How to Handle Stress

Let’s face it, no matter what your day consists of, you likely encounter Stress on a regular basis.  Stress about mortgages, refinancing, money, kids, family, sleep, the list goes on and on!

And when you’re stressed out, your health and well-being take a HUGE hit.

In fact, medical research has established just how damaging stress can be. In addition to making you feel unhappy, anxious, and less energetic, stress also takes a toll on your physical health.

Research has shown a variety of physical health outcomes of stress, including increased risk for heart disease, a compromised immune system, increased blood pressure and cholesterol, and premature signs of aging.

But there’s a lot more you can do to Handle Stress than you may think. When it comes to fighting stress, I always like to return to the basics – diet and exercise.

Let’s look at my top tips for fighting stress…

How to Handle Stress – Change Your Diet!

Believe it or not, your diet is one of the biggest determining factors in how you Handle stress. At the most basic level, your diet provides you with the vitamins and nutrients needed to deal with your daily experiences. Here are some nutritional factors that are especially important for how to handle stress:

• B Vitamins – B Vitamins like B6 and B12 are absolutely critical for handling stress. The B Vitamins help maintain both your mental health and your energy level, so they’ll help you handle stressful encounters with ease. This is why I always recommend daily support with a Vitamin B Complex like NOW B-100.

• Antioxidants – Antioxidants help fight the physical signs of stress, including aging. Many foods contain high levels of antioxidants, including blueberries, acai berries, nuts like these NOW Almonds, and the super-antioxidant Magic Matcha Green Tea. Vitamin C is one of the most powerful antioxidants, so you may also want to consider a daily supplement like NOW C-1000.

• Omega-3 Fatty Acids – Healthy, monounsaturated fats help maintain mental functioning and reduce your body’s physiological reactions to stress, including reducing your blood pressure. You can get them in salmon, avocadoes, or in a natural fish oil supplement like Optimum Fish Oil Softgels.

How to Handle Stress – Get Moving!

Fundamentally speaking, the more you exercise, the less stressed out you’ll feel – and the more you’ll fight the physical effects of stress! Here are some simple tips for exercising in a stress-reducing way:

• Stretch – Stretching not only helps prevent injury following a hard workout, but it also helps improve your overall flexibility and physical wellbeing. By becoming more flexible, you’ll be less likely to feel those daily aches and pains that may result from stress. You’ll also look and feel younger! Check out this flexibility training routine.

• Train with Weights – Weight training is one of the best ways to improve your physical health overall, but lifting weights also improves your strength and confidence. These things can go a long way to help you handle stress. Combine it with cardio, and you’ll also release a ton of endorphins and “feel-good” hormones, which may make stress seem to disappear completely!   You can start off with this 10 Minute Core Challenge to Tone Your Abs. 

• Try Yoga – Yoga is a great way to improve your strength and flexibility, but it also involves a lot of relaxation techniques, like meditation. Meditation has been proven effective in reducing the impact daily stress. If making a class is difficult, try this Gaiam Yoga for Beginners Kit.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we really don’t need figure out a million ways on how to handle stress.  We can use the simple suggestions above to make a big difference in our emotional well-being. The best part is that we’ll look our best too!

Have any questions or feedback about how to handle stress? Please leave a comment below…

*Resources: PubMed