Stress is one of the root causes of almost all health issues we face today. Here are some of the best ways to lower the stress in your life.
Summertime, Ernest Walbourn (1872-1927)
Continuing on from where I left off in last Thursday’s post, here are some more of the best ways to lower the stress in your life. As I said in that post, stress can be detrimental to your life and to your body. It is one of the root causes of almost all diseases and health issues we see so often today. If you haven’t read Part One yet, go read that now, and then come back here to read my next seven tips to help lower your stress.
the best ways to lower the stress in your life
don’t sweat the small stuff that you can’t control
This one is hard. It’s hard to look at the world around us and not feel a little anxious. It seems as though terrible things happen every minute of every day and that evil is taking over. But, we can’t get too worked up about it all. In the grand scheme of things, there’s not much we can do.
Focus on what you can control. Spend time in Scripture and in prayer, focus on your family and the community around you. You can’t control whether or not our society begins to value Biblical truth, but you can focus on whether you and your family do. You can’t focus on the mental health of other people’s children, or the parenting style that they choose, but you can focus on those things for your own family.
The things we do only have so much impact on the world. I don’t say that to sound pessimistic, its just the truth. And I think when we realize that, we will actually be able to make even more change. Instead of focusing on everything that’s happening in the world, focus on the things that you can actually make a difference in. If everyone did that, I think we might actually be able to see change. A million small changes make a huge change in the long run. Save your energy for the small things you can change and forget the rest.
reduce your time on social media & in the news
Similarly, don’t spend so much time on social media or catching up on the news. All of the current events are going to keep happening whether you know about them in the moment or not. Of course, it’s still important to pay attention to these things and be aware of what could potentially result from them, but don’t get caught up in it. I think a good boundary to have in place is to only check into the news once or twice a week instead of everyday (or multiple times a day). We were never created to take in that much information, let alone bad information, at once. It’s very overstimulating, and when its constantly negative information, it can lead to unnecessary worry and chronic anxiety.
It’s also important to note that they only tell us what they want us to know. And, in many cases, they hype things up to make them sound a lot worse than they actually are. The scare-factor sells and news outlets know that. Just keep that in mind when you are checking in on current events. Maybe even try to get your information from as neutral of a source as possible. Not only will this most likely be the most accurate source, but it will also remove any added emotional tactics as well.
don’t stress over your health being perfect or about doing everything perfectly
When you’re trying to improve your health, it’s easy to start getting too caught up in doing everything perfectly. But that’s not realistic and will only add to your stress, and therefore, hinder your healing. It’s important to try to eat as good as you can, but don’t stress if you eat fast food every once in a while. It’s important to decrease the amount of toxins that are in your products, but don’t get so uptight about the ingredients being perfect.
This happened to me recently. I got so uptight about only eating real foods, no seed oils, and decreasing my toxic load so much to the point that I was adding more stress to my life and doing more harm than those things would. Just live your life and do the best that you can. Make changes slowly and eventually you’ll get to where you want to be. And even when you’re where you want to be, you’ll still have times when you can’t do everything perfectly.
Not spending so much time on social media helps a lot with this. If you follow health and wellness accounts, you’ll start to feel like you aren’t doing enough. Those people are doing all the health things and it seems to be working out perfectly for them, so you decide that you have to do it all too. Not to mention, it seems as though all of their advice changes every couple months, and that no two accounts agree on things.
Take all of the health advice you hear on social media with a grain of salt. Try things out from different people and different health philosophies and see what works best for you and your body. It may seem like you’re not doing everything perfectly because you don’t align with one certain philosophy. But, if combining ideas from different people is what works best for you and your goals, then it actually is perfect for you.
force yourself to slow down
This one is something that I often struggle with, but I recently started implementing as much as I can and it has helped my stress levels so much. If you’re anything like me, you know how easy it is to rush from one thing to another. But all this does is increase our cortisol levels because we’re making our body think there’s a threat that isn’t actually there. Whenever you feel yourself running around with a “go go go” mindset, force yourself to slow down. This can be hard at first, but eventually it becomes a habit and you’ll find that you don’t have to force it anymore.
take epsom salt baths
Not only is the hot water of a nice bath very relaxing, but the epsom salts give your body some added magnesium to combat the stress. Many people are deficient in magnesium, and it is extra bad if you are chronically stressed because it is one of the first minerals to be depleted during stress. Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate crystals. Taking baths with them:
- Provides magnesium
- Promotes good sleep & stress reduction
- Helps with constipation
- Helps with exercise performance & recovery
- Reduces pain & swelling
do something you enjoy like reading, gardening, or doing crafts
Reading for pleasure is one of my favorite ways to destress. Reading a good fiction novel is a great way to get out of the real world and take a break from your reality. I find that this really helps me to forget about those things that are causing stress in my life, even if it’s just for a little while. If you aren’t big into reading, try something else like knitting, sewing, painting, or other types of crafty things. Gardening is also a great way to destress in my opinion because it puts your focus on something else, and gets you outside (which is great for stress as I said in Part One).
give yourself free time & don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to things
This is another one that can be kind of hard, especially if you’re a people-pleaser like me. It can be hard to say no when people ask you to do things, especially if those people mean a lot to you. That was your only free night this week, but you didn’t want to hurt their feelings so you said yes. It’s important to be considerate of others, but it’s also important to take care of yourself.
In recent years, I’ve seen a lot of Christians say that “self care” is something Christians shouldn’t partake in. While I get where they’re coming from, I also disagree. It shouldn’t become a selfish thing or an idol in our lives. But at the same time, it’s important that we take care of ourselves and take time for ourselves to relax and recharge so we can be there for others.
We shouldn’t become depleted and hyper-stressed in the name of Christian selflessness. Don’t be afraid to take time for yourself (within reason of course).
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! If you implement any of these tips into your life, leave a comment to let me know. Check back on Tuesday for my next post!
This was an awesome read! Some great points and advice. I really need to work on many of these things.