7 Instant Stress Relievers

7 Instant Stress Relievers
There are easy and instant stress relievers. We’ll explore some here. On a site note, do you also feel like a bit of “precedented times” now and again would be nice? Life gets messy. For most of us, it’s a bit of a ride into chaos. So, here’s a shortlist to run into the week and hopefully alleviate stress.
 
Bankers often say things like: “it’s all about managing risk, not avoiding risk.”
In the grand scheme of things, at Marco’s Grounds, we think life is not about avoiding stress. It’s about managing it.

“Be Careful When a Naked Person Offers You a Shirt.”
―African Saying

7 Instant Stress Relievers

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breathe.”
―Amit Ray

Do a Body Check

Some people might call this a body-scan, but it sounds a bit more formal than it needs to be. It’s a good instant stress reliever because you don’t need equipment and can do it almost anywhere. This consists of systematically “scanning” the body for tension, from head to toes. Those who meditate know this exercise very well. Go from head to neck and shoulders, out through your arms to your fingertips, down your back and chest, and down each leg through the toes. Look for tight spots, simply noticing and acknowledging the tension as you go. It brings an instant lightness.

Read Fiction

If you’re reading personal development or a biography, you might get overly inspired or excited to jot down ideas and take action. That has its place, but if you’re stressed, fiction takes you to another place and puts you in a character’s shoes for a while. It has a different effect. There’s something about reading adventures of people fighting zombies or dragons that puts stressful emails back into perspective.

Throw Around Some Weight

If you’re feeling tense, nothing works better than grabbing some heavy kettlebells or loading up a bar to dish out a set or two of movements that target large muscle groups, like deadlifts or kettlebell swings. These days, especially if you’re working from home, having a kettlebell around or even some resistance bands will go a long way. Interestingly enough, nowadays, we’re less likely to do an entire weight training routine and more likely to do our resistance training in small, micro workout-style spurts.

Breathing Exercises

Breathing is this thing we all do, yet very few realize the profound benefits controlled breathing has on the body. It might be the king of all instant stress relievers. You can find some good breathing exercises on YouTube. One easy one is breathing in for a count of 5 seconds, holding for 5, breathing out for 5, holding again for 5, and repeating the cycle, all through your nose. This is what is commonly referred to as “box-breathing.”

Take the Dog Outside

There’s just something about the playful, carefree nature of pets that puts the world and our problems on pause. Also caring for other beings forces you to put your problems aside for a couple of minutes. This is why this is a great instant stress reliever.


Hugs

Hugging releases oxytocin, which is a natural calming hormone. If you live alone and are distancing, we heard calling someone to tell them that you care about them has a similar effect.

Adaptogens

After the year we’ve had, it’s natural that our stress responses are quicker on the trigger than they used to be. Adaptogens act on your physiological stress hormones and pathways to support a healthy stress response and keep your anxious feelings from going full-throttle.

Maximum Mind contains two high purity, full-strength adaptogens, namely bacopa and ashwagandha. You can also purchase them as stand-alone.
Look for a manufacturer you trust. For bacopa, each daily dose should contain at least 165mg of active bacosides. You get to the content of actives by multiplying the concentration by the quantity. For example, a 20% concentration level implies you need a daily serving of 825mg to provide an effective dose. The same applies to ashwagandha. A standard daily dose is 11mg withanolides, e.g., 220mg at 5% standardization. If you only need those as stand-alone, I really like these brands of pure supplements, i.e., bacopa here and ashwagandha here. Those are the ones I used before manufacturing Maximum Mind.
 
How do you know the concentration? Generally, manufacturers are proud of achieving high purity extractions and display them on the label. If the label doesn’t indicate the standardization level of extracts, it’s probably not a good sign.

Go Easy on the Coffee

Coffee is notorious for making you restless, potentially amplifying feelings of anxiety. By definition, coffee is the opposite of an instant stress reliever. Drinking a bit less coffee could have beneficial results on your stress levels. If that’s not an option, a supplement containing an effective dose of L-theanine, like Maximum Mind, can help counter the chaotic energy coffee creates and refocus it into a more serene, longer-lasting energy. Also, L-theanine has been shown to increase alpha brain waves, which are tough to be responsible for creative thinking and out-of-the-box problem-solving.
 
If you’re not into one-stop solutions like Maximum Mind. Here’s a brand of L-theanine I trust and used, also before making Maximum Mind. Just bear in mind that there’s almost no natural theanine on the market since extraction is quite complex. So, most stand-alone manufacturers mostly synthesized it.
 
I hope these help.
 
At a minimum, check-in with yourself a few times a day to see if you have that tense feeling in the background. Lowering your baseline levels of stress will do wonders for your quality of life.

 

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