How to reduce stress and anxiety for women
Stress and anxiety are among the most common issues with mental health that also affect physical well-being. For women, these problems can be even more significant because of the many expectations and responsibilities they usually carry, including housework, childcare, and the care for elderly or incapacitated relatives, as well as the pressure to work and achieve things professionally. Over time, stress and anxiety can lead to anxiety disorders, contribute to depression and other mental health problems, and can also cause or worsen physical health issues, like hypertension or even diabetes. Considering this, it’s important to know how to reduce stress and bring down anxiety levels. By the way, you can also check another article on our site ‘5 Amazing Ways To Alleviate Stress At Work’
- Relaxation techniques
A very straightforward approach is to learn to employ relaxation techniques. A relaxation technique is meant to bring down stress at the moment and allow the person to breathe calmly and change their body’s experience of worry, nervousness, or other emotions. Relaxation techniques can be learned and practised by anyone and tend to target breathing and muscle tension.
A very simple way of practising relaxation involves focusing on one’s breathing. You can focus on how you inhale or exhale, try to breathe more deeply, or make sure you are breathing slowly. You can also count to four as you inhale and exhale. Repeating such exercise for a couple of minutes can make you feel more relaxed.
Another approach is to focus on muscle relaxation. This involves focusing on your muscles and tensing them, going through several muscle groups. As you tense them, inhale, and relax the muscle group as you exhale.
Relaxation techniques are quick and easy solutions to reduce stress at the moment. But they will not always be enough, as sometimes we might face a lot of anxiety and worry that feels overwhelming. You can also check out 11 ways to start your day with a positive attitude.
- Cognitive Reframing
Reframing is a cognitive technique that involves finding a new way of looking at what is happening to us. We might imagine that a person did something maliciously, for example, or even feel like the universe has it out for us because we did not get the chance we wanted. As a result, we can focus too much on the negatives and feel as if everything that happens around us is personal. In regards to any negative and unhelpful idea or attitude, reframing can help us reduce stress by focusing on the thoughts and beliefs that make us stressed.
How can you apply reframing? First, it involves considering alternative explanations rather than the negative ones. For example, if your partner has not replied to your texts, it can be that they are busy or left their phones for a bit. These are more positive and rational explanations than thinking that they are cheating or no longer care about replying, or are tired of the relationship.
Reframing can also help consider the positives. What are the good sides of a situation? What is the silver lining? What are the benefits? This helps reduce the stress associated with a negative perception of the world, others around you, and even yourself.
- Sustainable habits
Stress is also connected to habits. Some important ones that influence anxiety directly involve sleep, nutrition, and exercise. Often, we feel we need to minimize sleep or eat whatever is at hand. But not being well in this regard can make us experience stress a lot more intensely.
For women who are mothers especially, it is important to take a look at how their habits are organized. For example, do they get to sleep on a regular basis? Are they eating enough and drinking enough water? Are they moving and exercising? Often, a critical look at this set of habits will reveal an additional source of stress and something that is making people more anxious and worried.
It’s not always possible to get a full night’s sleep or eat properly. But if these become the norm rather than the exception, they have a continued effect on the well-being of the individual. In addition, they can make each stressful situation feel a lot more concerning, as well as increase the amount of anxiety a person experiences.
In regards to these habits, sleep plays a central role in reducing the amount of stress. A short nap can be a good way of reducing worry and recharging one’s batteries, but what is especially important is having good sleep habits and getting enough hours of sleep most nights.
Exercise can also serve as a way of reducing stress. A short routine or even a walk can help when you are feeling stressed and offer a healthy coping strategy. However, just like with sleep, it’s good to have a reliable exercise routine, as this is something that helps your physical health and also supports your mental health. Even a regular walk outside can make a world of difference to one’s physical well-being.
Nutrition also can add a lot to our resilience and ability to manage stress. It’s important to have a diet that helps and steer away from eating sweets or comfort food as the main way of coping with stress because of the undesirable side effects this can have.
- Reducing the workload
Sometimes, the stress and anxiety we feel are directly tied to how many things we have to do. Women especially are prone to taking on a lot of responsibilities and obligations that often add a lot to their workload. Therefore, it’s important to take a critical look at everything we are doing and see whether some things can be outsourced, delegated, dropped, reduced, or changed. For example, many find it easier to hire a cleaning service or reduce their expectations for cleanliness. While this is not always possible, sometimes an honest look can help identify several things that are less of a priority or can be outsourced without losing too much.
It’s important to remember that we cannot have an unlimited number of priorities. There will always be something that is less important because time and energy are not endless. So it’s fine to give up on what is less meaningful and take more time to relax.
I hope the above techniques would help to reduce stress and anxiety in your life. If you liked this post, please share it with your friends on social media.
The above is a guest post written by Swati, she is the co founder of https://betterauds.com
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
