How to Relax in Under 5 Minutes
All individuals are prone to stress. When it hits, it helps to have a go-to bank of quick-acting tools for relaxation. While a primary objective of learning how to relax is obviously feeling better, there are important benefits for your overall health and well-being too. When you know how to relax your mind, you are able to think more clearly under pressure, better resist future stressors, have a more positive outlook and healthier body, and even reduce your long-term risk of related health problems, such as chronic illness or heart disease.
If you want to learn how to relax in five minutes or less, give the suggestions below a try.
Find Some Alone Time
If you are with company, taking time out to manage your feelings alone can be a helpful first step. When you feel overwhelmed with stress, don’t be afraid to seek out some space away from others. That could be finding an empty conference room in the office or simply excusing yourself to use the restroom in social settings. Thereafter, you can give yourself a few minutes to simply close your eyes, try some deep breathing with a focus on long exhales, listen to a short meditation via a wellness app, or splash some cold water on your face or wrists.
Don’t be Fooled by Faux Relaxation
Be honest about the effects of certain behaviors when exploring how to relax. You may turn to activities that appear to be relaxing but leave you worse off overall, such as ticking away time passively watching TV, blowing off steam with substance abuse, or mindlessly scrolling through social media.
Take a Tech Break
In fact, temporarily stepping away from tech can be one of the more powerful tools for relaxation, even if only practiced briefly. Turning off email and app notifications, skipping TV in favor of reading a book, or staying off your phone an hour before bedtime can help you feel more relaxed overall.
Get Your To-Do List Under Control
It can be hard to know how to relax if you aren’t clear on what you need to do next. Avoid stress getting the better of you by creating a realistic and prioritized to-do list. Having a clear grasp of what tasks there are at hand can quickly help you feel more in control and stop you from spiraling into a state of stress.
Keep Relaxing Snacks on Hand
Snacking on certain foods can serve as one of your tools for relaxation when stress hits. Explore ingredients with anxiety-busting properties, such as chocolate, honey, green tea, and more.
Put Your Head Below Your Heart
Keeping your head below your heart has a restorative effect on the autonomic nervous system (ANS). If you need to know how to relax your mind and body quickly, place your head between your knees or stand with your head and arms hanging towards your toes. This will help diminish your body’s fight-or-flight response to stress.
Try an Express Massage
Massage is recognized as a way to counteract stress. Even briefly massaging a small part of the body such as the hands can have a relaxing effect. Rub your favorite cream into both hands, then slowly massage every joint as well as the webbing between each finger. You can also try clenching and releasing your fists, then flexing your wrists. If your neck is tight, try some acupressure: press your fingers firmly into the two divots where your neck muscles attach to your skull and hold for 15 seconds.
Squeeze a Stress Ball
Just as the name implies, a stress ball can help you manage angry or anxious emotions by squeezing it. Add this into your office arsenal of tools for relaxation so you always have it on hand when you need to figure out how to relax fast.
Put Your Feet Up
Yoga’s “legs up the wall” pose sends immediate rest signals to the brain, activating the body’s “rest and digest” parasympathetic nervous system response. This helps to slow your heart rate, decrease blood pressure and relax the mind and body in a short amount of time.
Hit Reset
Abruptly changing your environment or train of thought is a quick and effective way to help you relax. There are a number of ways to do this: blast loud music in your ears, move into another room, step outside, stand up, perform a few jumping Jacks, listen to a 5-minute ted talk, do a crossword, or smell something strong and pleasant.
Figuring out how to relax your mind quickly is personal – the same tools for relaxation don’t work for everyone. Experiment with a few of the suggestions above and observe what happens in your body as you do. The good news is that learning how to relax with these techniques is low cost, poses little risk, and can be practiced almost anywhere.
8 Strategies for Quick Stress Relief
Society’s stress levels are on the rise, which can keep us from feeling and performing at our best. Not only that: chronic stress also puts us at a higher risk of both mental and physical health problems. There are many tried and tested ways to manage stress, including yoga and meditation, exercise, medication and therapy, to name a few.
However, we aren’t always afforded time to address our stress and need solutions that offer some instant relief. The quick stress relief tips outlined below can help you to stay calm, focused and constructive when you need to take immediate action against stress.
Addressing stress is not a one-size-fits-all solution; you may need to experiment with different techniques and ways to relieve stress to find what works best for you.
Recognize that You’re Stressed
It may seem obvious, but sometimes our stress levels have us running on autopilot and we don’t pause to notice that we’re in a stressed state. Taking a moment to observe ourselves is the first step towards quick stress relief. Look out for tense muscles, a tight stomach, clenched hands or jaw and shallow breathing.
Take 10
Taking regular breaks throughout the day is one of the simpler ways to relieve stress quickly – temporarily resting the mind, shifting our focus and giving the central nervous system a chance to calm down. Breaks as short as 10 minutes have been shown to both provide quick stress relief as well as improve mental health.
Recruit Your Senses
One of the most effective ways to relieve stress in live time is to engage the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste or smell. The senses that have the most beneficial effects will differ person-to-person, so take some time to explore which sensory experiences work best for you. Recruiting sight could include using plants or flowers to brighten up your work space, surrounding yourself with colors that positively stimulate you, or keeping photos of loved ones or happy memories close at hand. Glancing at these in stressful times can have an instantly soothing effect.
Garnering quick stress relief from smell could include lighting a scented candle, using essential oil diffusers or roll-ons, or spritzing your favorite perfume or cologne. Cuddling a pet, massaging your hands or neck, or rolling your feet over a golf ball are different ways to incorporate touch into your quick stress relief strategy. Recruiting sound could include listening to your favorite music or playlists specifically designed to help relax you (such as whale or ocean sounds or binaural beats), or enhancing your work space with wind chimes or a water fountain. When it comes to taste, dark chocolate has been shown to regulate levels of cortisol (our stress hormone), while eating crunchy raw vegetables has a calming effect by creating sensations that draw you out of the mind and into the present.
Chew Gum
Ironically associated with a more casual attitude, chewing gum may help to lower your anxiety or ease stress. Some schools of thought believe the benefits of this quick stress relief strategy come from enhanced blood flow to the brain, while others think it’s engaging the senses with smell, taste and movement that helps you to relax.
Keep Smiling
It turns out the old adage that suggests we “grin and bear it” may in fact be a helpful strategy for quick stress relief. A genuine smile that recruits the muscles around your eyes and mouth has been shown to help reduce the body’s stress responses, regardless of whether or not the smiler feels happy. Once a short-term stressful situation has ended, smiling can also help return your heart rate to normal quicker.
Reboot Your Breathing
The breath is closely linked to our state of wellbeing or stress. Slowing, deepening and regulating the breath during periods of stress can curb the body’s “fight or flight” response, helping you to relax. Try taking deep inhales followed by slow exhales of equal or longer length while mentally or verbally repeating a word or mantra that calms you, such as “relax” or “I am safe”. You could also try yogic pranayama breathing which involves inhaling through one nostril then exhaling out the other.
Write it Down
Jotting down thoughts and feelings can be a powerful emotional outlet and one of the more accessible ways to relieve stress quickly. Regardless of whether you prefer paper and pen or typing on your phone or laptop, channeling your thoughts this way may serve not only as a form of quick stress relief, but as a gatekeeper of your reactions to others as well.
Drip Cold Water on Your Wrists
There are major arteries right underneath the skin of both the wrists and the earlobes. Dropping cold water onto these areas can serve as an effective strategy for quick stress relief.
Hopefully a few of the quick stress relief strategies listed above help you to keep calm in challenging situations. It is important to reach out to a healthcare provider if stress is affecting your daily functioning, impacting your physical or mental health or generating new or unusual symptoms.
How to Manage Stress with The 4 A’s
While stress is a part of being human, it’s arguable that today’s fast paced and complex work and home environments have peaked society’s stress levels higher than ever. Learning how to manage stress can help you balance your life better – finding time for work, relationships, leisure and fun and building resilience to hold up better under pressure.
If you are wanting to learn how to manage stress, one of the common ways to reduce stress is to practice the four A’s of stress management: avoid, alter, adapt or accept.
Avoiding Unnecessary Stress
While avoidance is not always a healthy strategy when exploring how to manage stress, there are many unnecessary stressors that can be eliminated simply through avoidance. This could include saying “no” to commitments in your professional or personal life that are going to push you beyond your limits, or reducing the time you spend with individuals who add stress to your life.
Learning how to manage stress through avoidance could also include taking control of your environment: avoiding traveling in peak traffic, switching off the news, or opting for shopping online rather than facing busy and time-consuming stores. This strategy also extends to certain subject matter that upsets you. If you find yourself constantly arguing with a relative over religion or politics, cross those subjects off the conversation list, stick to your game plan when you’re tempted to reengage, and leave the conversation if the topic arises.
Avoidance also extends to extra items on your to-do list. One of the simpler ways to reduce stress includes taking an in-depth look at your list of responsibilities and daily tasks, and getting honest about which items you could put off or eliminate entirely.
Altering Certain Situations
Since we aren’t always able to avoid the things that stress us out, learning how to manage stress may involve making changes in certain situations rather than avoiding them entirely. This could include altering how you respond in specific circumstances i.e. choosing to communicate your concerns with someone who is bothering you versus bottling them up and building resentment. On the contrary, altering a situation could include you choosing to compromise e.g. ceding a third point in an argument if your first two have been accepted. Taking control of your behavior – perhaps by being more assertive or prioritizing work/life balance is another way to alter situations to help reduce stress.
Adapting in the Face of Stress
It is difficult to know how to manage stress if there is no way to change any element of a stressor you are faced with. In these instances, you could try changing your perspective instead. Adapting to circumstances you can’t control might serve you better in the long run. Reframing problems may find you tuning into your favorite podcast during a traffic jam, or realizing that that argument with a stranger will be meaningless in a week’s time. Practicing gratitude is another one of the healthy ways to reduce stress helping you put certain issues into perspective and bring those things you appreciate most into the foreground of your focus.
Adapting to certain stressors may require adjusting your standards as well. If you are a natural perfectionist, being okay with “good enough” may be an important part of learning how to manage your stress better.
Accepting Unchangeable Circumstances
Sometimes, stress is unavoidable, as is the case with a serious illness, a natural disaster or the death of a loved one. While it can be more difficult than it sounds, accepting a tough situation is one of the most powerful ways to reduce stress. Acceptance also requires relinquishing control over the uncontrollable. Relationships and human interactions are primary sources of stress, probably because the behavior of other people is beyond our control. While we aren’t in the driver’s seat when it comes to what others might say or do, we do get to choose how we react.
As hard as it may seem to do in the moment, choosing to look at challenges as opportunities for growth is a powerful strategy for learning how to manage stress. Expressing what you’re going through can also be one of the more helpful ways to reduce stress when there is nothing else within your control. Regularly talking to a trusted friend or therapist may become a helpful habit to build when learning how to manage stress.
It can be difficult to know how to manage stress. If you are feeling overwhelmed, using alcohol or drugs to cope, or having thoughts about hurting yourself, it’s time to seek the help of a healthcare provider. There are a number of different strategies to help you learn how to manage your stress, including medication and natural remedies, such as meditation.
What is Stress? A Closer Look
Thanks to its emerging presence in daily life, stress has become a modern day buzzword with mostly negative connotations. With its prevalence on the rise, you may find yourself thinking, “What is stress, exactly?” In short bursts, stress can be useful, helping you avoid danger or concentrate on an important deadline. But ongoing stress may be harmful to your health and wellbeing, causing physical ailments such as high blood pressure or heart disease, as well as emotional issues, such as anxiety or unhappiness.
Understanding what causes stress and how it affects you can help with managing it better.
What is Stress?
Stress is the body’s reaction to a challenge or demand. It refers to feelings of emotional or physical tension, and sources of stress could include any thoughts or events that generate feelings of frustration, anger, apprehension or nervousness.
How Long Does Stress Last?
When asking a healthcare practitioner “What is stress?” they may refer to both acute and chronic forms of stress.
Acute: This type of stress occurs within a few minutes or hours of a certain event. It is usually intense and lasts for a short period of time.
Chronic: This type of stress lasts for longer periods of time or may keep recurring. If you are regularly under a lot of pressure or find daily life difficult, this is what stress type you may be experiencing.
Is Stress Normal?
When considering the question, “What is stress?” you may be wondering what stress experiences constitute as normal. Stress is fundamentally a normal human reaction that everyone has from time to time. The human body has been designed to tolerate stress and react to it accordingly. Small amounts of stress can be positive, helping us to complete tasks or feel more energized. However, stress can become problematic when it is very intense or symptoms are ongoing.
There are two commonly acknowledged categories of stress: eustress and distress. Eustress refers to stress that has a positive effect on you, helping energize and motivate you towards making a change. Certain stress responses can help your body to adjust to new situations, or alert you to danger to help you stay safe. Distress, on the other hand, refers to stress that has a negative impact on your wellbeing. This type of stress is usually intense or persistent with no relief.
What Causes Stress?
A natural follow-up question to “What is stress?” is “What causes stress?” There are many circumstances that may contribute to stress, whether it is one larger event or a build-up of smaller issues. Pinpointing what stressors are troubling you may therefore be difficult.
Some contributors may include:
- Feeling under a lot of pressure
- Facing big changes in your life e.g. divorce or bereavement
- Not feeling as if you have control over certain situations
- Having overwhelming responsibilities
- Worrying about things/something
- Experiencing periods of uncertainty
- Not having enough activities, work or change in your life
What Stress Responses Does the Body Have?
When taking a closer look at what stress is, we need to observe the autonomic nervous system. This is responsible for controlling functions such as your breathing, heart rate and changes in vision. It has a built-in “fight or flight” response that helps the body handle stressful situations. This response is helpful when activated appropriately for short periods of time. However, prolonged activation can lead to wear and tear on the body. And the hormones that the body produces to react to stress may result in negative emotional, behavioral and physical stress symptoms.
Physical stress symptoms include:
- Chest pain
- Racing heart
- Trouble breathing
- Aches and pains
- Exhaustion or difficulty sleeping
- Blurred vision or sore eyes
- Shaking or trembling
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Sexual issues
- Indigestion or heart burn
- Digestive problems
- Jaw clenching or muscle tension
- High blood pressure
- Feeling sick or nauseous
- Changes to your menstrual cycle
- Sweating
- Rashes or itchy skin
- Sudden weight loss or gain
- A weakened immune system
- Exacerbation of existing physical conditions
- Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (“broken heart” syndrome)
Emotional stress responses may include:
- Irritability or impatience
- Anxiety or depression
- Panic attacks
- Feelings of overwhelm
- Nervousness and fear
- Racing thoughts
- Indecision
- Lack of concentration or brain fog
- Nail biting
- General disinterest in life
- Low sex drive
- Restlessness
- Crying or feeling tearful
- A lack of humor
- Worry and tension
- A sense of dread
- Exacerbation of existing mental conditions
- Suicidal thoughts
And behavioral symptoms of stress may include:
- Alcohol abuse
- Gambling
- Overeating or developing an eating disorder
- Compulsive sex, shopping or internet browsing
- Smoking or drug abuse
- Lack of exercise or over-exercising
- Withdrawing from social interactions
When seeking to gain a better understanding of what stress is, it’s important to understand that short patches of stress are normal, but long-term stressors can lead to the emotional, behavioral and physical stress symptoms described above. There are different strategies to help you manage your stress better, including medication, certain products or lifestyle changes, but you should reach out to your doctor if you are feeling overwhelmed by your symptoms.