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4 Tips to Rework Your Mind to Avoid Stress Under Any Circumstance

Stress has been creeping into people’s lives at an alarming rate. According to studies performed by the American Psychological Association (APA), two-thirds of Americans reported they were likely to seek help for stress. When people consider seeking help for stress, you know it’s impacting their life in a negative way. That level of stress is more than just feeling overloaded from daily tasks.

There are an infinite number of triggers that can instigate a stress response and those triggers vary greatly from person to person. However, there are universal ways to relieve stress that anyone can apply to their life, regardless of what caused that stress.

1. Support your nervous system with supplements

Part of reworking your mind to deflect stress requires supporting your nervous system. Your brain is a chemical factory that requires specific nutrients to function. One of the ways stress can take over quickly is having a build-up of calcium in your system that can’t get past the voltage-gated calcium channels. This is easily resolved, in most cases, by taking a magnesium supplement. Magnesium helps to move the calcium through your body, which triggers your nervous system to relax.

Another way to support your nervous system is with cannabidiol (CBD). CBD is a therapeutic hemp plant extract used for a variety of purposes, including stress and anxiety relief. CBD has been scientifically proven to reduce anxiety and stress. Although CBD is extracted from hemp, it is non-psychoactive. By law, all CBD products must contain no more than 0.3% THC, which means you don’t have to worry about getting “high.”

You can find CBD in a variety of forms including CBD gummies, oil, and capsules. Gummies are great on the go, while oils are a fast way to get the CBD into your system. Capsules are equally good, but it takes longer to get into your system. The best time to take CBD is before bed, which brings up the next point.

2. Make yourself go to bed at a decent hour – habitually

Training your brain to go to bed at a decent hour is one of the most critical components in eliminating stress. How often you get a good night’s sleep is directly connected to your stress levels. Poor sleep habits create and exacerbate stress. 

Sleep deprivation has been shown to give people a short fuse. When you’re on edge, you become emotionally reactive and it’s easier to get worked up over small things. This only serves to increase your levels of stress.

By taking control of your sleeping habits and ensuring you get a good night’s sleep, you’re managing your mood, which naturally reduces stress.

3. Meditate while holding your focus on one thing

Part of training your mind to be impervious to stress is training it into a state of calm. Meditating while focusing on one thing will make a big impact. To do this, sit on a meditation cushion, a pillow, a chair, or the floor – whatever you find most comfortable. Close your eyes, relax, and in your mind’s eye bring something into focus. It could be anything – your favorite tree, a made-up beach, your dog, or your best friend’s face. Choose something you can easily focus on for a long period of time and breathe deeply while you focus on that thing. 

Remain focused on your chosen thing in meditation for as long as possible. Play some light music in the background if you find it hard to concentrate in silence. Practice this every day for a minimum of 15 minutes and before you know it, your stress levels will be lower than you ever thought possible.

4. Practice deep breathing everywhere you go

Wherever you go, practice deep breathing whether you’re sitting, standing, or walking. With enough practice, you’ll find that breathing deeply will become your normal way of breathing. If it becomes a strong enough habit, you’ll have an easier time engaging a deep breath in the moment when you’re triggered by a stressor. Getting to that point of automation is the goal.

Breathing deeply slows your heart rate and lowers your blood pressure, which makes deep breathing the perfect exercise to engage the moment you start feeling stressed.

Dissolve your triggers, too

While it’s important to find ways to cope with and reduce stress, it’s equally important to work on dissolving your triggers. Whatever triggers you to go into stress mode, keep working on not reacting emotionally or physically. Otherwise, you’ll have to continue managing symptoms of stress until you dissolve your triggers.