10 tips to overcome stress
You know that, the feeling as if your body's gas pedal is constantly depressed?
You are in action mode all the time, literally working overtime. Your heart rate is higher and your respiratory rate rises. In time, your body no longer knows where the brakes are. The stress system is always on. This takes an enormous amount of energy from your body. And in the long run, symptoms may even arise. Think of headaches, stomach complaints, difficulty concentrating, stiff muscles, increased blood pressure, ... It is therefore very important to press the brake pedal in time. This allows your body to recover from the extra energy that stress takes.
Two control systems
Our autonomic nervous system, which is not under the influence of our will and thus we cannot influence it directly, consists of two regulatory systems, each with opposite effects.
- The sympathetic nervous system, or the danger system, can be compared to your body's gas pedal. It allows us to survive in life-threatening situations where increased heart rate and blood pressure, the extra tension in your muscles and accelerated breathing help you fight or flee.
- Once the danger disappears, our body starts to normalize and the parasympathetic nervous system, or care system, goes into action: heart rate and blood pressure drop, muscles relax, accelerated breathing returns to a normal rhythm, ...
But what if the hazard system is active all the time and the care system does not act on its own? We may not be able to activate our care system directly, but we can do some things to facilitate this.
10 practical tips
With these 10 practical tips, you can help activate your care system yourself:
- Get enough sleep. If there is one thing you can do for your mental and physical health, it is to go to bed on time and make sure you get enough sleep.
- Go for a walk in nature. This way you will stimulate your senses in a soothing way.
- Maintain your social contacts. Currently, you can't do this physically for a while, but online or by phone you create emotional connection just as much and this is more important than physical proximity.
- Listen to music. Choose music that calms you down. Or maybe you need music that just energizes you?
- Breathe consciously. At regular intervals - how about doing this every time you get up from behind your desk? - taking a few conscious breaths in and out can be particularly effective in activating your care system.
- Do something creative. When you paint, draw, make music, sing, model, write, cook, bake, garden, DIY, sew, crochet, knit, make a vision board, ... your danger system may still be hard to keep active.
- Exercise, play and have fun. Go running, biking, swimming, play with your pet, dance, play board games with your roommates.
- Be gentle and kind to yourself and your senses. So wear that nice perfume, put on that comfortable sweater, eat and drink healthy and taste consciously, enjoy a warm bath or long shower, light candles for cozy and softer light.
- Laugh. Because laughter is the best weapon against negative emotions. When you laugh, your facial muscles immediately activate happiness hormones in the brain that make you feel nice. And if you don't feel like laughing, it even helps to stick a pencil right through your mouth between your teeth to activate the facial muscles involved.
- Pause. Whether you work from home or not, breaks are important. Don't run a marathon, but insert breaks and use them for a walk, to have a cup of coffee or tea outside, to read a book, to make some time for socializing (remember tip 3).
All of these activities help balance the hazard and care system.
Above all, find what suits you, because everyone finds peace in different activities.
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