Stress. What is stress? Stress is a feeling hardwired into our bodies and surface when we are not able to cope up with particular demands and events. When we feel that we are under stress, our body is designed to release chemicals such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones are wonderful for shorter periods of time and can make you do wonders in a short amount of time, but in a longer period, not so much.
The stress hormones can affect your heart functioning and respiratory system. While you are in stress, your heart will start to beat faster and you will breathe faster so your body can distribute oxygen-filled blood to your body. Its primary effect is on your mental health.
Stress attacks can lead to problems such as depression, personality disorders, and anxiety, Insomnia, risk of heart attack, Alzheimer’s, etc. Feelings of clinginess are also very often in people with depression, they are unable to move from toxic people/relationships and lose control of their lives. Long periods of stress can even cause infertility in women and weakness in men.
Those who have depression have very weak immune systems and become prone to diseases, and lastly, they start to have lower interests in things they enjoy. Depression can also lead to death and suicide. More than 6% of men and 1% of women do suicide in the US because of depression and mood disorders.
Here are some tips and tricks that will make your mood better and help you in managing your mood swings and stress before they cause you serious harm. These tricks have made my mood better when I was stressed and it will make yours too, that is a guarantee.
Deep breathing
On number one we have a simple yet remarkably effective remedy for stress is deep breathing. Deep breathing is when you inhale for longer periods of time and hold the breath for 9 seconds and exhale slowly.
All the metabolic processes of your body are automatic. Such as the digestive system, or the blood circulation. The only thing on which we have a partial control on is Breathing. We can control the amount of air in our lungs by consciously inhaling and exhaling and that in turn improves the level of oxygen in our brain thus reducing the stress levels in our body. We can use it to our benefit and do deep breathing.
Deep breathing is also the core of Yoga because it slows down your blood flow, makes your body relaxed and fight with the stress hormone cortisol. It is present in almost every Yoga pose and Yoga is not complete without it.
Doing deep breathing every day 4-5 times will make you feel better/happier and will fight against stress and depression. People seldom understand its benefits and do not benefit from it. However, deep breathing is also very helpful in slowing the ageing process and boosts the immunity system which is reduced by extreme stress. It will increase the supply of oxygen that your brain gets and stimulate the nervous system, which will make you feel calmer. You only have to take 5-6 minutes out of you daily life to fight one of the biggest enemies of your body, can’t you do that?
Take a break
When the pressure level increases vehemently and you feel that you are unable to cope up with it, take a leave for some time from your office and go on a trip, meet new people, make new friends, visit new places, eat new foods. Do something that makes you happy.
These factors will eliminate the stress in your body and make you feel fresh and ready to start working again. Whenever you do not feel like working overtime but still are, ask yourself a question. “Is money more important or health?” As the old saying clearly mentions that Health is Wealth. One is nothing without health and all his cash will go on hospital cheques if he does not take care of his health.
Many billionaires who are literally rolling in cash cannot eat oily food, fried food, meat, and cannot travel because of health symptoms, so how does the cash help when they are unable to enjoy life?
Research shows that when you take a break, your mind gets more creative and you start to think the bigger picture more clearly. You will experience Satori. This is what Zen refers to sudden enlightenment that comes as a flash and you drop into cool, calm, bright infinite void and a controlled access to peace of mind. Moreover, these breaks will prevent your “decision fatigue”.
Working every day without break can lower down your efficiency and consume your willpower. You will work for longer periods of time and achieve only a small thing.
I myself am a big believer that whenever you feel like you are crossing the heath limit, take a break and freshen yourself up so you can start working again with full zeal and zest
Get good nutrition
When cortisol is present in your body for long periods of time, it eats away your nutrition and health problems are also start to occur. Getting obese or lose extreme weight is just another side problem that comes with stress and depression. And this obese weight leads to social humiliation and unhealthy living style.
So getting all your food groups right is very important for kicking away the mood swings out of your lives. Get all your proteins to remake you tissue and make your immunity stronger for future. Make sure to get your dairy to maintain a healthy blood pressure and Vitamin D. Do not forget to add carbs in your meal for they are your body’s main source of energy and fuel you brain, kidneys, heart, and muscles. Vegetables are also extremely essential because they provide your body with potassium, folic acid, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C.
Without these nutrients, severe health problems can occur in your body such as anemia and even bone cancers. Lastly, one of the main source for fiber and full of calories are fruits. They are cheap to buy, and have remarkable effects on the human body for the longer run. Novac Djokovic, the tennis star, once mentioned in an interview that the secret of his health is dates, which is basically a fruit filled with nutritional values and contains 67 Calories in a single date!
As the old saying suggests,” You are what you eat”. A study took place in University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of Granada. They found that the people who ate unhealthy or ate less were more likely to get depression 51% than those who ate healthy food! The link between fast food and depression is direct and confirmed by experts of this field. These unhealthy foods include fairy cakes, croissants, doughnuts, etc. and fast food (hamburgers, hot-dogs and pizza and eating them excessively will increase the risk of getting depression.
So make sure you get your food groups right and eat healthy food if you want your life to take a good turn and this clearly shows how good nutrition is very good for eliminating stress from your life, do give it a try. Surely you will benefit.
Write about it
Whenever you are feeling down or depressed, writing is the best thing you can do. Whenever you get negative thoughts, write it down in a rough page, or if you have a diary, that is better for it keeps all your thoughts and emotions in one place but even if you write it down on a spare page, not a big deal. This trick has helped me extremely.
I write more than 4000 words in one day whenever I am having negative thoughts and feel better right afterwards, it is like magic. You don’t have to write 4000 words, you can write up to your limits, but at least write some to lighten the burden off you.
If you are feeling negative thoughts for a person, write him a letter as if you are directly talking to him, and don’t send the letter. Believe me you won’t need to send any letter to him because your mind would already be cleared off stuff and you would be able to think in focus and will be able to concentrate on things.
Another psychological trick quite similar to this is that if you have haunted memories and unhappy past, write about it on a piece of paper and make sure you write all the details so not even a single one remains in your heart and bury it in the ground. This trick has been used in several psychological therapies as well. Or you can write you worries on a paper, attach it in a helium balloon and when it flies away, imagine that your worries are going away from you and you are getting lighter and lighter.
Many of the famous books right now were written while the author was in a miserable state. J.K. Rowling wrote the initial idea on a napkin when she had no money and had just experienced a failed marriage. This is just a small example that shows that writing can help you get out of trouble and she is the first person to make $1 billion only by writing books. Why don’t you start your writing career from the state of depression when creativity comes rushing to you. Do try it!
Get fresh air
Getting fresh air in the state of stress can be very helpful to your mind
The rushing cars, the tall buildings, the chirping birds, the walking pedestrians, the smell of greenery, the running joggers, looking at them will give you an extremely good feeling and a new meaning of like. Like if they can do it, why can’t I?
This feeling will motivate you and you will start feeling more productive and efficient during the day. Whenever you start to lose motivation, go again for a walk. I suggest you go a short run every morning at dawn. That is when the body is releasing the growth hormone which helps stimulates your brain functioning and healthy life. Its benefits also includes better appetite control and sleep management.
Going out will eventually lead to healthy habits such as exercising or joining a social community such as Bowling community or Billiard community. Those who run every morning report that it is extremely addictive and gets their day started in a healthy way.
Also, going for a run in the morning will get you fresh sunlight and boost the Vitamin D in your body. Vitamin D is extremely important for your body because it makes your bones strong and without it, you bones will start to wither away.
A study took place in the University of Graz, Austria and they found out that next to those people who have heart diseases, the ones with Vitamin D deficiency are very likely to die early in their lives. Doctors say that Vitamin D and depression are linked directly, the more the Vitamin D, the less the depression.
Moreover, the lives we lead today are spent in apartments surrounded by tall buildings and we live with artificial light. Not even a single ray of sunlight gets into our homes and this specifically increases depression. When you go out in the morning, that is the time when plants are releasing fresh oxygen that will cleanse your lungs and increase your Vitamin D level at the same time.
This is one of the primary acts that you can do to decrease your negativity levels and live a contented life.
Make a grateful list
What are you thankful for? Is it your family? Is it your house? Or is it your car? Write it all down on a notepad. Being thankful for something creates a feeling of happiness inside your body and decreases the negativity. You wonder “I have so many things, then why am I depressed?” This will eventually lead to happiness and negativity-free life.
Read that list every 3-4 hours. Even if you are feeling extremely bad, remember that you will not always be in that position. Time changes, and the situation changes with it. So instead of being sad and grumpy, be thankful for what you have because some people don’t even have that. Think about them and be thankful. Thankfulness is the key to positivity.
Rhonda Byrne, the Australian television writer has written a book called “The Secret Gratitude Book”. In that book she has explained that whatever you want in your life, its first step is to be grateful for whatever you have. This book has changed lives of millions of people around the globe and is a New York Times Bestseller. She says about gratitude that “It’s not happiness that brings us gratitude, it’s gratitude that brings us happiness”. This clearly shows how gratitude is important and you should exercise it every single day is you want to live a positive life.
Another book “Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy” by Nancy Leigh DeMoss clearly outlines that how much gratitude is important. She says that it is the law of nature that if you are thankful for what you have, nature will increase it.
Overall, gratitude has been practiced and emphasized upon by centuries and is used as a powerful tool against depression and mental disorders.
Build a strong support group
When you are feeling extremely stressed out, and are unable to solve the problem by yourself, and need a helping hand, reach out to someone who you trust. It could be a close friend or a family member. One of the benefit of social media is that now there are many support groups present online on platforms such as Facebook and Google.
A support group brings together people who are suffering with the same problem and connects them together. This makes a bond of trust and helpfulness between individuals.
Sometimes, you only need a push to go into the right direction and bring positivity to not only your life but also the people and society around you. This small push is provided to you by support groups and friends around you. Working together as a team and supporting other is extremely essential. You can achieve goals that you thought were impossible when you worked alone.
Depression can be hard to handle. Surrounding yourself with friends and family can help this. Friends and family who are supportive will make you believe that this time will pass too. They show you that there is light at the end of the tunnel too. Turning and talking to them is a better strategy rather than addressing drugs and alcohol to cope up with depression.
No matter how much you are trying to avoid people and trying to live alone without any help. This only worsens your condition rather than solving it. Meeting people and communicating with them will lessen your pain and have a huge healing affect. You will feel your depression washing away while you are reaching towards a much happy life.
Seek professional help
If all the tricks mentioned before do not work, than the last measure is to go to a psychologist and seek professional help. Psychologists and psychiatrists are trained in a way in which they can single out your problems and find the solution to it in an elegant way. It might take some money to visit their clinics and book an appointment but I once again stress upon the point that is your “Health more important or money?” I have explained about this before and the conclusion we came upon was money can never be more important than your health.
There are currently more than twenty seven thousand psychiatrists currently working in the US. Nowadays, awareness is increasing and people are also turning to this subject. professionals are there to help you and do therapy sessions with you which will benefit you in exchange for a small fee. You will feel your mental health improving, your stress lessening, your mood swings and panic attacks will start to decrease and become null in a matter of time.
Several studies have proved that if you get medical help before the depression gets serious, you can avoid gigantic problems for yourself such as epilepsy, and will increase you productivity. The period of treatment usually lasts from 6-12 weeks and is combined of three parts, medication, therapy, or sometimes both, depending on the acuteness of the individual’s depression.
Seeking professional help is very important if you want to get rid of depression. These professionals who have years of experience in treating people, they are there for you and will help you recover.
Overall, depression is a very severe disease and it eats you from the inside. However, if you follow the tips and tricks we have just mentioned, you will be ready to face life again in no time. How much money it takes, how much time it takes, be persistent and show resilience for one day it will come back to you and benefit you. Good luck!
For now, signing off until next post.
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