Reduce Stress

3 Tips To Reduce Stress

by Nant Nissen4 min read

We know that stress is an ongoing and “normal part of life now”. We also know that how we handle stress is up to us. We have heard it all before.

It isn’t what happens to us, it’s how we deal with what happens to us.

Quite often, however, we need some tips to reduce stress immediately!

We need some relief from the sick feeling in our stomach, from the anxiety, the tight feeling in our chest, the lightheaded feeling, the stress headaches and the very serious fatigue that often comes with ongoing stress.

3 Tips To Reduce Stress Immediately

1. Crank up the tunes!

Music is an immediate state changer.

We all know what happens when a song comes on the radio and we feel more relaxed, we feel energised, we remember a great time etc and we change our state immediately as we hear the music.

Have a list of go-to songs that will help you to de-stress or state change immediately.

You can do this in the car, first thing in the morning, while you are at your desk or before bed.

Music is an incredibly underutilised tool that can be so beneficial as an immediate way to reduce stress.

2. Get your feet on the ground

The second of my tips to reduce stress immediately is to get your feet on grass or any natural substance.

I’ll always remember the day that I worked in a large corporate office.

Our office was directly across the road from a beautiful park. After a long time of fitting in with the rest of the office, eating at my desk while still working or rushing to get lunch from somewhere and rushing back to work, I found myself particularly stressed on this day.

On this day I took myself to the park at lunch, took off my shoes and sat with my feet on the grass while I ate.

It didn’t take long, but the benefits far outweighed any time or effort it took.

The benefits also outweighed any comments I received for doing this from my work colleagues who thought it was unusual and just ate at their desk while still working.

I came back looking and feeling more relaxed.

I know this, because as I walked back into my office, a colleague said “oh my goodness, what have you done, you look completely different”.

So when overly stressed, nature, connecting with nature and taking even just 10 minutes to yourself will be more beneficial to reducing your immediate stress than almost anything else.

Planting your feet on your ground can be a great way to immediately reduce your stress.

3. Practice Breathing

Most of us are incredibly shallow breathers.

We breathe from the very top of our lungs and over time develop a habit of short shallow breathing that not only causes our body stress in a physiological sense, but when stressed, we exacerbate this creating tight muscles around our chest, back and shoulders.

We can feel out of breath, dizzy and very unwell.

Having a breathing technique and habit that you practice daily will not only help your ongoing stress, but having a “Go-To” breathing that slows you down and allows you to relax back into your body when very stressed, will go a long way to helping you step away from the immediate stress feeling and towards and much more calm and in control feeling, able to respond to whatever it is that is needed.

Immediate Stress Reduction

Reducing stress immediately is just as important as long-term stress reduction.

Using both is the way to long term freedom from stress and the ability for us to deal with the events of life without the ill effects of short and long term stress.

Give these 3 tips to reduce stress immediately a go and see what suits you.

Find ways to help yourself with stress and watch how your energy, feelings and responses change. The time it takes to do the actions, are far outweighed by the benefits felt by doing them.