Tips To Stress Management: Create Enjoyment Your In Life
Tips To Stress Management
Hormones and Stress and Belly Fat, Oh My! Yes, stress can harm your hormones and hurt your metabolism.
The simple formula of Stress + Cortisol = Belly Fat is an easy way to remember what goes on inside your body when a stressful event occurs. Stress can initially suppress your appetite, but if it persists, it sends the hormone cortisol racing from your adrenal glands, increasing your appetite.
Who hasn’t heard of the stress eater?
My dad used to have an extremely stressful job (teaching middle school) which sent him flooring it to McDonald’s after work before going home.
Below I have listed 12 Tips To Stress Management:
1. Manageable To-Do Lists
One tip for managing stress is not to over-promise or over-commit each day. Creating realistic to-do lists is a challenge for many people. It’s tempting to create a page full of items to do, but it won’t get done by the end of the day. Instead, create a master list in which to dump all of your tasks. Second, create a daily to-do list in which you pick 5-6 tasks from the master list. This is a manageable amount of tasks to complete within your day.
2. Meditate
Take a breather. Close your eyes and fill your lungs with air. Breathe out slowly…
Meditating can help lower your cortisol level, which helps to balance your estrogen/progesterone hormone levels. It’s important to manage your stress, and apps like Headspace and Calm can be great for easily creating level-setting habits once a day around meditation.
Meditation works better if you practice it daily. Create a dedicated meditation space and commit to taking 5-20 minutes a day for yourself to meditate.
3. Exercise
Exercise is a great method for stress management because it produces endorphins. Physical activities such as aerobic exercises, bike riding, walking, hiking, etc. are great ways to reduce tension and improve sleep.
Breathing exercises are another way to manage stress and help lose belly fat. It can improve your performance when exercising.
4. Self Talk in Third Person
Many of us observe the self-talk happening within our heads throughout the day. (You know, that voice in your head usually yapping about negative stuff.) But researchers have found that changing that self-talk to the third person helps reduce stress.
An example is changing “I don’t have the skill set to apply for that job” to “Tiffany doesn’t have the skill set to apply for that job.” Both examples are negative, which we can discuss in another blog post, but if you have negative self-talk throughout the day, why not make it less stressful?
5. Drink a Cup of Herbal Tea
One of the easiest ways to calm stress is to drink a calming herbal tea.
Herbal teas are made from herbs, flowers, or spices and do not contain caffeine which acts as a stimulant.
Chamomile, lemon balm, and Ashwagandha (Ayurvedic herb) are great teas for reducing stress.
6. Take a Relaxing Bath
Using Epsom salt and your favorite essential oil is the key to having a relaxing bath. Scented Epsom is also an option to relax aching muscles and stressed-out bodies. Another great choice for a relaxing bath is to take a bubble bath. Deep Steep makes one of my favorites:
7. Pamper Yourself
While taking a relaxing bath, why not turn this into a time to pamper yourself?
Put on your favorite face mask while you soak. Once you are finished with your bath, use a foot peel mask to help exfoliate your feet.
8. Aromatherapy
Essential oils can have a calming effect on our bodies and our minds. Scents such as Bergamot, Lavender, Ylang Ylang, Lemon, Clary Sage, and Jasmine can reduce tension and help with stress management. Psychology Today explores how these oils can calm the nervous systems and lower heart rates.
9. Massage
If you can have a professional massage, it’s worth every penny. A licensed therapist is trained to consider your physical health vulnerabilities (i.e., back problems). If you cannot have a professional massage, you can still relieve stress with massage devices such as these neck and back massagers.
10. Journaling
Journaling is a way to do a mind dump and write out all of your troubling thoughts so that you can take a deeper look into what is troubling you. It’s not just for negative thinking but a productive exercise in managing stressful thoughts. Find a way to capture your thoughts electronically (with a note program like Google Keep or Apple’s Things) or buy yourself an actual journal and write out your thoughts.
11. Stress Relief Toys
Whether it’s work, kids, or other stressors that cause you to clench your fists, make sure you are prepared. Keep stress relief toys on your desk, in your bag, and elsewhere to remedy your stressful moments. Squeeze balls, fidget spinners, fidget cubes, etc. are great because they are small toys that are portable and helpful to relieve stress.
12. Coloring Books
I’m sure you know by now that coloring books are not just for kids. Adults are getting in on the action and relieving stress as they color within the lines. Craft stores adult coloring books, and Amazon has a great variety of them. One of my favorites is this stress-relieving coloring book. Another great way to color is to use color-by-number apps on your phone, such as Happy Color.
Bottom line
As I mentioned previously, stress can have an impact on your hormones. Stress causes cortisol levels to go up, which causes an imbalance. Estrogen and progesterone are not balanced, and this causes fat to accumulate around the belly.
You now have 12 tips to stress management. Let’s put these tips to good use and stay calm.