Stress and anxiety can take a real toll on your mental health and your quality of life. Folks, they can even impact your physical health! According to the Mayo Clinic, stress can cause headaches, chest pain, muscle pain and more symptoms (https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-symptoms/art-20050987). Anxiety can cause stomach troubles, fatigue, a rapid heart rate and more (https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety-symptoms#symptoms).
Stress and anxiety often go hand and hand. Too much stress can increase anxiety, which just stresses you out even more. To get a handle on these two powerful feelings, try the three tips below.
Heed your body’s stress signals
Your body lets you know when you are stressed out. You may feel like your heart is beating faster than normal or that you are suddenly too warm, for example. Once you learn your body’s stress signals, you can take steps to lower your levels as soon as those signals start to appear.
Start to triage when needed
You’ve probably heard the term “triage” many times. In medical parlance, it means to determine who should receive care first based on their individual needs. To keep your stress levels down, you may need to triage in your life sometimes, too. Look at what is actually urgent and address that right away, and become comfortable with the idea that some things won’t get done until the next day.
Learn to embrace those imperfections
You’re not going to always produce perfection, and that’s okay. The world will still be there tomorrow if you don’t nail that work presentation or the new recipe you just tried. When your mind tries to convince you that failure means things weren’t done perfectly, remind yourself of what is actually important in your life and will still be there even if something didn’t go or turn out just how you wanted.
Detox at the end of your day
Give yourself some time at the end of each day to do something that is stress relieving for you. This could be reading a book, watching part of a favorite show or movie, meditation–whatever works for you. You may need to try a few different things to find what works the best. Always make sure you give yourself this detox time, even if that means putting off some tasks until tomorrow. If you want to do your best, you need to take care of yourself first.
