According to a 2023 study from the American Psychological Association, around a quarter of adults in the United States reported experiencing high levels of stress. These figures have risen significantly since 2019, and the survey noted that there wasn’t just one age group that experienced a rise in stress levels; this rise was observed in all age groups.
Stress can have many different impacts on your life. It can make you angry, impact your ability to socialise and function, and really take a grip on every area of your life and turn it on its head.
Do you feel like you’re just stuck with stress, letting it dictate your life? The truth is, you have the power to manage it. There are numerous strategies to cope with stress, and while you may not be able to eliminate it entirely, you can certainly mitigate its impact.
Identify Stressors
In the first instance, you need to identify what is causing you stress. Is there an area of your life that is making you stressed? For example, are you struggling financially, or is the stress work-related or family-related? Once you know exactly what your stresses are, you can understand them a little bit more and put measures in place to help you eliminate or reduce the impact they’re currently having on your life.
Action plan
Following on from the above point, it’s really important that you make an action plan for dealing with stress. While there are different ways to help you feel less stressed and relax more, the reality is that if you don’t address the stress in your life, nothing will work for you.
Get Active
Pretty much every type of exercise can act as a stress reliever. Even if you’re a beginner, exercise can be massively beneficial. Exercise is so great for stress because physical activity can help you pump out those feel-good endorphins and other natural neural chemicals that boost your sense of wellbeing. The better you feel about yourself, the less stress you will feel. Not only does this exercise have multiple benefits for the body, but it also has multiple benefits for mental health.
Supplements
There are many supplements on the market that can be used and combined with a healthy lifestyle to help you manage your stress levels and feel your best at all times. From CBD & THC products for stress to valerian root, lavender, chamomile, and more, you can introduce different supplements to your lifestyle that can help you feel better and manage your stress.
Laugh More
A simple but effective way to reduce stress is to find your sense of humour and have a laugh. That doesn’t mean you need to take what you are going through and turn it into some type of comedy act, but finding something in your life that helps you laugh can really help you turn down your stress response. Whether it’s watching a comedy film, going to a comedy show, meeting up with some friends and having a laugh over a good meal or some drinks, whatever you can do to make yourself laugh, and lighten your mental load, give it a try and see how much better you feel once you’ve had that release.
