What has you up at night? The economy? Family? Jobs? Health care? Ebola?
Many of those things are outside of our control, and worrying just compounds the grief.
How do you stop?
While exercise is a commonly prescribed cure for easing your worries, because it releases feel-good hormones, you don’t have to break a sweat to calm your fears.
Here are some other ways you can take to take your mind off of your troubles…
CHANGE YOUR BEDTIME
If you like to stay up late at night, you might be feeding your inner worrier. Going to to bed very late and sleeping for short amounts of time can make you more overwhelmed with negative thoughts than those who keep more regular sleeping hours. You tend to worry about the future and dwell over past events, and this can cause higher risk of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Making sure that sleep is obtained during the right time of day may be an inexpensive and easily disseminable intervention for individuals who are bothered by intrusive thoughts
SMELL A GRAPEFRUIT
Breathing in certain aromas can help reduce stress. It may also help improve tension, worry, and demands.
One of the essential oils is grapefruit, which
is refreshing and revitalising, and can help boost the body’s feelings of energy and happiness.
BREATHE SLOWLY
Deep breathing, also called yoga breathing, is known to lower stress and anxiety. To use when you are feeling upset.
First, exhale completely through your mouth, then inhale through your nose for a count of four. Hold your breath for seven seconds, then exhale through your mouth for a count of eight. It’s not possible to breathe deeply and be anxious at the same time, use the 4-7-8 breath technique at least twice a day or whenever you feel stressed.
EAT CHOCOLATE
While sweets can cause you to have a sugar high and crash, researchers have found that a little chocolate can be beneficial for worriers. Dark chocolate can help calm your nerves.
ENGAGE IN FOREST THERAPY
Walking in the woods and listening to the sounds of nature can reduce stress. This can lower stress hormone levels more compared with walking in an urban area.
WRITE DOWN YOUR WORRIES
Getting your emotions down on paper sounds like it could fuel anxieties, but the activity has the opposite effect. You reassess that situation so that you’re not as likely to worry about those situations because you’ve slain that beast.
TAKE UP KNITTING
Keeping your hands busy can help keep your mind off of worries. Keeping your hands and mind busy interferes with storing and encoding visual images, which explains why worry beads and knitting calm us down.
