Five Ways to Manage Stress

Stress is one of those emotions we have that has the tendency to allow us to feel out of control of everything. While simultaneously, and quite loudly, making itself feel completely necessary. Though stress feels out of control, one of the very reason we choose to fall into stress is because we can pretend that we have any sort of control over what is going to happen next. AND it is completely unnecessary.

So, why do you stress out if it is so unnecessary? Let’s look at this from an emotional and scientific point of view. Emotionally, you have conditioned yourself to believe that stress will give you magic powers… jokes…. Kind of. When you believe that stress is helping something, you are believing that by stressing out you can control what happens next. You’re using your stress as blinders, avoidance, and it is not serving you in any way.

Okay, now put your science hats on and get ready to be blown away by my favorite stress fun fact: humans get addicted to stress. Much like your morning caffeine, that show you’ve been binge watching, and the unfortunate new addiction to clicking the home button on your iphone…. If you stress enough, eventually you will get addicted, meaning you will intentionally look for things to stress about and a part of your will enjoy it.

Mind blown?! Yeah… Let’s break that concept down a bit. Every emotion we have releases a chemical in our brain. We LOVE getting dopamine hits, which is why we get addicted to things like our favorite feel-good series, hugging our closest friends, and yes, pressing the iphone home button. Well the stress hormone has this same addictive, gotta-have-more-of-it kind of reaction. All animals have a stress response, it’s what causes the chipmunk to run from cats and then krill to go “swim away” when a big whale passes by. But what happens after they scurry or float on? They forget about it. Humans are the only creatures who can recreate AND precreate stress. Meaning we will not only play it over and over again, but we will create situations that haven’t occurred yet and get really stressed out.

Cue the addiction.

Your brain starts to believe that you are enjoying this stuff, so you want to create more and more!

WOAH.

via GIPHY

Okay, let’s not go into a panic now, that would be extremely counterproductive for this post.

As with any addiction, you can decide to change this, which is exactly what I did when I realized that stress was consuming my own life. So are you ready to make that decision right here and now? Great! Let’s chat five ways to manage your stress, and eventually banish it for good.

1 Give it an external world

Your stress is dying to be heard, to feed into your created addiction, your mind literally thinks that you want it. Humans also typically internalize stress which only allows it to grow so large it starts to feel out of control. This is why those key friendships in our life are so important. Give your stress life while also changing your pattern. So when I say give your stress life, I actually mean to do the opposite and talk through the situation with someone with the goal of finding a solution, instead of stewing over all of the “what if’s” or alternate realities that you are creating.

2 Breathwork

This is where I would have cued up my eyeroll if I was reading this post pre-stress-free life, stick with me here, because if you let this tip in it could change your life. Stress comes in hot full of panic and works us up like not a lot of other emotions can do and tries to stick around for a much longer visit than you would like. Your body wants a break. So whether this is before or after you give it some external space, take a minute to give your body some space. Release from the tension stress creates, unlock your jaw, roll down your shoulders and do 10 deep breaths, counting up 1 on each inhale and 1 on each exhale. If you let your body relax, the stress has an outlet to dissolve and you remember how great peace feels.

3 Move

Jump, dance, run, walk, wiggle, wave your arms around, do the worm… really anything that allows you to get out of the stewing that is stress. If you’re outside, even better. Anyone doing a dance party outside to relieve stress, please be sure to record + share so I can experience pure joy with you. Anyways… the concept of this goes hand in hand with your breathwork, reminding you that you do not have to stay in stress, it can be temporary. I definitely recommend

4 Ask yourself this powerful stress-swap question:

This is a question I come back to for all of my spiral emotions; or the emotions that can feel sinking, overwhelming and out of control. Spiral emotions are the emotions that are completely unnecessary in our life. These are simply a call for attention to your soul’s needs. Stress is one of these emotions, another that you can use this question on is worry.

The question: What can I control?

So often we are carrying the weight of too many things that are out of our control. The only person’s life you can control is your own. So if you are stressed over the way someone else is feeling, you can drop it because as much as you want it to, anyone else’s feelings will never be yours to change. When you come to this powerful question you can begin to create clarity, by seeing answers to everything that is stirring around for you.

5 Daily grounding

Stress sets on after we have allowed too much time to pass by without listening to what we need, without slowing down, and allowing everything you need to do to pile on. Instead of being a human being you are a human who is go-go-go, no time on the clock at the end of the day. Instead of waiting for the stress to come on, what if there was a way to cut it out of your life before it comes on? Good news, there is, and it starts with you.

What can you do for yourself daily to keep the inner workings of you in alignment with ease? If all you can start with is five minutes, then start with five minutes. You can’t afford to not give yourself a few moments to break from the hustle that stress allows in. Stress doesn’t come from the external, no feeling does, you are choosing and abusing stress again and again. So choose a moment for joy. Choose a moment for you. What will you do first?

Stress is so unnecessary to be hanging around and taking you down. It’s time to combat it once and for all! Share with me in the comments what you are going to start with first!

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