste of coffee without being distracted by anything, you will experience pleasure.


Enjoy the moment. Source

4. Laugh whenever possible. According to experiments, just an hour of loud, uncontrollable laughter acts as a medicine and reduces symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression.

Learn more