Easy Ways to Relieve Stress at Home

Easy Ways to Relieve Stress at Home

While it is not uncommon to experience stress, possibly even on a daily basis, it is also possible to find relief. Here are some natural ways you can find relief from stress in the comfort of your own home.

Avoid These Unhealthy Methods

Before you start looking at the healthy ways to relieve stress at home, you should be first aware of the ways you should avoid helping with stress. While these habits might seem like they are helping, you are actually heightening your stress overall. Make sure you don’t turn to the following unhealthy coping mechanisms:

· Drinking alcohol

· Smoking cigarettes

· Binging on junk food

· Avoiding responsibilities

· Sleeping too much or not enough

· Turning to drugs or pills

· Making erratic or dangerous choices

· Keeping busy to avoid your problems

Move Your Body More

One excellent way to relieve your stress on a regular basis is by getting your body moving. This keeps your mind occupied, releases endorphins and serotonin in your brain, and can be a healthy way to distract yourself from your problems. Even if you are not accustomed to working out a lot, there are ways to ease into a new workout routine. If you have a swimming pool, you can start swimming laps just a few at a time, then increase it every day. You can start taking your dog for a longer walk during the day or dancing in the living room with your kids.

Try Meditation While it might seem difficult, meditation can be easy if you just give it a chance. It does take some practice, but before too long you will discover just how helpful it is. It not only helps to relieve stress, but can help with anxiety, depression,

and other problems you experience in your life. An easy way to start meditating is by using visualization. Sit in a quiet room with your body relaxed and your eyes closed. Just spend a few minutes trying to visualize something that calms you, such as a running creek or waves crashing in the ocean. All you think about is that scene and nothing else for those few minutes.

Take a Lavender Bath

Baths in general can be relaxing, but there are certain essential oils that can be very beneficial. Lavender is one of the best ones for relaxation and stress relief. All you need to do is add a few drops of lavender oil to your bath then enjoy the calm you feel. You can also try lavender bath salts or bubble bath for the same effect. 

Eric Dempsey

MS, Stress Management Coach

Dempseys Resolution Fitness

for 

The Chaplain Paul Voorhees Ministry

How Pets Can Help With Stress

We all know that pets are awesome. They are much more than animals. They become a part of the family. But we don't really pay attention to just how good pets are for you. Having pets provides you with a lot of emotional benefits beyond just enjoying having a cat or dog. They can also help you to relieve your stress levels and make you feel better and more positive on a daily basis. Consider these different ways having pets will help reduce your stress.

You Get Regular Exercise

This is more of a benefit to dogs, but other pets can also help you get exercise. When you have dogs, you need to take them outside to go potty and should preferably take them on at least one longer walk every day. This is really going to help with your overall amount of fitness, which can help reduce stress. Exercise gets your blood pumping and also happens to release endorphins, which are the happy chemicals in your brain. This is why you suddenly feel so much better after a good run. Even if you have cats or rabbits, you can play with them indoors and still get more exercise than you would have otherwise gotten.

They Provide Companionship

Pets will also provide the companionship you might be craving. If you live alone, it can be really hard on the psyche. Even people who don’t like to be in relationships or who tend to keep to themselves still get lonely when they are by themselves all the time. With a pet, you have constant companionship from a pet that is always there willing to offer you cuddles and play time. Different pets will offer different types of companionship, but it doesn’t matter what type of pet you have; having them is a great way to better their lives by giving them a stable home, while they help relieve your stress.

You Practice Responsibility

Having pets will also help you to practice responsibility, which believe it or not, can help with your stress levels. Perhaps you find that you focus so much of your time and energy on work and chores, that you are in need of something else to occupy your time. When there isn’t something that is keeping your mind off your relationship or work stress, it tends to overwhelm you. If you were to have pets, they would take up more of your time in order to take good care of them, so you in turn have more distractions.

Pets Offer Unconditional Love and Acceptance

Some people have emotional stress due to not being in a relationship or not having a lot of family around. If you recently moved across country for a new job, you may really be feeling that loneliness. Perhaps you just broke up with your girlfriend and you find that you are missing someone to love you unconditionally. A pet will always provide acceptance and unconditional love.

If you want to learn more about managing stress, go visit the new ministry page on Managing Stress.

Eric Dempsey

MS, NASM Fitness Nutrition Specialist

Dempseys Resolution Fitness

for

The Chaplain Paul Voorhees Ministry

The Top 13 Fat Burning Foods to fight Stress

STRESS!

It can be good or bad.

Your body doesn't acknowledge the difference.

It only sees change and a threat.

We all deal with it, and to cope we often turn to "comfort foods" that do nothing but pack on the pounds -- bad news for your waistline!

But did you know that you can actually burn fat while fighting stress when you choose the RIGHT foods?

It's true, and fortunately my trusted colleague Dr. Matt Roberson just wrote a brand new free report showing you the top 13 stress-busting, fat-burning foods.

And even better you can download it for free for the rest of the day today.

Get your free copy in just a few seconds here:

The Top 13 Fat-burning Foods to Fight Stress

Eric Dempsey
MS, NASM Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Dempseys Resolution Fitness

For

The Chaplain Paul Voorhees Ministry

Physical and Mental Signs of Stress

Physical and Mental Signs of Stress

Stress is so common and often a regular part of people’s lives that they don’t always realize when they are suffering from stress. There are both mental and physical signs of stress that you should be aware of.

Physical Changes

Your body can tell you a lot based on your ailments, and not just due to having a physical condition. It might also be telling you that you are too stressed out and that needs to be addressed. For example, if you notice that you can’t sleep well, you have more or less of an appetite than you used to, or you have been losing or gaining weight, those are physical signs of stress. You may also have skin changes like adult acne, intestinal problems, irregular menstrual cycles, or sexual dysfunction.

Emotional Signs

Your emotional state is very closely related to your level of stress, and is often what someone notices first when they are wondering if they have too much stress. You might feel overwhelmed and like you don’t have full control over your life, or you could have extremely low self-esteem and depression. If you find that you can’t emotionally handle others, you can’t quiet your mind’s racing thoughts, or you keep getting agitated with others, that might also be from a heightened stress level.

Behavioral Changes

You should also pay close attention to your behavior and how it might be changing from day to day. You may find that you are suddenly using substances to cover up the negative emotions or overwhelming mental state, such as smoking cigarettes, drinking more heavily, or experimenting with drugs. Lashing out at others, becoming angry, or procrastinating a lot could also be signs of stress. You may also be fidgeting or biting your nails, which are often associated with being stressed out.

Cognitive and Mental Symptoms

Cognitive signs are related to your mental state, which are sometimes confused with emotional symptoms, but can also be related to them. For example, if you suddenly have poor judgment and are making bad decisions at work or in your personal life, that might be related to your cognitive function. You could have racing thoughts, constant worrying and anxiety, or not being able to focus much on tasks. Stress can also cause poor memory and sudden disorganization where it wasn’t a problem previously in your life.

These are just some of the many signs of stress you may be exhibiting. If you are thinking or feeling anything strange, it is worth asking your doctor about. 

For the 

Chaplain Paul Voorhees Ministry

Eric Dempsey

MS, NESTA Certified Stress Management Coach

Dempseys Resolution Fitness

Identifying Stress Triggers

Stress is something everyone deals with, though each person usually has a different level of stress. In order to put a stop to yours, you need to figure out what is causing it. This is done by identifying the stress triggers, which might be situations, people, or events that lead you to feeling stressed out and anxious.

Journaling

A very common way to figure out what is causing you stress is by keeping a journal or diary. This is where you record all of your thoughts and feelings each day, then look back on it when you have a stressful day. You should be able to pinpoint people or situations that led to your increased stress on those days. Remember to look back on your journal entries often to try and find a pattern to discover what was causing your stress. It may be a co-worker you work with often, eating too much junk food and feeling guilt because you are on a diet, or personal issues leading to your stress.

Consider Your Physical Changes

Your body can also be showing signs of stress, even though you might not realize this is what is going on. For example, do you notice that after dealing with a certain person, you tend to get really bad headaches or muscle tension? This is your body's response to the stress that this particular person causes. You might also find that when you are having a bad day at work or your car breaks down, you suddenly have stomach aches or other digestion issues. These are other physical signs of the stress. When you know the physical signs of stress, you can then try to figure out what was going on just before you got those migraine headaches to figure out what was causing your stress.

Notice Your Behavioral Changes

You can also look at how your behavior changes and then narrow down why you think you are behaving in a different manner to figure out what is stressing you out. For example, if you are suddenly not sleeping very well or are sleeping too much, try to think about what was happening on those days of insomnia. You should be able to narrow it down to something that is causing you stress. Some other behavior changes to use when finding your stress triggers are anger or resentment towards others, lashing out, being irritable, eating more or less than you used to, or having changes in your work performance.

Once the critical stress triggers are identified, then you can devote time to truly working on managing, and controlling these triggers. It can be done. Do not ever lose hope!

Eric Dempsey
MS, NESTA Certified Stress Management Coach
Chaplain Paul Voorhees Ministry 

How to Manage Your Stress by Staying Organized

     Being organized may not seem like a powerful technique when it comes to reducing stress. After all, we mostly hear of methods like meditation, controlled breathing, visualization, etc. as being effective for managing stress. No one really talks about being neat and organized.

     Yet, keeping things simple and organized is one of the best ways to reduce irritation in your life. When you minimize irritation and microaggressions, you also help yourself to de-stress without realizing it.

     For example, if your desk at work is cluttered and you can’t find a document that you need, you’ll end up searching for it and wasting time and effort. If you can’t find it after a few minutes of searching, you’re going to lose patience and start getting irritable. It’s definitely going to stress you out.

     This applies to any area in your life. Can’t find your car keys just when you’re about to leave the house? That’s aggravating. Sat down on the chair to watch TV but the remote is nowhere in sight? Time to start cursing as you flip over the couch cushions. Open the fridge and pour yourself a glass of milk only to spit it out and gag because the milk is sour and has gone bad? That’s annoying and even mildly funny the following day.

     All these little stresses when repeated on a daily basis will lead to frazzled nerves and an irritable nature that gets triggered easily. All of these could have been avoided if you were organized. One of the best ways to reduce stress is to be neat and tidy. Like Benjamin Franklin once said, “A place for everything and everything in its place.”

Start Tidying

     Tidy up your home, your office, your desk, your everything. Whatever you use should be neat and organized. The Japanese are very strong believers in tidiness and their factories and offices are usually in impeccable order. Employees are expected to keep their desks neat and organized by following the 5S rule.

     That essentially means straightening up and only keeping what you need. This is known as decluttering. You’ll store whatever you need in its rightful place. You’ll clean up after yourself and strive to maintain this sense of order daily.

     If you can maintain this on a regular basis, you’ll find that your life becomes much easier. Like they say, organized people are just too lazy to look for things… and you won’t have to because you’ll know exactly where everything is.

     Imagine the amount of stress you won’t have to face from constantly looking for misplaced items. That in itself is good enough reason to get everything in order ASAP.

Keep a List or Backlog

     One of the biggest reasons that people feel overwhelmed is because they try to keep too many things in their head. Projects, family commitments, pending things that need to be done… and there’s so many things to do but not enough time to get them done.

     Mentally it all seems like too much to handle. The first thing to do is write down all that you need to do. Keep a list and add on to it whatever new issues crop up that need to be taken care of.

     Now you have a list of exactly what you need to do and it’ll seem more manageable. In your head, it all seems too much to handle. Once you have it on paper and you start checking off what you need to do, you’ll be more focused, less stressed and be amazed at how fast you complete your tasks.

Kaizen

     The Japanese have a practice known as ‘Kaizen’ which is just a way of saying continual improvement. What that means is that you constantly strive to be better at what you do by making small improvements over time.

     For example, if you’re about to go to bed and your living room is a little messy, you may wish to clean it up a little before you hit the sack. This will maintain the order in your house.

     If you have a ton of documents in your office that need a proper filing system, you could dedicate 15 minutes a day every day before you leave work to file your paperwork. Over time, you’ll have organized everything well. Some projects are time-consuming. By doing a little daily, you’ll be able to complete these massive tasks with relative ease.

     Apply the 3 tips above and get your life organized. Get the small stuff organized so that your energy is not sapped by little annoyances and you’ll be better able to handle the big stuff in life without getting overly stressed.

“Life is too complicated not to be orderly.” – Martha Stewart

Photo Credit: https://www.fastweb.com/student-life/articles/how-to-stay-organized-all-semester-long

Eric Dempsey

MS, Master Sergeant, 

US Army Retired.

Chaplain Paul Voorhees Ministry