In this article, I will explain how to relieve stress and stress without the help of drugs or alcohol . In the first part of the article, dispensing with meaningful theoretical calculations, I immediately give 8 tips on how to remove stress. You can test these recommendations on yourself today and check how effective they are.

Also, in the second part, I consider it necessary to touch a little on how to minimize the daily level of stress, and how to become less stressed. Many tips on getting rid of stress for some reason do not pay due attention to this. But I’m aiming for a long-term result and it’s obvious to me that the less stress level you get, the easier it is to cope with it.

Have you heard the slogan “is it easier to warn a fire than to extinguish”? Everyone needs to know what measures must be taken to extinguish the fire, but it is even more important to understand what it takes to prevent a fire (for example, not sleeping with a cigarette in your teeth and working with an iron and a reboiler in an embrace). Also with stress: it must be able to warn.

How to relieve stress quickly. 8 Boards

Fatigue, nervous tension, responsible affairs, relationships with people, the turmoil of the city, family squabbles – these are all stress factors. The consequences of which influence make themselves felt during and at the end of the day, affecting us with fatigue, nervous exhaustion, bad mood and nervousness. But with all this you can cope, just need to know how I assure you, and without sedatives and alcohol.

The latter give only a short-term relief and weaken the ability of your body to cope with stress on its own. About this nuance, I went into more detail in the article Myth 2 – Alcohol and pills help to cope with stress . At this stage it is important to understand that I categorically do not advise to remove stress by all kinds of drugs and in this article there will be no talk about any medications, we will learn to relieve stress by natural relaxation methods. So, let’s get started.

Tip 1 – Clean your head of unpleasant thoughts

Although it sounds trite, but not everyone can remember this always and we start chewing on the annoying chewing gum of thoughts about the unpleasant events of the current day and can not stop at all. This very much exhausts and plunges into depression and does not help to get rid of stress in any way. At such times, we are simply concerned about something or trying to find a solution for the situation.

The key is to think about tomorrow, and now, turn your attention to something else. I have long noticed how different the perception of life’s problems is depending on our physical and psychological state. In the morning, being fresh and cheerful, everything seems to us on the shoulder, with everything we can figure out, but in the evening, when fatigue and stress are piling on us, the problems start to acquire horrifying proportions, as if you look at them through a magnifying glass.

It seems as if you are a different person. But it’s just fatigue and exhaustion that distorts the view of many things, you have to give yourself an account of it, assessing your current state: “Now I’m exhausted and tired both morally and physically, that’s why I do not quite take in many things, therefore, I will not now think about them. “ It’s easy to say, but sometimes it’s hard to give yourself such a sober report, since negative thoughts seem to be climbing our heads and do not want to leave.

But there is a small trick how one can deceive one’s mind, who wants to immediately start thinking about the problem, which now seems extremely important to him. Promise yourself that you will think about it tomorrow morning, just wake up and open your eyes and before you sit down and wash yourself intensively to think it over. So you put the vigilance of the mind to sleep, which “agree” to make a concession and postpone the decision of this situation for later. I did so many times and was surprised to find that in the morning with yesterday’s “big problem” there was a wonderful metamorphosis – it lost its importance, I even ceased to want to think about it, it seemed so insignificant in a new perspective.

Get rid of negative thoughts. Clean your head. It may not seem so easy, but the ability to control one’s mind appears during meditation.

Tip 2 – practice relaxation techniques, meditate

About this, so much has been said in the framework of my blog, I will not repeat. If you want to immediately relieve stress, then there is an excellent reason to try to meditate or to start practicing different relaxation techniques and to make sure that it is good to relieve you of stress. But here there is also a second good feature, the more you meditate, the better you begin to get abstracted from the problems and clear your head of thoughts and the less stress you get every day due to the fact that your mind becomes calmer.

It becomes easier for you to bear the influence of stress factors, and those things that once introduced you into a strong excitement and tension as you practice will become trivial for you: suddenly traffic jams, urban noise, squabbles at work will cease to be problems and provide negative impact on you. You will start to wonder at how people around you are serious and dramatic about these trifles and are worried about them, as if the whole world fell before their eyes! Although they themselves some time ago were upset because of the little things …

But one separate meditation session also benefits – you experience a strong relaxation and forget about the problems, the main thing is to concentrate and not to start thinking about what happened to you today. This is very difficult to do: thoughts will still come, but try at least for a while not to think about anything and switch attention to the mantra or the image.

Tip 3 – Go in for sports

Some time ago I did not imagine how to relieve tension without alcohol : a couple of bottles of beer were on duty to feel good and relaxed. But then, when I took on myself and refused such means, I realized that a 20-minute jog at a moderate pace or a trip to the gym could give a much more tangible result!

During exercise, endorphins are released – hormones of happiness. While doing sports you get a good mood and strengthen your body. This is a much more effective tool than drinking beer, since the latter only weakens your ability to cope with stress, which I already spoke about and will talk about in the next article. And sports strengthens you morally: in a healthy body – a healthy spirit. That is, playing sports, as well as meditation, form in you a long-term ability to resist stress throughout the day.

Tip 4 – Take a contrast shower. Water procedures

You can read about the technique somewhere on the net, but in general I’m going to devote a separate article to this in the future, since it deserves it.

You did not think that it attracted some people in hardening with cold water? What makes them in severe frosts perform such, at first glance, mockery of themselves, like swimming in the ice hole? And that stretches a happy smile on the ruddy face of the bather? The answer is endorphins , everyone knows the “hormones of happiness” (this is a journalistic term, in fact it is not hormones, but neurotransmitters) that stand out when the body is chilling. It would seem that they would stand out here?

But now I’m going to refill your knowledge base a little. It is believed that extreme sports are associated with adrenaline. This is true. But it’s not adrenaline that provokes people into dizzying jumps and tricks, not for him everything happens, as many mistakenly believe. Adrenaline – only makes the heart beat more often, increases your stamina and quick reaction. But those same acute sensations, “kicks” after a parachute jump give endorphins.

This is not only the “hormones of happiness”, they contribute to anesthesia, they begin to isolate the body in an extreme situation, which it perceives as threatening and, in order to partially exclude the possibility of death from pain shock as a result of a possible injury, the release of this hormone starts which has such a pleasant side effect.
Perhaps a similar mechanism is triggered by the cooling of the body, since it is also stress for the body (not to be confused with the stress that is discussed in the article).

A contrast shower is a much softer and more accessible means of hardening an organism than a winter swimming , anyone can do it. This procedure is not only able to relieve stress and improve mood , but also hardens the body (I AT ALL ceased to suffer from cold illnesses, since I take a contrast shower, and my grandfather took it all his life and never suffered from a cold, despite his advanced age ).

Not only a contrast shower, but also any water procedures can help with stress relief, such as a hot bath, swimming in a pond, swimming pool, etc.

Tip 5 – Listen to music

Any that you like. The pleasure that you get from listening to music is also directly related to the chemical processes in the brain. They are triggered by a harmonious sequence of sounds (or not quite harmonious – depends on your taste) and cause a feeling of happiness and euphoria. Even sad and gloomy music can raise your mood, provided that you like it, no matter how paradoxically it sounds (at least in my case).

But it is for relaxation, I personally use a smooth monotonous and slow sound, the so-called ambient musical style. For many, this kind of music may sound very tedious and boring, but that’s the whole point. Many other musical styles are characterized by an intense pressure of emotions in compositions, a fast rhythm and tempo, a sharp change in the shades of mood. All this, though able to entertain you and give pleasure, but in my opinion, relaxation is not always conducive to the fact that such music bombard your brain with an abundance of notes and musical intonations.

If you are tired and want to relax, it is better to listen to something more contemplative and “enveloping”, maybe in the beginning this music will not be like, but at least you will rest. An example of compositions from the ambient genre can be listened to in the audio recordings of my group in contact, you just need to join it (you should see a link to it on the right of the site) and click on play, having previously assumed a reclining position in a comfortable pose. At the same time, try to relax and “stand” at least 20 minutes, try to forget about all the problems and do not think about anything, “dissolve” in the music.

Tip 6 – Contemplative exercises during walks

To relieve stress you can walk a little and breathe. It is better to choose a calm and quiet place, for example, a park. Avoid hype and a large crowd of people. During the walk, again, try to relax, get rid of thoughts, look around, look your eyes out , and not inside yourself and your problems. Contemplative exercises are good for calming. Sit down on the bench and look at the tree, peer at every bend, try to keep your attention for a certain amount of time. This is a subtype of meditation practice, which you can do at any time, even at lunchtime at work.

When walking pace of the pace – slow, do not run anywhere and do not rush. You can combine with the sport, take a walk, breathe, reached the tourniquets and bars – hanging tightened and stress, no matter how it happened!

If such walks cause a sense of boredom, then we must get rid of it!

Tip 7 – Begin to relax on the road after work

By myself I know that even if the day did not turn out to be particularly heavy in terms of nervous load, it’s still the way home can greatly teduce or spoil the mood. Many do not know how to reduce stress after workand continue to accumulate it on the way home. Therefore, already on the road, start disabling thoughts about work and current problems, abstract from what is happening, do not yield to the general malice and nervousness, the atmosphere of which, as a rule, reigns in public transport and on the roads. Be calm, try to suppress within yourself those impulses that lead to the fact that you begin to be angry with someone and swear at the rumor or to yourself. Since all this negativity can bring the finishing touches to your evening picture of stress and tension and finally exhaust you. Let them get angry and nervous at the expense of themselves, but not you!

Tip 8 – Stress is easier to prevent than to take off!

Here is the golden rule that you must learn. In order not to have to get rid of stress by any lethal means like tablets or alcohol, it is better to minimize its manifestations during the whole day, beginning in the morning. How can this be done and can it be done at all? In order to find out, first let’s talk about what stress is and how it accumulates in you.

The nature of stress

First, briefly about what stress is. Here there is one principal moment. It is erroneous to perceive stress as a phenomenon of an external order. It is wrong to think that it creates a stressful situation. It arises within us as a reaction to external circumstances, which we perceive as stressful . Do you feel the difference? It means that the stress depends on us, on our reaction, this explains why all people react differently to the same things: someone from one unfriendly gaze of a passer-by can fall into depression and the other keeps an iron calm, when everything is falling apart.

Proceeding from this, one very important conclusion arises, which is how much we got stress depends more on ourselves than on what happened to us. This is a principled position. It turns out that although external circumstances can not always be adjusted for reasons of our comfort and balance (it is not always possible to find less stressful work or to leave the city in a quieter place, not for everyone it seems possible), but you can always change your perception of what is happening, so that it does not give rise to nervous tension in us. And this is all real.

How to minimize the daily manifestation of stress

To this question, I have already partially answered in my advice: meditate, it can reduce your sensitivity to external stress factors to a minimum level. Also, do sports and spend more time on the air, this will strengthen your nervous system. If the latter is lazy, then start at least with meditation, this is necessary in the event that you want to become more calm and less prone to stress! Do not remove stress with alcohol , it will only harm your nervous system, so that mental fatigue will accumulate only faster in the aftermath!

Also you can read my article about how to stop being nervous . Since the less nervous you are, the less tension accumulates. It is better for you to take advantage of the lessons that are given in this article, especially pay attention to breathing exercises, their application just refers to the answer to the question of how to quickly relieve stress without spending a lot of time.

And now, a few more tips

Well, and finally, something else is very important. Be calm and unruffled. Remember that much of what is happening to you every day: business at work, the reaction of others around you, occasional conflicts – it’s all nonsense!

Work is nonsense

Work is just a way to get money, do not take it seriously. (This does not mean that you do not need to approach it responsibly, it means that you need to determine the place in your life for it, and not allow it to go beyond the boundaries of the area where you localized it). Your failures at work can not always be identified with personal failures: there is often a huge gap between a person and his profession, so if you are not doing something at work, it does not mean that you are a worthless person (of course many companies try to form in their employees the opposite opinion: they are not you it is good that the employee ceased to identify with his work and so philosophically treated his failures, they want to see that you perceive corporate goals as personal goals).

Human relations are nothing

All relationships with outsiders, intrigues – this is also nonsense and trifles that are not worth paying attention to. What others think about you, your colleagues are their personal business and their perception of you, besides it can be distorted by the personality of the perceiver. Less worry about what other people around you think about you .

You should not harass yourself and someone to prove something for the sake of the principle, because you still can not prove anything, everyone will remain at their own, the only thing that will receive is a large portion of the negative. Some kind of bad economy! Do not take part in squabbles and disassemblies , where everyone does nothing but stick out his ego, his beliefs, his character. These are not the disputes in which truth is born , it is disputes for the sake of the dispute itself!

Try to behave so that the negative of other people does not cling to you : smile on rudeness. This is not a call to turn your left cheek when you are hit on the right. Still, it’s quite good to put people in their place in certain situations and not let them treat you as they please.

This advice relates to the fact that you do not need to take part in a meaningless abuse and clarification of the relationship in response to rudeness in transport, at work or on the street from colleagues, drivers, casual passers-by, etc. In those situations from which you can come out with a smile , keeping a good mood and not getting soiled by someone else’s dirt and at the same time not losing your positions do so (go out with a smile – the winner!), and do not waste your energy for someone to prove something.

In short, if a colleague is systematically rude to you, you need to tactfully put him in place and no longer have to find out the relationship, but do not swear at all the cleaners, guards and other heads of the barriers that you see the first and last time. Judge by the situation.

Smile more!

And in general, smile more often! . A smile is a magical thing! It can disarm anyone and discourage him from sending negative waves to you. Believe me, if you need something from someone to achieve, with the exception of some special cases, “arrivals” on the person will not have such an effect as a symbol of benevolence – a smile. In response to “hitting” a person turns on a defensive reaction and he starts responding to you the same, even if he knows that you are right, he simply can not do it differently, since he is insulted and forced to defend himself. Negative causes only negative!

But at the same time, you yourself, with indulgence, refer to people overflowing with tension and negativity, who do not know how to
restrain their emotions and control the situation: they do not have to respond with an immediate rebuff to their abuse and assaults. I have already mentioned this, if the situation can be solved without quarrels, then try to promote this. Smile at swearing and ignore it where possible. Let your thoughts do not occupy any small disassembly.

That’s probably all. In the next article, I’ll write about why you should not drink alcohol or soothing pills to relieve stress and tension.