Stress is inevitable in our lives. Good or bad stress, it’s always here. However, too much stress can bring a lot of trouble, starting from being irritable but eventually disrupting our hormonal balance and mental and physical health. That’s why it’s important to learn how to manage stressful situations and reduce stress levels altogether. This article will show you five easy tips to relieve mental stress.

1. Sleep

Everyone knows how important sleep is, yet so many still underestimate its benefits. Stop looking for that best supplement, best technique, or any other tools to relieve the mental stress. The first thing you should pay attention to is how good your sleep is.

Most adults need about 7-8 hours of sleep, and it’s not only the length of your sleep that matters. The quality of sleep is not less important. You can improve your sleep by following good sleep hygiene like going to bed and waking up at about the same time every day, sleeping in a cool and completely dark room, not having screen time for at least 30 minutes before your bedtime, and drinking caffeinated drinks only in the mornings.

And if you had a rough time, research shows that alone 45 minutes long nap can improve your mental performance.

2. Movement

Physical activity helps release endorphins or so-called „happiness hormones“. That makes literally almost any movement you have throughout your day to fight your stress. The only thing you should pay attention to is that you don’t do too much.

Too strenuous physical activity like HIIT (high-intensity interval training), pushing for Pas in the gym, or just too much exercise can take a great toll on your body, causing an increase in stress hormones. This is not what you want if your life stress is already over the roof.

Great activities that help you relax mentally are yoga, walking in the fresh air, dancing, swimming, riding a bike, or any light to moderate activity you truly enjoy.

3. Relaxation

Rest and recovery are the absolute musts if you are stressed. It’s like recharging an empty battery on your phone! I know that it is not always possible to have enough time to just take a break and relax, but you must give a break once in a while, even if it’s a short one.

You could try to meditate or take a warm bath. You can treat yourself to a relaxing massage, a spa visit, alone or with a friend. When life’s pace is fast, we need to enforce it to get slower from time to time.

4. Journaling

When stressed, it’s normal to have a lot of thoughts, worries, and concerns. These thoughts, for their part, can cause stress too. Have you ever had so many thoughts spinning in your mind while you are trying to fall asleep so that you stay awake and get more and more stressed?

What can help you is to just write all of your thoughts down. Start writing what you are thinking or trying not to forget, maybe what deadlines are coming, how you are feeling, etc. Putting that all on the paper can help you clear your mind. And a calm mind is a happy mind.

5. Let it go

Finally, you should recognize whether the stress you have is worth it. There are things in our lives that we can fully control, only partially control, or things over which we don’t have any power at all.

Take a piece of paper and write all of these things down in each category. For example, you have complete control over your own actions and thoughts. You can only partially influence your daily schedule because you have no control over the school or work schedule, but you can manage the rest of your time as you want. And you have no control at all over things like other people’s thoughts or behavior.

Take your time on this one, and analyze and question everything you write in this list. And when your list is made, look at it. Is there anything you are stressing about but can’t control or influence in any way? Then let it go. It doesn’t worth it! What will it bring you to worry if you can’t change anything about it? The only thing you can change and control is your own perception of it and your actions.