You’ve been there.
Now you’re there again. Anxiety and fear are invading your life.
That unruly teen, your failing parent, an aggrevating boss, or your deficient income leave you feeling jittery, hollow, and weak.
Your doctor calls it stress and not only blames anxiety on it, but depression and heart disease too—along with a plethora of other health-destroying monsters.
It’s easy to go on being a victim of your circumstances—year after troubled year—but you don’t need to. Especially when simple solutions are all around you.
Step away from your fight-or-flight response and its crippling consequences with the following habits:
Soak Up the Water
First, get enough water to drink. It is well documented that dehydration increases stress levels. The work of Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj is enough to persuade most of the necessity of water intake.
Yet water has a much more stress-busting power than this. Just being near water is a potent relaxer, but being in it takes the grand prize. A Swedish study, published in the International Journal of Stress Management in 2006, demonstrated that floating in water could reduce stress, pain, anxiety, and depression. It also improved sleep and outlook. And immersion in water is so powerful that these improvements continued for months after the study ended.
However, you don’t need to be told this. The euphoria of the ocean, a waterfall, and your morning shower is enough to convince you.
Step Outside
Okay, so here’s another no-brainer for reducing your stress levels: go outside. Studies supporting this are as prolific as the ones encouraging water consumption. Those who spend time outside in nature are less stressed. Spending time in a natural environment is one of the best things you can do for your health.
Trust In God
Prayer works, and trust in God is the greatest stress-buster. This is because God is 100% trustworthy. He has your back.
But How Do You Know You Can Trust Him?
The answer is all around you. The sun rises and sets without fail. The seasons come and go like clockwork. Yet the most powerful lesson of God’s faithfulness is in the garden.
A seed planted in the spring grows into mature fruit by the autumn. Of course, you have your part to do: watering, weeding, protecting, and fertilizing. Yet you can rest assured that if you do your part, the fruit will develop. Actually, the seed contains the watermellon. The oak is in the acorn. It takes time to mature, but it is there.
It is the same with every word that God speaks. In Luke 8:11 God says that His word is like a seed. Every promise He makes in His word is yours to plant. There are 3563 seeds in the Bible. And, like the seeds in the garden, if you do your part, God will do His.
Can you think of any better stress reliever than that?
Exercise
Here’s another stress buster that has no lack of research supporting it. Exercise provides a place for all your tension to go, and go it does. It only takes aerobic exercise five minutes to begin to take your stress away.
It does this not only through movement, but also through the release of mood-elevating endorphins into the brain. Consequently, you will find out for yourself exactly what scientists have found: regular aerobic exercise decreases overall tension levels, elevates and stabilizes mood, improves self-esteem, and helps you sleep.
Get Massage
Touch has a magical effect on the body. We have all felt the systemic thill of a hand laid on our shoulder. Yet this shouldn’t surprise us. We are relational creatures. Some go so far as to say that our bonds with each other are the force holding everything together, and quantum physics definitely supports such a premise.
If reality is fundamentally physical, then the primary force binding it together is electromagnetic. If, however, life is fundamentally social, then the most powerful constituting force is that which binds persons together, namely, love. – Millard Erickson, Making Sense of the Trinity 58
At any rate, massage is recommended by much more than just our intuition. It is a time-honored way of stimulating nerves, breaking up congestion, and increasing function in the body. A wealth of studies have shown its efficacy.
Experience, however, is still the best proof. Go get a massage, and you will find out how powerful it is for yourself.
Take Charge of Your Stress
Stress and anxiety don’t have to play havoc with your life. You can break free today.
Choose one of the five stress busters above and give it a spin. Heck, try two or three.
Do it now.
You will step away from your stress, and start living.