10 great ways to relieve stress in less than 5 minutes
For reasons I explained in THIS BLOG it’s been a….busy week. For which you can feel free to read….rather stressful. Today being no exception since I spent the best part of the morning helping get my lovely mum ready to leave hospital following her hip replacement operation (after a few rough days she’s improving remarkably well) to go to a rehab centre for the next stage of her recovery, which has meant that I’m sitting down to write this FAR later than I usually do.
All of which made me think that this might be a good time to share the stress-busting techniques I turn to when I ‘m feeling overwhelmed or anxious and don’t have time for anything that takes more than a few minutes. Obviously some of them can only be done in certain situations (I wouldn’t necessarily recommend number if 4 you’re in an open plan office. Tho it might just make someone else’s day a little more jolly) but they’re all strategies I’ve found work for me, so I hope they’ll be helpful to you.
Close your eyes and breathe
Deep breathing is a well known stress reliever - I do several rounds of breathing in and out to a slow count of four - but I find it even more effective to do with my eyes shut. It really helps me to focus on my breath and not be distracted by whatever is going on around me.
Walk it off
This is another tried and tested way to tackle stress (I didn’t promise I’d be suggesting anything original. Which is probably just as well), and another one I do with a slight twist. Because when I’m taking my five minute stress busting stroll I make myself take note of something I can see, something I can hear and something I can smell. I find it forces me to focus my mind on something other than whatever was making me feel anxious.
Of course, if my walk could be along the sea, then that alone would be stress relief dialled up to the max.
Have a hand rub
I have very dry hands and when I’m stressed I tend to pick at the skin around my nails (apologies if that’s TMI). Grabbing the treatiest (invented word, but I like it) hand cream I have, I indulge my poor beleaguered mits with a gentle but thorough massage. The combination of the rubbing (doing it and experiencing the feeling of it) and the thirst-quenching properties of the cream make both my hands and my stress levels feel so much better.
Dance
Music is a great stress reliever, but dancing along to a song you love injects it with double the effectiveness (I’m unable to back up that claim with any scientific data, but I can confirm it from personal experience)
Turn your face to the sun
There’s very little that fills me with more joy than the sensation of the sun on my face. So if I happen to be having a stressful moment/hour/day/week and the big ball of joy happens to be putting in a rare appearance in the sky, getting outside and lifting my face up to feel its warming rays on my skin is something than never fails to lift my mood. (Disclaimer: please note number 3 in THIS BLOG)
Seek out something funny
When I can’t see the wood for the stress trees, one of the things I do most regularly is to click on one of our family whattsapp groups and look at a couple of the videos my daughters regularly send me of my gorgeous grandgirls doing something hilarious. Its simply impossible to stay stressed whilst I’m watching their antics.
Stretch
This is pretty self explanatory, though I would add a really good stretch is as effective lying down as it is standing up. Either way I find imagining myself being pulled by my hands and feet is a useful way to really stretch fully from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. Several of the deep breaths in number 1 when you’re at full stretch increases its stress busting effectiveness.
Pour a cup of tea from a pot
A cuppa is always going to be a go-to stress reliever isn’t it? THIS BLOG explains why I find the action of pouring my cup of tea from a pot particularly soothing. I wonder if it does the same for you?
Play
Courtesy of the aforementioned gaggle of delicious grandgirls, I’ve been reminded that playing is a wonderful way to alleviate stress. You can’t make me reveal whether I actually resort to taking out their toys when my stress levels rise, but I will admit to having the slinky I bought ‘for them’ (tell me you remember slinkys from your childhood? If not, THIS is what I’m talking about) on my desk and to finding that making it concertina from one hand to the other is quite remarkably soothing. In the absence of a childhood toy, aptly named stress balls will have much the same effect.
Exercise
I bet you thought I was going to get through a whole of one of these how-to-feel-better-about-or-in-yourself blogs without mentioning exercise. As if! The kind of exercise I’ll do as a stress reliever depends on where I am and how energetic I feel. But even something slower paced, like squats or push ups against the kitchen counter whilst I’m boiling the kettle for number 8, gets my blood pumping and lifts my mood.
What’s your go-to speedy stress relief technique? I’d love to know
