How To Relieve Stress: Complete Guide 2024
By Vanessa Richards
January 10, 2024 • Fact checked by Dumb Little Man
Too much stress can derail the normal flow of life. Almost everyone experiences it at least once during their lifetime.
It’s essential to combat stress through a holistic approach. An approach that ensures calmness of the mind at the earliest before it affects the nervous system.
The outbreak of the pandemic forced people indoors. This caused higher stress levels in individuals. Also, it resulted in a lack of physical activity and other health issues.
Mental health and general mental well-being have become more important than ever.
Now, you must be wondering how to relieve stress effectively.
You have tried various wellness tips, but they haven’t helped.
Before delving into a few practical methods, let’s take a peek at the causes of stress that affect your well-being.
How to Relieve Stress: What Causes Stress?
Several things can cause stress that affects mental health. It could be a landmark event in your life like your wedding or even certain stressful situations. On most occasions, you would feel stress if you:
- Feel a lot of pressure
- Expect many changes in your life
- Are worried about uncertainties
- Have overwhelming responsibilities
- Are out of work (unemployed)
- Are facing abuse, hate, or discrimination
You may suffer considerable stress affecting your overall health under certain situations. These may be:
Personal
- Any injury or illness
- The pressure of impending parenthood or pregnancy
- Loss of a family member
- Everyday household activities like chores or availing daily transport
- Infertility or challenges to bearing children
- Any sort of abuse
- Going through a legal battle that could culminate in an arrest
- Having to make arrangements for a vacation
- Drinking alcohol without limits
Employment and Study
- Job loss
- Being unemployed for long
- Taking up a new job
- Retirement
- Difficult situations at work
- Task deadlines and the stress of exams
Monetary Issues
- Wealth management
- Financial crisis
- Debt management
Friends and Family
- Marriage or civil partnering
- Experiencing a breakup or divorce
- Stressful relationships with family members
Social Factors
- Difficulty in finding access to quality healthcare, transport, or open spaces
- Having to survive any incident that causes global or community-wide stress like a war or the Covid-19 pandemic
- Facing social stigma in certain societies or discrimination
It’s important to tackle these situations early so you can handle stress. Failing to do so may cause your blood pressure to shoot up. Increasing physical activity to healthy levels is a big step. It ensures you don’t suffer more stress.
How to Relieve Stress
Natural remedies
You could try various methods to relieve stress. A very basic practice is to shun bad habits and adopt relaxation techniques. You could also try some foods and vitamins that benefit your mental health. We’ll share with you a few natural remedies that help relieve stress.
Yoga
The ancient Indian science of Yoga is a great help in fighting stress. This form of exercise comprises various ‘asanas’ that help relieve stress greatly.
It has various deep breathing exercises and meditation skills that help soothe your mind and reduce muscle tension. Practiced by sages centuries ago, every ‘asana’ that forms the science of Yoga remains very effective as a relaxation technique form.
Yoga ‘asanas’ that combine deep breaths are very effective in stress management. Just a few minutes of these asanas that involve a few deep breaths can do wonders in finding stress relief.
Breathing exercises always help in fighting stress and avoiding unhealthy habits. They also help in developing time management skills.
>> Related Article: 7 Best Yoga to Lose Weight for Beginners and Expert Yogi in 2024
Water
When you feel thirsty, there’s a rise in cortisol levels. Therefore, drinking water throughout the day is effective in preventing these hormones from rising.
Try consuming at least 6-8 glasses each day. Add a slice of lime if the thought of gulping down bland water puts you off. This sure is an effective way to decrease stress hormones.
Consuming enough water forms an essential element of a healthy diet. Drinking clean water helps beat stress and anxiety.
Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate helps relieve stress and lifts your spirits as well. This may be due to the high tryptophan content in dark chocolate making it an effective stress reliever.
Our bodies use tryptophan to create happy hormones like serotonin that make us happy. Look for a cocoa content of at least 70 percent. It’s cocoa that makes chocolate dark.
Avoid consuming more than 1 to 3 grams a day, that’s too much fat and sugar. Limited consumption of dark chocolate helps manage stress greatly.
You may include dark chocolate while designing a healthy diet program. You must however control consumption to avoid too much caffeine.
Green Vegetables
Leafy green vegetables like asparagus, spinach, and Brussels sprouts help reduce stress. These vegetables contain folate, a vitamin that helps the brain produce the serotonin hormone, an effective stress reliever.
The serotonin hormone helps lift your mood. It, therefore, helps in better stress management. Green vegetables also help check blood pressure as they contain magnesium.
Bananas
Bananas come with a lot of Vitamin B6. This helps a lot in stress reduction. Bananas also contain dopamine, a feel-good hormone, and a stress reliever.
A drop in dopamine levels causes stress. Therefore, bananas containing dopamine help reduce stress and anxiety by lifting your mood. Bananas are also good for a balanced diet.
Medications
Sometimes extreme anxiety can cause anxiety disorder. On such occasions, you need professional help and medication. Only then can you reduce stress.
Anxiety disorder causes your stress hormones to shoot up. It affects your physical and mental health. That’s when effective medication is necessary to prevent victims from feeling overwhelmed.
Let’s look into some commonly prescribed medications that work as effective stress relievers.
Benzodiazepines
These are commonly prescribed sedatives. They reduce stress through progressive muscle relaxation and by calming your mind.
These medicines make certain neurotransmitters more effective- chemicals relaying messages from one brain cell to the other. Used for short-term anxiety treatment, Benzodiazepines help treat panic disorder and social anxiety disorder.
Antidepressants
These medicines affect the neurotransmitters helping treat anxiety symptoms. Noticeable results can be observed only after 4-6 weeks.
Antidepressants lift the spirits of patients helping in a stronger stress response. These are of the following types that are used commonly.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) raise serotonin levels. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter affecting mood, appetite, sex drive, memory, and sleep.
Tricyclics
These work effectively on most anxiety disorders except Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The use of tricyclics is limited since these are older drugs. The newer ones have lesser side effects.
Beta-blockers
These are most commonly used for treating heart conditions. They can also be used off-label.
They give relief from anxiety’s physical symptoms, especially social anxiety disorder. This reduces symptoms pertaining to mental stress.
Supplements
Supplements have flooded us promising a cure for almost every ailment. Some of these supplements claim to provide stress relief as well.
Most Americans feel that stress impacts their complementary and integrative health significantly. Therefore, stress relieving supplements are selling like hotcakes.
Many consider taking supplements, one of the more effective stress relief strategies.
We bring you a few supplements we feel are worth trying. You should consult your health care provider before you kick off any regimen to deal with stress.
Magnesium
It’s essential to have enough magnesium for proper nerve and muscle functioning. While it’s a safe supplement, there may be certain side effects like nausea and diarrhea.
Magnesium helps in relaxation, an important aspect of stress relief. It helps manage stress and it’s also effective in treating depression.
>> Related Article: 6 Warning Signs & Symptoms You Have Low Magnesium: Complete Guide 2024
Vitamin B-Complex
All the essential water-soluble vitamins are considered a type of vitamin B-complex. However, these exclude vitamin C: B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, and B12.
Research has shown that B-complex vitamins can help in mood improvement. It’s very effective in reducing stress levels.
Melatonin
The melatonin hormone is produced by the brain’s pineal gland. It helps control our sleep cycles.
There’s a close link between sleep and mood. Melatonin helps improve sleep quality reducing stress. However, it can cause headaches, irritability, dizziness, and bouts of depression.
Valerian Root
This is a commonly used herb that helps treat stress and anxiety. It’s supposed to be safe for most adults. However, the effects of long-term use remain unknown. It may hamper physical movement slightly.
If taken in high doses, it may cause momentary morning sluggishness and headaches. Valerian root is known to lower blood pressure. It also helps control the heart rate and the feeling of being under pressure.
Valerian root is taken in the form of a tincture administered with a dropper. Three droppersful can prove effective in fighting stress.
Best Supplement To Support Healthy Stress Response: Vitapost Stress Support
Vitapost Stress Support can improve your health, physical and mental greatly. This supplement is available in the form of pills.
Vitapost offers effective relief from sleep, stress, and gastrointestinal problems. Each pill comes at only $0.49.
Made with very effective ingredients including essential oils, Vitapost Stress Support offers a holistic solution that strengthens your stress response.
The product includes natural antioxidants, which reduce stress and promote health. The nutritional ingredients of Vitapost are made in the US. All GMP guidelines are followed stringently at the production facility registered under the FDA.
Vitapost Stress Support also helps in nerve relaxation. It helps stabilize brain chemistry thereby countering stress.
Taking the product regularly reduces the chances of recurring stress problems. The reason why Vitapost Stress Support has enjoyed success? Because of its effective all-natural eight-ingredient formula.
The Benefits of Vitapost Stress Support
- Lower Stress: Improves mood, lowers stress levels and reduces cortisol levels.
- Calming the Nerves: It calms your nerves and reduces anxiety. It also raises the GABA levels and slows down neuron firing. You fall asleep easily within a few minutes.
- Mood Elevation: Your mood is lifted and anxiety is reduced by the natural ingredients that boost serotonin levels.
- Cognitive Function Improvement: The boost in brain chemistry and the brain stimulating ingredients to improve mental cognition. It helps improve integrative health.
Shop Vitapost Stress Support Supplement at the Official Website.
Full Article: VitaPost Stress Support Reviews 2024: Does it Really Work?
Conclusion
Using a mix of healthy ways and social support goes a long way in cutting down anxiety. You can choose any of the natural remedies, medication, or supplements to lead a healthy life.
We recommend Vitapost Stress Support as there are absolutely no side effects to this supplement. Moreover, you don’t need a prescription to buy this amazing health supplement.
Medication does help in stress relief. However, often, they have severe side effects. Vitapost Stress Support boosts your stress response without any harmful side effects.
Moreover, Vitapost Stress Support, unlike medication is inexpensive. If it’s a magic pill you are looking for to get stress relief, you have found it in Vitapost Stress Support.
Click Here to Get Vitapost Stress Support at Discounted Price.
How to Relieve Stress FAQs
Can expecting mothers take Vitapost Stress Support to fight depression?
If you are feeling stressed and undergoing depression during pregnancy, consult your doctor before taking the supplements. Ignoring a doctor’s advice may only cause increased stress.
What is the recommended dosage?
Each bottle contains 60 pills for a supply of 30 days. Take two pills after breakfast every morning for the best results.
How can I boost the performance of the supplement?
Drink calming teas, meditate regularly, and listen to relaxing music to reduce anxiety. Doing so acts as an effective supplement for Vitapost Stress Support in providing stress relief.
Vanessa Richards
Vanessa is a mom of 3 lovely children and a software geek. Outside of her career as a health and wellness instructor. She enjoys writing and researching on topics such as finance, software, health and culinary.