Stress & How to Lower It

Posted under Health Guides. Updated 25 February 2022.
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You know when you’re stressed out – your body feels tired and your thoughts are spinning. It can also help to know why your body reacts that way, and what you can do about it. Our bodies are designed to handle calm situations, and also exciting or dangerous ones. When you’re in the middle of something scary or challenging, your body gets into a mode that’s better for handling the situation. This is a state of high energy and sharp senses, such as the way you feel when you’re playing a fun sport or doing really well on a test. However, when the situation turns into more than you can handle, that’s when you start to feel the effects of stress. It’s as if your body is shouting “Do something!”, and your brain is shouting back “I don’t know what to do!”

What is stress?

When you’re stressed, you feel changes in your body and your mind. Your heart beats faster, your blood pressure may go up, and your face may get flushed. Your muscles may tighten up, or you might feel anxious. You may feel rushed and confused, or forget things and you may feel sick to your stomach. You might also be irritable, and get into arguments with your family and friends.

What causes stress in our lives?

We live in an interesting, but also fast-paced world. There are lots of sources of stress, including:

• Homework and projects at school
• Family tension as you try to be more independent from your parents
• Pressure from friends to do risky things
• Tension with your boyfriend or girlfriend
• Difficult people in your life
• Upsetting news about disasters, war, or personal tragedy
• Media messages that lower your self-esteem
• Not getting enough sleep
• Chronic illness

What are the effects of stress?

A certain amount of stress is okay if it helps to motivate you to deal with a short term problem. For example; if you’re stressed about writing a paper for school, and your stress causes you to ask your teacher for advice, and you finish the paper, then your stress has done its job.

In the short term, stress can:

• Help you focus on a situation or solve a problem
• Tire you out
• Make you nervous or irritable

On the other hand, if you’re experiencing a lot of stress day after day, your body may start sending you warning signs that something’s really wrong. This kind of chronic stress can take a physical and mental toll on your body and mind.

Long term stress can put you at risk for health problems such as:

• Substance abuse
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Self-Injury
• Obesity and other eating problems
• Digestive problems
• Lower immunity to colds and other illnesses

These chronic problems are really your body’s way of telling you “Hey! I’m under way too much stress – something’s got to change!”

If you notice that you feel stressed just about every day, you should take some steps to (1) lessen the number of stressors in your life, and (2) try some techniques that will help you de-stress.

How can I lower my stress level?

Here are some ideas for different activities you can do to lower your stress. Pick a couple that look interesting to you, and try them out. If these ideas help you de-stress, you can include them in your daily or weekly routine. If not, you can try others on the list, or come up with a list of your own. Talk to your parents or another trusted adult about how they de-stress. They might have some good ideas you can try out.

Helpful Hint: Make a list of your favorite stress-reduction activities, and tape it where you’ll see it often, such as on the fridge, in your notebook, or on your computer screen. When you’re over-stressed, stop what you’re doing, pick one thing off the list, and do it!

Stress Reduction Activities

Simplify. You may feel like you’re not in control of everything that’s expected of you. It’s up to you to decide what you can do, and what you can’t. To help simplify your life, sit down and make a list of everything you feel you need to do. Then separate all the items on the list into these three sections:

• These can wait
• These should get done soon
• Do these TODAY

If you see that there’s just too much to do TODAY, you’ll have to cut down on some activities to make your schedule more manageable.

Exercise is a great way to lower your stress. While exercising, you can focus on what you’re doing with your body, which helps free your mind from other worries. Vigorous exercise also triggers the release of chemicals in your body called endorphins, which make you feel happier and more relaxed. You don’t have to be a super-athlete to exercise. Even something as basic as walking for half an hour can help you relax and improve your mood. Or, you can sign up for a class at your local YWCA or YMCA, such as dancing, volleyball, or swimming.

Yoga, Tai Chi, & Qigong. These types of movement use stretches and poses for flexibility, strength, concentration, and relaxation. Yoga emphasizes flexibility and strength, while Tai Chi and Qigong help with concentration, balance, and patience. You can do any of these exercises in a class at your local YWCA, dance center, or at home on a towel or mat. If you’re shy about taking a class, you can borrow a DVD out of the library, or find one on YouTube and try the movements at home.

Take a Break. Sometimes your tired brain is just craving a little time off from your busy day. Stop what you’re doing, and find a quiet spot where you can put your feet up. Drink some tea (without caffeine), or take a bath. Read a book or magazine, or even watch TV. These things sound so basic, you might think, “why bother?”, but when your body is relaxed, your stress level drops.

Meditation and Prayer offer you ways to calm, focus your thoughts, and feel more positive. Meditation involves sitting still in a quiet place, focusing your thoughts on your breath or on a slow chant, and trying to be aware of what is going on in the present moment, instead of stressing about the past or freaking out about the future. With prayer you focus on feeling connected to a higher spiritual power, and on wishes and hopes you may have for yourself or people you care about. You might like to contact your local church, temple, yoga center, or Buddhist center about a prayer or meditation group. If you’re shy about attending a group, you can borrow DVDs from the library or find instructions on YouTube about different meditation and prayer techniques.

Massage can work wonders on a stressed-out body. A gentle massage can untie knotted muscles, and make you feel relaxed all over. A professional massage can be expensive, but even a simple foot-rub or shoulder-rub from a good friend can take the edge off your stress – you can check out local massage schools to see if they offer discounted services.

Journaling. If you enjoy writing, this can be a good way to de-stress. Write down what’s been happening with you on a daily basis and how you feel. By writing your thoughts and feelings down on paper, you’ll likely feel less stressed.

Have a good cry. You may know that little kids get upset easily, cry and make a fuss, and then get over it quickly. This approach can work for you too. At the end of a stressful day, if you find yourself crying to a supportive friend, family member, or to your pillow, this can help you de-stress. In our culture we often try to convince people not to cry, as if it were a sign of weakness, but that’s really not true. If crying helps you communicate your frustration, vent your stress, and get some support, then there’s nothing wrong with a good cry every now and then.

Sleep. Teens in our culture are often sleep-deprived on a daily basis, and even just a few nights in a row of not-enough-sleep can make you feel irritable and nervous. You actually need more sleep at this time in your life (about 9 hours per night) than you will as an adult. Although your school schedule and social life make it difficult, try to put sleep at the top of your priority list, right up there with eating healthy foods.

Special note: Drugs, alcohol, or binge eating are extremely harmful ways to try to de-stress. These activities may seem to make you feel better in the very short term by numbing your senses, or making you feel silly or forgetful. However, they have destructive effects on your life and your health and are not worth the temporary quick fix they might seem to provide. If you find yourself turning repeatedly to these harmful activities, it’s time to seek counseling to help you deal more positively with your stress.

What should I do if I’m dealing with extreme stress?

Sometimes the stressors in your life are very serious. Some examples of extremely stressful situations are: being in a serious accident; being the victim of a crime or sexual abuse, or experiencing violence in your family life, including daily fighting, yelling, and hitting. These serious stressors can have lasting effects on the way your body and mind handle stress, and this can set you up for mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Here are some resources for coping with extreme stress:

• Parents or other trusted adults. If you feel that your stress is more than you can manage on your own, you should definitely seek help. Have an honest talk with a parent(s), guardian, or another trusted adult in your life. Be truthful about the stress you’re dealing with and the effect it’s having on you. Opening up to a caring adult can help you feel less alone, and that person can help you find ways to manage your stress.
• Counseling and medication.In addition to help from family members, counseling can be a great resource. It involves meeting with a professionally-trained person; a therapist, social worker, health care provider, or religious leader. This person can help you figure out the cause of your stress, how to minimize it, and how to learn techniques for handling stress in the future. Sometimes your health care provider will prescribe medicine to help you manage the symptoms of your stress, as they work with you on ways you can make your life less stressful.

Throughout your life it’s important to be aware of the signals coming from your body and your mind. If you realize that you’re getting stressed out, remember that you can do something about it now and in the future. However, if you feel that you just can’t manage your stress or that you’re having a hard time coping with something (and it lasts for up to two weeks or more) it’s important to talk with your health care provider.

If you’re concerned about stress, here’s a tip on how to bring it up with your provider: “I’ve been feeling really stressed out lately, what can help?”.

Tags: anxiety, meditation, stress

How to Reduce Stress for Men: 9 Science-Backed Ways (2023)

We live in a stressful age.

Well, at least that’s what we’re told, anyway. And we buy into that idea, don’t we?

Okay, sure, so the demands of work can be a little much sometimes. And there’s often not a lot to watch on Netflix, but we reckon as a generation we’ve got it pretty sweet.

That’s not to say that life isn’t a little stressful at times. Because it is. All we’re saying is this – in context? We don’t have it too bad. Waking up at 7am for work on a Tuesday morning with a slight hangover’s no fun…

But at least we don’t have to kill a bison for lunch, huh?

Historical context aside, it’s still important to deal with any stress or anxiety that we experience. If things are getting on top of you, it’s time to make a change. You’ve got to act.

Sit on them and minor irritants and stresses grow. You nurture them. It’s like you’re a bird and your stress is an egg.

How’s that for a lousy metaphor?

Still, we’re sticking with it. It turns out that playing video games is one of the best ways to alleviate stress in men. So we’re looking at it. And presenting you with nine other ways to smash those stress eggs of yours too…

Video Games

That’s right, a survey just conducted by those smart kids over at University College London has concluded that video games could be useful as a stress reliever for men.

Therapy comes in many forms, but for a lot of guys? Just sitting down to a game of Call of Duty is more than enough to straighten them out and let off a little steam. 29% of men, in fact.

It’s long been the common assumption amongst pretty much everyone that computer games have no real benefit other than to entertain teenagers. But it turns out they’re stress busters.

So get playing, y’all.

A Mood Influencing Wearable

Those exist? Yep. Like we said, our generation has got it pretty sweet guys.

Apollo is a discreet, science-backed wearable created by Apollo Neuroscience that’s built to train the body’s response to stress. It does this by emitting soft vibrations that influence your heart rate variability (HRV) and activate the parasympathetic nervous system.

This all works to restore balance in the body and leads to better sleep, focus, and energy production. While it doesn’t work miracles, we noticed it made a noticeable difference in dampening stress and changing our moods, especially when paired with other activities, like deep breathing.  

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And unlike other wearables, we really like that Apollo comes with a convenient clip that allows you to clip it to your clothing for discreet placement. 

A set-it-and-forget-it device that lets you turn the dial down on your stress is something we can get behind. Plus, you can wear it while you’re doing a few of the other stress-reducing activities on this list.

That’s a de-stressing double play. 

Talking to Pals

84% of the woman polled by the people behind the study said they’d talk to their friends if they were feeling down. Now, you might think that the number of men who answered similarly was drastically lower than that number, but it’s not.

74% of men quizzed by the research scientists would speak to their buddies if they began to suffer any kind of mental health issues. And that’s great news. A problem shared is a problem halved and all that.

It’s important not to keep stress, anxiety or depression to yourself. Sadly, suicide is now the biggest killer of men under 45.

Exercise

This one’s all down to your individual tastes. If you’re a gym-averse couch potato, you’re not going to feel a lot better on a running machine.

But if you’re pretty active and like to keep fit, it’s a top way to free yourself of stress. You produce endorphins (hormones proven to reduce pain and anxiety) when you exercise.

Comfort Eating

31% of guys, when they’re feeling blue, turn to food. Now, we’re not advocating binge eating or anything silly like that. Obviously. But if a dirty burger or huge pizza perks you up, go for it.

Get ordering. Doctor’s orders.

Arts & Crafts

You might think that arts and crafts are more for kids and bored housewives, but you’d be wrong. We all have a creative side and there’s plenty of evidence that points to a bit of painting or making stuff can make you feel a whole lot more positive.

Arts and crafts could also become the perfect hobby for you.

Try it, you might like it…

Self-Help Books

This guy up here isn’t fussed about reading his self-help book in public, but you might be a little more comfortable taking a little printed advice in the privacy of your own home.

A few hours and a handful of change? Maybe it’s worth a shot. 32% of men say they’d incorporate a self-help book into their coping strategy.

Prescription Medication

27% of men turn to prescription medication when things start getting too much. It’s not ideal, certainly. But if they help you keep on an even keel, in moderation – perhaps they’re the way forward.

Obviously only take what your doctor prescribes, though.

Meditation

A lot of chaps might scoff at the idea of sitting cross-legged and chanting as a way to relax, but hey – it’s worth a go, isn’t it? Meditation is something that’s helped people de-stress for thousands of years. Surely it’s worth at least trying. What, are you saying you know more than Buddha? You’re wiser than Buddha, huh?!

So there it is. Ten excellent starting points to getting that stress egg out of your life.

Time to relax…

Alright, still not cracking the egg? Give this post by Health Grinder a read for more ideas.

How to help a man relax and relieve stress: ways

18+

If your man has accumulated stress, it’s hard for both of you. Take care of him, and you will not only do a good deed to him, but also do a great service to yourself, because it is much more pleasant to be around a happy and calm person than with a nervous and irritable one. Here are some simple but effective ways to support your loved one in difficult times and help him return to a great mood.

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Helpful Hints

Antistress

relaxation

Foot massage

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1. Foot massage

You yourself know how pleasant it is, how wonderfully relaxing and how many acupuncture points there are on the foot.

Take a small terry cloth, soak it and heat it for a minute in the microwave (the main thing is to use only a damp cloth so as not to burn it and not ruin the microwave). Sit down and put the man’s feet on your knees. Wipe them with a warm damp cloth.

Now put some massage oil or body milk on your hand, take it by the ball of your foot with one hand, and begin to rotate your foot to relieve muscle tension. Then, with two thumbs, stretch the bottom of the foot from the bend to the balls of the fingers and back. Repeat this over and over again. Alternate kneading movements with strokes along the foot.

Finally, gently pull each finger. Then move on to the other leg. When you’re done, wipe your feet again with a warm, damp cloth.

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2. Delicious “comforters”

In the situation in which you usually want to curl up on the couch with a box of chocolates, a man will prefer something hot and satisfying. The simpler, the better. There is no need to invent deflope from palaba with kacius seeds as an anti-stress food. A good piece of meat with mashed potatoes or cutlets and pasta with gravy will completely warm the soul and cheer you up, and at the same time remind you of something cozy from childhood.

Serving for this occasion is also the most unpretentious: it is better to bring something tasty to the coffee table to the TV than to set the table and create an atmosphere of a “special occasion” that will only strain a person in a state of stress.

3. Wrap yourself in care

Of course, you are not his mother. But if he is so tired that he fell asleep right on the sofa or over the bedspread, and you undress him and wrap him in a blanket, then your loved one will feel your care through a dream and experience relief.

4. Turn on the music

Music is that rare energy channel through which even rather closed men connect with the world of emotions. It allows you to create the right mood and remember moments of happiness. Sit next to him, hold out your headphones and choose a tune that will make him smile. At the same time, you will show him that you know him well, since you are able to guess the melody that matches his mood.

5. This night is just for him

Does he usually try his best to make you feel good with him? The time has come to render him a favor in return. Tell him that he is always so good with you that today you just want to please him. Let him lie and enjoy, and nothing more is required of him.

6. Make his wake up sweet

Who knows what’s worse: the sound of a neighbor’s hammer on the weekend or your own alarm clock on a weekday. Make the awakening of your stressed-out beloved one pleasant. Turn off the alarm at the first sound and make him coffee. Waking up from the kisses of his beloved and the aroma of coffee will significantly reduce his stress level.

7. Sometimes it’s not shameful to be lazy

The attitude “nothing to sit, you have to force yourself to go somewhere” does not work when a person is overwhelmed and feels that the load of worries is about to crush him. Sometimes he just needs a Saturday in his pajamas in front of the TV.

If you feel that this is just such a case, arrange a Laziness Day. Spend the weekend in bed armed with good movies and something to snack on.

How to help a man relieve stress, cope with stress due to work, get out of depression, simple ways, advice from a psychologist

Psychology of relationships

He is exhausted, irritated, distracted, and perhaps even quick-tempered. And with the naked eye you can see that the weight of the whole world lies on his shoulders. You know that he loves you, but he has changed beyond recognition.

Photo

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Society teaches men not to show weakness to anyone, even you. And now you really miss him, because stress has changed him beyond recognition, destroyed the quality of his life. If left unattended, this process can actually be fatal. You really want to help him. Here are 9ways in which you can support your loved one and help them get rid of stress.

1. Determine the level of danger

Perhaps your man is in chronic stress, which takes a little longer to get out of than normal stress. Watch him. Here are the top seven signs of chronic stress.

• He constantly feels tired and irritable. You almost can’t remember when in the last six months he was energetic, relaxed and really enjoyed something in this life.

• He has exaggerated reactions to even small stimuli, whether it be a creaking door or a barking dog.

• He is forgetful and distracted. He can’t remember the plans you made, or even simple things like buying bread and milk on the way home.

• He is not focused, not motivated and not focused enough.

• He can’t sleep. He tosses and turns restlessly in bed all night. And when the alarm goes off, he can’t get up.

• He has serious libido problems.

• He is in physical pain, complains of neck and back pain. He has frequent headaches or indigestion.

Stress affects your man’s entire body and can cripple his immune system. This increases the risk of flu, colds, and can lead to heart attack, stroke, and even cancer. Not to mention, stress leads to poor decision making, irrational fears, and negative, aggressive behavior.

2. Add some love and health to your meals

Prepare healthy and nutritious meals for him. Avoid overly heavy meals or sugary desserts, which will negatively affect his already weakened body. Make him a fresh fruit smoothie instead of dessert. Don’t watch his food like you’re his mom, just start preparing food that will help his body function well during stressful times.

Photo

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3.

Take his hand and go for a walk together

Exercise is the best way to relieve stress, so keep him company to go outside and give your body some light exercise. This will help relieve stress and release energy, after which he will feel much better.

If he resists, try to persuade him. Just take your hand and say: “Darling, today is an amazing evening! Let’s enjoy it together outside!” Let him feel at ease and don’t put any pressure on him.

4. Cross a few items off his to-do list

Don’t overwhelm him with unnecessary requirements right now. It is better to offer him more rest and go to bed earlier. Lack of sleep increases stress levels. Create a good sleep environment by making sure the bedroom is dark and comfortable, and keep the TV and other electronic devices out of the bedroom that can interfere with healthy sleep. Set an example for him by going to bed earlier and invite him to join you.

5. Make him laugh more

Find a funny movie you can watch together. Laughter is the best stress reliever. Scientists at Stanford University studied the positive effects of laughter on the body. They concluded that 20 seconds of intense laughter doubled the heart rate in three to five minutes. This can be equated to three minutes of intense training! Laughter stimulates cardiovascular activity, so let your man laugh. This is good for his health and for your relationship.

6. Schedule a time to meet his friends

Surrounding ourselves with people who are positive thinkers makes us more positive too. Therefore, avoid complaining people who like to merge all the negativity, and take care of your man from them. Make a list of friends and families who cheer him up, and then make a plan for when you can spend time with these upbeat people.
Help your man get back into the circle of people who will remind him of what is really important in life.

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7.