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Top 3 Ways To Destress

Stress is the silent destroyer for many of us. It creeps into our life unexpected, burrows itself inside, and then refuses to leave despite all our best efforts. Nearly of us have experiences of chronic stress that nearly drove us crazy! Stress not only feels extremely unpleasant, but also has a myriad of unwanted side effects such as fatigue, pain, and a suppressed immune system. It therefore of the utmost importance to destress whenever you get the chance! Here are the top 3 ways to do so.

Getting Enough Sleep

Sleep deprivation is easily one of the most common and severe triggers for stress. Not getting enough sleep severely hinders the body’s natural balance of neurotransmitters and endorphins for focus, energy, and mood. This can easily result in not only fatigue, but chronic stress. The brain can only process and handle so much at a time, so when you don’t get enough sleep, your brain will become overloaded and unable to process the demands you’re putting on it. This results in high stress levels!

To offset these effects, it is imperative that you get enough sleep. While everybody has a different circadian rhythm and quantity of needed sleep, most experts recommend 6-8 hours of sleep a night. This will leave you feeling well-rested as well as giving your overworked brain ample time to return to its natural homeostasis.

 

Eat Right

Nutrition plays a very big role both in causing and preventing stress. If you are not eating a healthy and well-balanced diet, your body will begin to miss out on key vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. This will cause it to have an inadequate fuel supply for your daily needs, resulting in physical and mental stress that will make you spiral into a cycle of unhealthy living.

To prevent this, it’s important to get into the habit of eating right. The first step is to make sure you are consuming a proper balance of macronutrients (that is, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats). Consult with your general practitioner or even a nutritionist to help you figure how much of which macronutrients you should be eating a day. 

Learning to eat healthier isn’t always easy, but, in the end, your body and mind will thank you for the massive stress reduction!

 

Practice Mindfulness

Finally, a proven and effective way to destress is to practice mindfulness. Stress is often a result of impaired and distracted thinking which is a result of not living in the present moment. Mindfulness helps you stay in the ‘now’ and learn to keep your thoughts focused on where they belong. This has huge advantages for preventing excessive worrying and overthinking, both of which can be extreme triggers for stress.

A good way to practice mindfulness is to do breathing exercises. Basically, you just sit still and try to put 100% of your focus on counting your breaths. If you do this for 15-30 minutes a day, it won’t be long before you notice a massive level of stress relief!

It’s springtime! The wintertime freeze is thawing, the birds are chirping, and you may have the urge to open up your windows and let in some fresh air. Something about the season makes everything feel new, and it spurs on a frenzy of spring cleaning, especially the moment that ray of sunlight hits the room to reveal the layer of dust that has accumulated over the winter. Pace yourself. There is no need to take on the whole house for a spring-cleaning overhaul all in one fell swoop. Tackle one room at a time. A good place to make a clean start is in the room where you sleep. You will be able to venture outside to soak up the outdoor freshness in no time after you spring clean your bedroom like a pro with these helpful tips:

Make your bed an inviting, cozy, and clean place to spend the night – Before you begin to clean up the entire bedroom, get started by making sure the bedding is clean. Better yet, freshen up your bed with brand new bedding, a fluffy new comforter, a fresh set of sheets, and don’t forget to buy a new pillow. Even if you refresh your bed with new bedding, you may want to run them through the wash before you cozy up for the night. While you’re waiting for the wash to finish, move onto other corners of the room. Follow the instructions of the labels, and toss in some tennis balls into the dryer when you go to dry the pillows to fluff them up a bit.

Yes, we do windows – But, maybe just in the spring – While your bedding is being cleaned, begin cleaning the frame of your room with the walls and windows, and then move to the furnishings. Start dusting top to bottom so as not to knock dust on an already cleaned area. Remove curtains for cleaning. Dust the corners, and slip an old pillowcase over the ceiling fan blades to catch excess falling dust before it hits the bed below and then wipe the blades down with a damp cloth. If the lights have glass covers, remove them and soak them in the sink while you go about wiping down the walls and cleaning the windows with a water and vinegar mixture or your choice of glass cleaners. Don’t forget the window sills, light switches, and door knobs. Vacuum the outside cover and inside heating and air conditioning vents. For hard-to-reach spots, use vacuum extensions or a cotton mop with a long handle. Once you’re done with the frame of the room, move in to dust the furniture, doors, lamps and other bedroom accessories, and remove everything from dresser or nightstand tops to clean the surfaces before neatly returning knick-knacks to their decorative places. When all of the dusting is complete, finish off by vacuuming the mattress using special attachments to get into the seams and crevices, dust with baking soda to keep it fresh and then flip the mattress. Pillow top mattresses may do better to be flipped from head to toe rather than upside down. If you flip the downside up, repeat the vacuuming process for the underside that is now the top.

Closet and Storage Clean Out – Springtime is also a great time to go through your wardrobe and make sure it’s season ready and up to date in terms of fashion and size. If you haven’t worn something for months, or it no longer fits, it may be time to donate it to charity or sell it at a resell shop or online. Go through your closet, and create a box of items to get rid of and a pile of items to keep. Before you put the keep pile back onto hangars or tucked away in drawers, vaccum the entire closet and get into the crevices of the drawers. Wipe down closet shelves before returning the wanted clothing neatly back in place.

Bottom Line – Now it’s time to get to the bottom of things by cleaning the floors. Vacuum the closet floor thoroughly, and move around the bed and furnishings in the room. For wood floors, use any special attachments for your vacuum or sweep well and mop. Be sure to get into the corners well, and use a vacuum extension to get under the bed. For area rugs, vacuum or enjoy some fresh outside air by taking the rug outside to beat it. Sprinkle a little baking soda on the carpet to fresh it up, let it sit for a few minutes before vacuuming it up. Don’t forget the baseboards.

Now, your bedroom is tidy and clean from top to bottom and your bed is made with fresh, clean linens and a new fluffy pillow which will feel good after a hard day’s work of spring cleaning. What more could you hope for to start your spring off refreshed and ready to soak up some springtime air after a good night’s rest in a clean bedroom.

Oh that sound of the 6:00 alarm in the morning! It’s set to alert you that it’s time to wake up and face a bright new day and the promise of what lies ahead as the minutes tick into hours. But, oh how good it feels to reach over and tap snooze to grab just a few more minutes of sleep. You may have heard the saying, “You snooze, you lose,” but research has now shown that these words may be more than a snarky rhyming phrase that slips off the tongue in Dr. Seuss fashion. Hitting snooze actually has negative effects on your health, emotions, and psychological outlook. Here are five reasons why hitting snooze is a bad idea.

1. The snooze button disrupts healthy sleep

Healthy sleep comes in cycles that start with light sleep and moves into deep sleep. Deep sleep allows our bodies to refresh enough to heal, boost our immune system, strengthen bones and muscles, and regrow tissue. Deep sleep leads to Rapid Eye Movement, REM, when our brain is active and allows dreaming to take place. REM comes in stages, and a good night’s sleep includes several REM cycles with the first REM stage starting about an hour and a half after we have fallen asleep. Getting quality REM sleep the night before leads to clearer thinking the following day. Hitting snooze will disrupt a healthy sleep rhythm, throw off our thinking, and could lead to some very serious health issues.

2. Snoozing jolts and confuses your body

Our bodies go through sleep cycles and need to complete the full duration. For instance, if the cycle lasts for 45 minutes, and you hit snooze for 10 minutes, you’re going to jolt your body awake before the next sleep cycle is complete. This creates what is called sleep inertia, which basically means that you keep waking up in the middle of a REM cycle. If you don’t get quality REM sleep, you’re going to be left fatigued instead of rested. Our bodies begin the process of waking up about an hour and half before we actually open our eyes to face the day. This is why having a bedtime and waking time that your body gets used to is healthier than hitting snooze which will confuse your body as to whether you are attempting to wake up or stay asleep. This sleep inertia jolting leads to a feeling much like jet lag. The end result is that you will feel more groggy.

3. Procrastination starts with the tap of Snooze

Hitting snooze is about more than quality of sleep or how much sleep you’re getting and the physical effects on your body. It also effects emotional and psychological health. It’s really a form of procrastination, putting something off. You may think there’s no harm in hitting snooze and putting off waking up as long as possible, but what you are actually doing is dragging your feet and maybe even failing to plan your day which may be a warning sign that there are emotional and behavioral issues to deal with during waking hours that cause you to want to put off waking up to face them.

4. Hitting snooze sets a bad tone for the day

Does the sound of the alarm strike a feeling of dread about waking up to face the day? The way you wake up sets the tone for the entire day, but it goes even deeper than that. When you consistently hit snooze, your body subconsciously starts to react as if you are dreading waking up and may respond by producing excess stress hormone, cortisol, that will create inflammation and put unnecessary strain on your physical body. Wouldn’t it be better to set the alarm for five minutes later or go to bed five minutes earlier so that when the alarm sounds, it triggers more of a sense of ambition and anticipation for a new beginning and a good day ahead?

5. The snooze button is a lie that will backfire

The only real relief you get from hitting snooze is temporary at best. Ultimately, the snooze button’s promise is a lie. It teases with thoughts of a few more seconds of sleep making all of the difference in how tired you will feel once you get out of bed, and that bed does feel cozier in those early waking moments. But, it’s really a lie. By hitting snooze, you tell yourself that if you just can sneak in five or ten more minutes of precious sleep, you’ll be rested enough to face the day. However, the truth of it is that hitting snooze will actually make you feel groggier. Hitting snooze won’t add a few more minutes of deep, quality sleep. It really will most likely end up making you feel more irritated and ultimately more sleepy than if you had never hit snooze in the first place.