Manage stress and increase happiness and well-being with these top 5 stress-busting tips:
1. Move it
Not only does exercise release serotonin, a feel-good chemical which boosts your mood, makes you feel happier and helps you manage stress, it also improves health, preventing conditions such as diabetes and heart attacks.
Make sure you pick an activity that you like. Go for a walk, or a swim, or dance like nobody’s watching! Not only will you get the stress-relieving mood boost that comes with exercise, you’ll also have fun doing it.
2. Practise mindfulness
When you’re mindful, you focus your awareness on the present moment, observing your thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad.
Practising mindfulness alleviates a variety of mental and physical conditions, helping to manage stress, and reduce anxiety, depression and worry. It also helps improve focus and decision-making skills, and helps you sleep better.
3. Spend time with friends
Humans are social animals; we’re better as a tribe than as individuals. Our brains evolved to ensure our survival, and they operate best when we interact and connect with others. Social interaction changes the neurotransmitter and circuit activity in our brain, releasing serotonin, which helps us manage stress, decreases anxiety and depression, and promotes happiness, calm and a sense of well-being.
And of course, spending time with friends also helps us relax. We can have a good laugh with them, and laughter is an excellent stress-buster.
4. Focus on positive things
Solution focused hypnotherapy can help you focus on the positives in life. Thinking ‘positive’ produces patterns in the brain which gives us a constant flow of serotonin – a chemical in the brain responsible for maintaining mood balance and for contributing to our well-being and happiness.
Try and write down three good things about your day at the end of every day. This directs attention towards positive thoughts and away from negative thoughts, which will increase your happiness and well-being.
5. Get some sleep
A common cause of stress is lack of sleep. And ironically, stress can make it difficult to sleep.
If you are struggling with poor sleep (and 1 in 3 of us are), then its time to fix it before it becomes a chronic condition.
You can find resources free to download here, or you can find out more about my “Sleep Mastery SecretsTM” course which uniquely combines techniques from CBT-i – the first-line treatment recommended by professional organisations and GPs for insomnia – with solution focused hypnotherapy, a ground-breaking combination of hypnotherapy and psychotherapy, specifically designed to address the causes of stress and symptoms of stress.
Or feel free to get in touch directly.
Dr Marcelle Crinean, PhD, owner and director of Brain Reframe, is a highly qualified therapist, coach and lecturer.
In her busy practice, Marcelle successfully treats sleep and stress-related issues (including insomnia, anxiety and depression) as well as disordered eating, binge-eating and undereating. She regularly holds workshops and webinars, and trains business executives across the UK and Europe in the art of sleep and stress management.