Steps to Releasing Stress

Jan 21, 2022

Stress is a ubiquitous experience, and managing its effects is crucial for maintaining a healthy daily life. However, avoiding stress altogether is an impossible task, and expecting some degree of stress is appropriate to prepare effective coping strategies. Taking steps to release this stress not only helps to create a healthier daily routine but is also instrumental in avoiding destructive emotional buildup and unnecessary mental strain. Finding ways to release stress in a safe way is a learned skill, and taking time to develop effective stress relief strategies can reinforce the best and most personalized healthy routines. 

Identifying the Sources of Stress

Stress is incredibly common and has many different sources. While some may find that their stress stems from academic prospects, others may realize their workplace is filled with unique stressors, either due to difficult coworkers or a toxic work environment. Stress can also be formed from difficulties in relationships, whether an individual is trying to find new social outlets or is working to repair important relationships in their lives, creating minute and nuanced dynamics for each relationship with their own stresses and uncertainties. 

While these are just a couple of potential sources of stress, they are also some of the most common, and it is possible that one’s major stresses come from a combination of any of these factors or other personal aspects of one’s life. Finding the areas of one’s daily life that are more stressful than others is a crucial part of developing effective processing skills for releasing this stress. 

Talking with supports and using journaling techniques are both powerful ways to get a more objective view of how stress affects one’s daily life. Additionally, they provide an additional perspective on one’s feelings of stress, helping to identify the most stressful elements of one’s life and any effective or ineffective processing strategies. 

Identifying Physical Responses

Stress has both an emotional impact and physical ramifications on the body. Some indicators of stress include:

  • Chronic headaches
  • Hyperventilation
  • Irregular heartbeat
  • High blood pressure
  • Shaking
  • Chronic exhaustion
  • Insomnia
  • Stomachaches

Coupled with increased feelings of anxiety, depression, self-doubt, anger, frustration, and irritability, stress is an incredibly difficult thing to process. Identifying any of these symptoms can prompt each individual to look more closely at any potential sources of high stress, as well as analyze their regular stress relief practices to ensure they are effective or if they need to be amended. 

Employing Stress Relief Strategies

Finding a personalized way to relieve stress is essential, though not every person will find the same levels of success with the same strategies. Determining the practices that work best for each individual is important, and employing one’s collection of stress relief strategies is a personal testament to one’s dedication to their health. 

Getting Regular Exercise

Incorporating a regular exercise routine is a great way to tend to both one’s physical and mental health. Getting the body moving can process much of one’s pent-up energy, giving it a direction to flow and release itself from one’s body and mind. For some, exercise routines can be incorporated by going to the gym before work or after class. Others may enjoy the peace of their own home with home equipment or space, while others can experience this kind of release simply by going on a morning jog or walking with one’s dog. There are also video games dedicated to exercise and physical fitness, from Ubisoft’s Just Dance franchise to Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure, as well as numerous apps designed to help keep these active routines consistent and effective. 

Schedule Your Self-Care

Self-care can be difficult to come by, especially when one lives a fast-paced lifestyle. Between work, personal responsibilities, and just trying to get enough sleep, each day can already feel filled to the brim. If an individual is trying to fit in times for self-care reactively at the end of the day, it can often fall by the wayside. Scheduling it into one’s day, either in the morning, at lunch, or evening can help each individual ensure they are taking time for themselves. Turning one’s phone off after work and while watching a movie, listening to one’s favorite music, or working on a personal project or hobby can help reframe self-care not as a reward for other work, but as an equally important part of one’s day. 

Avoid Active Detriments

While each individual’s sources of stress will be unique, ensuring that one isn’t actively working against their own stress relief intentions is crucial. Turning off news outlets or push-through notifications on one’s phone can limit one’s exposure to negativity throughout the day, and eliminating things like caffeine from one’s diet can help to alleviate stress. Furthermore, efforts like this can also provide space for one’s practiced stress relief strategies to be even more effective. 

Stress is a difficult and common part of daily life, and having a safe way to process and navigate its effects is crucial to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. At Renaissance Ranch, we understand the need to relieve stress in all of its different forms and instead prioritize your continued mental and emotional health. If you are suffering from intense levels of stress and are coping with the destructive effects it can have on your life, we can help you today. Your time with us can be personalized to fit your unique situation, whether you are just beginning your journey towards a healthy future or are looking to continue processing stress after graduating from a dedicated recovery program. We also offer extensive online resources for you to explore how we can help you with your unique situation, as well as a comprehensive family program to help you and your family together. For more information, call us today at (301) 308-8898.