essay on how to relieve stress

Essay on Stress Management

500 words essay on stress management.

Stress is a very complex phenomenon that we can define in several ways. However, if you put them together, it is basically the wear and tear of daily life. Stress management refers to a wide spectrum of techniques and psychotherapies for controlling a person’s stress level, especially chronic stress . If there is effective stress management, we can help one another break the hold of stress on our lives. The essay on stress management will throw light on the very same thing.

Identifying the Source of Stress

The first step of stress management is identifying the source of stress in your life. It is not as easy as that but it is essential. The true source of stress may not always be evident as we tend to overlook our own stress-inducing thoughts and feelings.

For instance, you might constantly worry about meeting your deadline. But, in reality, maybe your procrastination is what leads to this stress than the actual deadline. In order to identify the source of stress, we must look closely within ourselves.

If you explain away stress as temporary, then it may be a problem. Like if you yourself don’t take a breather from time to time, what is the point? On the other hand, is stress an integral part of your work and you acknowledging it like that?

If you make it a part of your personality, like you label things as crazy or nervous energy, you need to look further. Most importantly, do you blame the stress on people around you or the events surrounding you?

It is essential to take responsibility for the role one plays in creating or maintaining stress. Your stress will remain outside your control if you do not do it.

Strategies for Stress Management

It is obvious that we cannot avoid all kinds of stress but there are many stressors in your life which you can definitely eliminate. It is important to learn how to say no and stick to them.  Try to avoid people who stress you out.

Further, if you cannot avoid a stressful situation, try altering it. Express your feelings don’t bottle them up and manage your time better. Moreover, you can also adapt to the stressor if you can’t change it.

Reframe problems and look at the big picture. Similarly, adjust your standards and focus on the positive side. Never try to control the uncontrollable. Most importantly, make time for having fun and relaxing.

Spend some time with nature, go for a walk or call a friend, whatever pleases you.  You can also try working out, listening to music and more. As long as it makes you happy, never give up.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Stress Management

All in all, we can control our stress levels with relaxation techniques that evoke the relaxation response of our body. It is the state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response. Thus, when you practice these techniques regularly, you can build your resilience and heal yourself.

FAQ of Essay on Stress Management

Question 1: What is the importance of stress management?

Answer 1: Stress management is very efficient as it helps in breaking the hold which stress has on our lives. Moreover, you can also become happy, healthy and more productive because of it. The ultimate goal should be to live a balanced life and have the resilience to hold up under pressure.

Question 2: Give some stress management techniques.

Answer 2: There are many stress management techniques through which one can reduce stress in their lives. One can change their situation or their reaction to it. We can try by altering the situation. If not, we can change our attitudes towards it. Remember, accept things that you cannot change.

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

• Travelling Essay
• Picnic Essay
• Our Country Essay
• My Parents Essay
• Essay on Favourite Personality
• Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
• Essay on Knowledge is Power
• Essay on Gurpurab
• Essay on My Favourite Season
• Essay on Types of Sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App

Jump to navigation

Find What You Need Get targeted resources quickly!

Stress Management: How to Reduce, Prevent, and Cope with Stress

While it may seem like there’s nothing you can do about stress at work and home, there are steps you can take to relieve the pressure and regain control.

The importance of managing stress

If you’re living with high levels of stress, you’re putting your entire well-being at risk. Stress wreaks havoc on your emotional equilibrium, as well as your physical health. It narrows your ability to think clearly, function effectively, and enjoy life. It may seem like there’s nothing you can do about stress. The bills won’t stop coming, there will never be more hours in the day, and your work and family responsibilities will always be demanding. But you have a lot more control than you might think.

Effective stress management helps you break the hold stress has on your life, so you can be happier, healthier, and more productive. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun—and the  resilience  to hold up under pressure and meet challenges head on. But stress management is not one-size-fits-all. That’s why it’s important to experiment and find out what works best for you. The following stress management tips can help you do that.

Tip 1: Identify the sources of stress in your life

Stress management starts with identifying the sources of stress in your life. This isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. While it’s easy to identify major stressors such as changing jobs, moving, or going through a divorce, pinpointing the sources of chronic stress can be more complicated. It’s all too easy to overlook how your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors contribute to your everyday stress levels.

Sure, you may know that you’re constantly worried about work deadlines, but maybe it’s your procrastination, rather than the actual job demands, that is causing the stress.

To identify your true sources of stress, look closely at your habits, attitude, and excuses:

• Do you explain away stress as temporary (“I just have a million things going on right now”) even though you can’t remember the last time you took a breather?
• Do you define stress as an integral part of your work or home life (“Things are always crazy around here”) or as a part of your personality (“I have a lot of nervous energy, that’s all”)?
• Do you blame your stress on other people or outside events, or view it as entirely normal and unexceptional?

Until you accept responsibility for the role you play in creating or maintaining it, your stress level will remain outside your control.

Start a stress journal

A stress journal can help you identify the regular stressors in your life and the way you deal with them. Each time you feel stressed, keep track of it in your journal or use a stress tracker on your phone. Keeping a daily log will enable you to see patterns and common themes. Write down:

• What caused your stress (make a guess if you’re unsure).
• How you felt, both physically and emotionally.
• How you acted in response.
• What you did to make yourself feel better.

Tip 2: Practice the 4 A’s of stress management

While stress is an automatic response from your nervous system, some stressors arise at predictable times: your commute to work, a meeting with your boss, or family gatherings, for example. When handling such predictable stressors, you can either change the situation or change your reaction. When deciding which option to choose in any given scenario, it’s helpful to think of the four A’s: avoid, alter, adapt, or accept.

Tip 3: Get moving

When you’re stressed, the last thing you probably feel like doing is getting up and exercising. But  physical activity  is a huge stress reliever—and you don’t have to be an athlete or spend hours in a gym to experience the benefits. Exercise releases endorphins that make you feel good, and it can also serve as a valuable distraction from your daily worries.

While you’ll get the most benefit from regularly exercising for 30 minutes or more, it’s okay to build up your fitness level gradually. Even very small activities can add up over the course of a day. The first step is to get yourself up and moving. Here are some easy ways to incorporate exercise into your daily schedule:

• Put on some music and dance around.
• Take your  dog for a walk .
• Walk or cycle to the grocery store.
• Use the stairs at home or work rather than an elevator.
• Park your car in the farthest spot in the lot and walk the rest of the way.
• Pair up with an exercise partner and encourage each other as you work out.
• Play ping-pong or an activity-based video game with your kids.

The stress-busting magic of mindful rhythmic exercise

While just about any form of physical activity can help burn away tension and stress, rhythmic activities are especially effective. Good choices include walking, running, swimming, dancing, cycling, tai chi, and aerobics. But whatever you choose, make sure it’s something you enjoy so you’re more likely to stick with it.

While you’re exercising, make a conscious effort to pay attention to your body and the physical (and sometimes emotional) sensations you experience as you’re moving. Focus on coordinating your breathing with your movements, for example, or notice how the air or sunlight feels on your skin. Adding this mindfulness element will help you break out of the cycle of negative thoughts that often accompanies overwhelming stress.

Tip 4: Connect to others

There is nothing more calming than spending quality time with another human being who makes you feel safe and understood. In fact, face-to-face interaction triggers a cascade of hormones that counteracts the body’s defensive “fight-or-flight” response. It’s nature’s natural stress reliever (as an added bonus, it also helps stave off depression and anxiety). So make it a point to connect regularly—and in person—with family and friends.

Keep in mind that the people you talk to don’t have to be able to fix your stress. They simply need to be good listeners. And try not to let worries about looking weak or being a burden keep you from opening up. The people who care about you will be flattered by your trust. It will only strengthen your bond.

Of course, it’s not always realistic to have a pal close by to lean on when you feel overwhelmed by stress, but by building and maintaining a  network of close friends  you can improve your resiliency to life’s stressors.

Tips for building relationships

• Reach out to a colleague at work.
• Help someone else by  volunteering .
• Have lunch or coffee with a friend.
• Ask a loved one to check in with you regularly.
• Accompany someone to the movies or a concert.
• Call or email an old friend.
• Go for a walk  with a workout buddy.
• Schedule a weekly dinner date.
• Meet new people by taking a class or joining a club.
• Confide in a clergy member, teacher, or sports coach.

Tip 5: Make time for fun and relaxation

Beyond a take-charge approach and a positive attitude, you can reduce stress in your life by carving out “me” time. Don’t get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of life that you forget to take care of your own needs. Nurturing yourself is a necessity, not a luxury. If you regularly make time for fun and relaxation, you’ll be in a better place to handle life’s stressors.

Set aside leisure time. Include rest and relaxation in your daily schedule. Don’t allow other obligations to encroach. This is your time to take a break from all responsibilities and recharge your batteries.

Do something you enjoy every day. Make time for leisure activities that bring you joy, whether it be stargazing, playing the piano, or working on your bike.

Keep your sense of humor. This includes the ability to laugh at yourself.  The act of laughing  helps your body fight stress in a number of ways.

Take up a relaxation practice. Relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, and deep breathing activate the  body’s relaxation response , a state of restfulness that is the opposite of the fight or flight or mobilization stress response. As you learn and practice these techniques, your stress levels will decrease and your mind and body will become calm and centered.

Tip 6: Manage your time better

Poor time management can cause a lot of stress. When you’re stretched too thin and running behind, it’s hard to stay calm and focused. Plus, you’ll be tempted to avoid or cut back on all the healthy things you should be doing to keep stress in check, like socializing and getting enough sleep. The good news: there are things you can do to achieve a healthier work-life balance.

Don’t over-commit yourself. Avoid scheduling things back-to-back or trying to fit too much into one day. All too often, we underestimate how long things will take.

Prioritize tasks. Make a list of tasks you have to do, and tackle them in order of importance. Do the high-priority items first. If you have something particularly unpleasant or stressful to do, get it over with early. The rest of your day will be more pleasant as a result.

Break projects into small steps. If a large project seems overwhelming, make a step-by-step plan. Focus on one manageable step at a time, rather than taking on everything at once.

Delegate responsibility. You don’t have to do it all yourself, whether at home, school, or on the job. If other people can take care of the task, why not let them? Let go of the desire to control or oversee every little step. You’ll be letting go of unnecessary stress in the process.

Tip 7: Maintain balance with a healthy lifestyle

In addition to regular exercise, there are other healthy lifestyle choices that can increase your resistance to stress.

Eat a healthy diet. Well-nourished bodies are better prepared to cope with stress, so be mindful of what you eat. Start your day right with breakfast, and keep your energy up and your mind clear with  balanced, nutritious meals  throughout the day.

Reduce caffeine and sugar. The temporary “highs” caffeine and sugar provide often end with a crash in mood and energy. By reducing the amount of coffee, soft drinks, chocolate, and  sugar snacks in your diet , you’ll feel more relaxed and you’ll sleep better.

Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs.  Self-medicating with alcohol or drugs  may provide an easy escape from stress, but the relief is only temporary. Don’t avoid or mask the issue at hand; deal with problems head on and with a clear mind.

Get enough sleep.  Adequate sleep  fuels your mind, as well as your body. Feeling tired will increase your stress because it may cause you to think irrationally.

Tip 8: Learn to relieve stress in the moment

When you’re frazzled by your morning commute, stuck in a stressful meeting at work, or fried from another argument with your spouse, you need a way to manage your stress levels  right now . That’s where quick stress relief comes in.

The fastest way to reduce stress is by taking a deep breath and using your senses—what you see, hear, taste, and touch—or through a soothing movement. By viewing a favorite photo, smelling a specific scent, listening to a favorite piece of music, tasting a piece of gum, or hugging a pet, for example, you can quickly relax and focus yourself.

Of course, not everyone responds to each sensory experience in the same way. The key to  quick stress relief  is to experiment and discover the unique sensory experiences that work best for you.

From Helpguide.org. Used with permission. HelpGuide provides evidence-based mental health education and support to a global audience. Their mission is to empower you with information you can use to help yourself and your loved ones. www.helpguide.org .

• Add new comment

Comments (66)

Please remember, we are not able to give medical or legal advice. If you have medical concerns, please consult your doctor. All posted comments are the views and opinions of the poster only.

Megala replied on Fri, 02/04/2022 - 6:46am Permalink

I tried some nutrition chews, which were delicious and a terrific stress reliever. Adults should take one to two per day so that they can sleep soundly and stay healthy. Thank you for the blog!!

Ashmitha replied on Thu, 11/18/2021 - 5:53am Permalink

Hi, really useful information thanks for sharing this wonderful article.

Anonymous replied on Thu, 10/28/2021 - 2:50am Permalink

This article helps me relax

this article is... replied on Thu, 09/30/2021 - 4:49pm Permalink

this article really helped me a lot thanks

Anonymous replied on Thu, 09/30/2021 - 4:40pm Permalink

the most relaxing thing is yelling at the wall

dipak sarangi replied on Fri, 09/10/2021 - 2:35pm Permalink

Amazing post. Everyone should have a read on this article. All your posts are also really good. Keep it up.

Anonymous replied on Sat, 06/05/2021 - 2:16am Permalink

best article that I have read in a long time

Alex replied on Wed, 04/14/2021 - 3:29pm Permalink

Great tips for managing stress. Sometimes a long term solution is needed though. What worked for me was this simple daily morning ritual. Not only made me more relaxed and stress free but also helped me sleep better. Hope this helps.

The Wellness Way replied on Tue, 03/30/2021 - 7:54am Permalink

Great Blog thanks for sharing this amazing blog this blog help lots of people. Thanks again.

Omkar Mule replied on Sun, 03/07/2021 - 7:35am Permalink

Thank you for sharing this amazing content with us! Literally, I loved this article.

Anonymous replied on Tue, 02/23/2021 - 1:36pm Permalink

When I was younger I used to play with Play Dough, now that I'm older, I still play with Play Dough.

Samina Iftikhar replied on Sat, 12/26/2020 - 4:45am Permalink

it is very helpful.

sadia jarrar replied on Mon, 12/14/2020 - 10:16am Permalink

if we are taking any stress the best way is to calm down our self, listen to light music or go for a walk and think about beautiful things happening around us

Sadaf replied on Sun, 01/03/2021 - 8:16am Permalink

Nazneen Zaidi replied on Sun, 12/20/2020 - 9:15am Permalink

Anonymous replied on Sun, 12/13/2020 - 11:36am Permalink

Worth Reading :)

Saba bajwa replied on Wed, 12/09/2020 - 6:21am Permalink

Very helpful

habiba replied on Tue, 12/08/2020 - 9:36am Permalink

it is beneficial to deal with physical and emotion stress.

annonymous replied on Thu, 12/03/2020 - 2:36am Permalink

Stress management is important to live a healthy life

Emmarisper replied on Thu, 05/20/2021 - 8:25am Permalink

It's helpful

Anonymous replied on Mon, 11/09/2020 - 9:43am Permalink

This is very helpful and i hope it will works

Anonymous replied on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 3:54am Permalink

Stress management gives you a range of tools to reset your alarm system. It can help your mind and body adapt. Without it, your body might always be on high alert.

zahra replied on Wed, 11/04/2020 - 11:43am Permalink

stress is not good for health

Anonymous replied on Sat, 12/26/2020 - 4:46am Permalink

Brira zia replied on Wed, 11/04/2020 - 9:37am Permalink

I give my stress respect, and I let my mind and body process it. It takes time but more often than expected it is a permanent solution

Anonymous replied on Tue, 09/29/2020 - 9:52am Permalink

can we deal with stress by using only one technique.

Anonymous replied on Thu, 11/05/2020 - 12:00am Permalink

i totally agree with your point of view.

Ashfaq replied on Wed, 10/14/2020 - 4:45am Permalink

meditation in prayer

shaziayousaf replied on Mon, 02/01/2021 - 7:40am Permalink

best way is to pray relax mediate and walk in a park

Anonymous replied on Fri, 08/28/2020 - 2:14pm Permalink

The best thing to reduce stress as per me is to have a cup of coffee with your best buddy and discuss your heart openly.

Anonymous replied on Wed, 12/09/2020 - 3:45am Permalink

Saadia Zafar replied on Thu, 09/17/2020 - 1:35pm Permalink

I give my stress respect, and I let my mind and body process it. It takes time but more often than expected it is a permanent solution.

Sadia Iftikhar replied on Tue, 08/25/2020 - 3:55pm Permalink

McClure Law replied on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 6:00am Permalink

Hi, Nice Post and its really good for everyone and very helpful for health. Thanks and Good job.

kwambokaevelyn8... replied on Sat, 09/05/2020 - 7:48am Permalink

Thanks for the good posts.So helpful.

Anonymous replied on Sat, 06/13/2020 - 10:01am Permalink

Anonymous replied on Tue, 09/29/2020 - 2:58pm Permalink

I totally agree with your point of view

Anonymous replied on Tue, 05/19/2020 - 12:12pm Permalink

Thank you that really helped me

Anonymous replied on Tue, 05/12/2020 - 9:40pm Permalink

this really helped me in quarantine, because I moved back to Egypt back to my family and friends.

Anonymous replied on Wed, 04/29/2020 - 7:56am Permalink

My side head is continuously paining due to stress level. Due to lock down, i am continuously working on lap top and having headache and many time it is giving dizziness. I am regularly doing exercise. Please suggest the way forward or particular exercise.

Counsellor replied on Thu, 05/07/2020 - 6:18am Permalink

Take a breather between the work. Working continuously on laptop burn out the energy and procrastinate accuracy in work. Take mini breaks to regain your energy. Have a good laugh it will boost good mood. Do chair exercise to stretch your muscles. All this help you to regain your energy and uplift your mood.

Anonymous replied on Thu, 04/16/2020 - 10:59am Permalink

This helped me with my project

Anonymous replied on Tue, 03/03/2020 - 12:12pm Permalink

hey, i am Alexis and i have been so stressed with my family and school. it is just hard to keep everything going in my life because i have always been someone that does everything for everyone else but never for myself. i just want to be happy with myself and everything in my life. i don't want to be the depressed girl with anger issues and anxiety and well its a long list. but i don't know how to help myself relax and that's the first thing that i want to do, before i change anything else because if i can't relax, i am going to explode and i don't think i am going to get better on my own

Princess replied on Tue, 01/12/2021 - 10:26am Permalink

Alexis, stop expecting so much from yourself and trying to please everyone. Take on things that you can do very well and pass the other things. You are struggling too much and stretching yourself beyond limit. Slow down, take a breather and if you can get a puppy and get your mind off people for a while. Also learn to pray and sing. Its a stress killer! Life is sweet despite Covid virus, so be happy my dear! God bless you!

jaron replied on Thu, 04/02/2020 - 2:44pm Permalink

i think that you should take a deep breath and seperate yourself from the group

and talk to a teacher parent or friend . And talk about this situation and how could you make it better for you and your friends and famliy.

Anonymous replied on Wed, 03/04/2020 - 6:34pm Permalink

Alexis, sounds like you have a lot of people in your life that care about you and that you care about as well. I think that what you need to do is learn to say "No". The people in your life should be understanding, and if not they aren't worth the extra stress in your life. If you want to help them, they might want to help you. Don't be afraid to ask for help if you have too much on your plate. You are worth the extra effort. It is a win-win,, less on your plate and others get to show you that they appreciate you too. Good Luck.

anete replied on Wed, 01/29/2020 - 7:14am Permalink

Stress always occurs especially if there is competition in sport, although the activity itself reduces it. it is about dealing with it during confusion attention to the pleasant things that will work together with the situation we are in.

Nathalie Argueles replied on Fri, 11/22/2019 - 2:03am Permalink

Interesting. This looks super cool. I haven't read it all yet, but I'll be back to read the rest of it.

Anonymous replied on Fri, 10/11/2019 - 11:01am Permalink

Fantastic article, m8

boi replied on Fri, 10/11/2019 - 10:59am Permalink

This program is made possible in part by a grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which is dedicated to ensuring that impacted post-9/11 veterans, service members, and their families are thriving long after they return home.

BrainLine is a national service of WETA-TV, the flagship PBS station in Washington, D.C.

BrainLine, WETA Public Television 3939 Campbell Ave. Arlington, VA 22206 E-mail | Phone: 703.998.2020

© 2023 WETA All Rights Reserved |  Contact Us

Take Control

Practice stress, rock and roll breathing, support and relationships.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Originally published on July 24, 2017

How to Be Better at Stress

By Tara Parker-Pope

Illustrations by Sam Kalda

Stress is unavoidable in modern life, but it doesn’t have to get you down. Work, money and family all create daily stress, while bigger issues like the global pandemic and politics contribute to our underlying stress levels. But approach it the right way, and it won’t rule your life — it can even be good for you. Here are ways to deal with stress, reduce its harm and even use your daily stress to make you stronger.

Stress is inevitable; getting sick from it is not.

The Perception of Stress

While we know that stress is associated with health problems, plenty of people with high-stress lives are thriving. How is that possible? In 2012, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison published a seminal study looking at how 28,000 people perceived stress in their lives. People in the study answered these two questions:

During the past 12 months, would you say that you experienced:

A lot of stress A moderate amount of stress Relatively little stress Almost no stress at all

How much effect has stress had on your health?

A lot Some Hardly any None

The researchers looked at death rates in the study group over nine years. The results are startling. The study found that having a lot of stress in your life was not linked with premature death. But having a lot of stress in your life and believing it was taking a toll on your health increased risk of premature death by 43 percent.

Changing your perception

With stress, the mind and the body are intrinsically linked. You can view stress as something that is wreaking havoc on your body (and it can) or as something that is giving you the strength and energy to overcome adversity. Here’s a quick way to think about these two very different views of stress. Read the statement, and then think about your own reaction to the biological changes that occur during times of stress. 1. When I’m stressed, my body releases adrenaline and cortisol. My heart is beating faster. This means that:

Common View: Stress is increasing my risk for cardiovascular disease and heart attack.

Alternative View: My heart is working harder and my body is mobilizing its energy to get ready for this challenge.

2. When I’m stressed, my stress response is causing my breathing rate to increase. This means that:

Common View: My fast breathing is a sign of anxiety. I worry about how stress is affecting my mental and physical health.

Alternative View: I should take a deep breath. My faster breathing means more oxygen is getting to my brain so I can think more clearly.

3. When I’m stressed, my heart and circulatory system respond, causing my blood pressure to rise. This means that:

Common View: I can feel my blood pressure rising. This can’t be good for my health.

Alternative View: Circulatory changes are allowing more oxygen and nutrients to fuel my muscles. I’m feeling stronger and ready for the challenge ahead.

It’s probably clear to you that the alternative view is the better choice for thinking about stress. It may be hard to believe that such a small shift in thinking could make a difference, but that’s what Harvard researchers found when they paid 50 study subjects $25 each to take part in a lab experiment designed to induce stress. The test involves giving a talk in front of a group of unfriendly evaluators, followed by a tricky word test. (Researchers have consistently found that this formula of public speaking plus testing in front of a hostile crowd is incredibly uncomfortable and stress-inducing for the poor people who agree to take part in the study.)

Before the social stress test, one group was allowed to play video games; another was taught to simply ignore stressful feelings if they experienced them during the test. But a third group was given advice similar to the quiz above. They got a primer about the physical stress response and were told how a higher heart rate, faster breathing and internal jitters were all tools for making you strong during a stressful event. They were told how the body’s stress response evolved to help us succeed, and that the increased arousal symptoms of stress can aid your performance during times of stress. The bottom line of the lesson was this: In a tough situation, stress makes you stronger.

The group that learned to rethink the role of stress in their lives did far better on the test. They gave better speeches and were rated as more confident. They smiled more and had more-positive body language. And physiological indicators showed that their bodies were also managing the stress response better than those of test subjects who were taught to ignore stress or given no advice at all.

The Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal has been a champion of rethinking stress, noting that the right approach can make you smarter and stronger. Her TED talk on the subject, “How To Make Stress Your Friend,” has been viewed 14 million times.

“What I learned from these studies, surveys and conversations truly changed the way I think about stress,” Dr. McGonigal wrote in her book “The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It.” “The best way to manage stress isn’t to reduce or avoid it, but rather to rethink and even embrace it.”

Learn skills to better handle stress.

Stress Inoculation

The best way to get better at stress is to practice it. Scientists call this “stress inoculation,” and just as exposure to a virus will inoculate you from contracting a virus a second time, regular exposure to small amounts of stress can inoculate you from the most detrimental effects of stress when you suffer a big stressful event in your life.

Stress inoculation has three phases.

1. Education: Learn what to expect. If you need chemotherapy, are experiencing a divorce or have had a setback at work, talk to people who have been through it and learn what to expect going forward so you can be prepared, rather than blindsided, by the stressors ahead of you.

2. Rehearsal: While you can’t rehearse for life’s biggest moments, you can live your life in a way that prepares you for stress. It can be a physical challenge like competing in a triathlon or conquering a mountain. It can be an intellectual stressor like reading your poetry in public or giving a speech. The point is that you need to rehearse stressful situations in order to perform your best under stress.

3. Implementation: When the stressful event hits, you are prepared. You know what to expect, and you’ve experienced stressful situations before. You’ve got this.

Still Skeptical?

Think about how firefighters train. They educate themselves about fire and how it behaves in different situations. They put themselves through grueling physical training to practice carrying heavy equipment, navigating smoky, dark buildings and stairwells, and braving the heat of a raging fire. They practice running into burning buildings. The training is hard and highly stressful.

Now imagine you are out for a nightly walk and you see that a neighbor’s house is on fire. Your heart races. You panic. You fumble with your phone. You take a step toward the house. You hesitate. What do you do? Fortunately, the firefighters arrive and race into the home without hesitation. Your moment of stress and anxiety is just another day at the office for them. They know what to expect. They trained for it.

You can practice for everyday stress in similar ways, by putting yourself in challenging situations. The good news is that practicing stress can actually be enjoyable, even thrilling. The key is to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Here are some suggestions:

Run a marathon

Play in a Scrabble competition

Read an original poem at a poetry slam

Climb a mountain

Sing karaoke

Tell a story in front of a crowd

Take on a tough project at work

Kayak the Colorado rapids

Train to scuba dive

Attend a boot camp

Not only will challenging experiences give you more confidence, but the repeated exposure to stressful situations can also change your body’s biological response to stress. Your stress hormones become less responsive, allowing you to better handle stress when it comes.

Dr. Dennis Charney, a psychiatrist and the dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, notes that programs like Outward Bound and basic military training are all designed to make people uncomfortable and build their skills so that they will be better able to handle stress later on. When his children were young, he took them on adventure trips that included “a degree of anxiety” like exposure to wildlife or kayaking in remote areas as a way to build confidence and prepare them to deal with stressful events. Putting yourself or your children in difficult social situations or speaking in public can help adults and children accumulate social and intellectual skills that help in times of stress.

“Live your life in a way that you get the skills that enable you to handle stress,” says Dr. Charney. “Put yourself out of your comfort zone.”

An Rx for Resilience

Another factor in how you handle a stressful situation is resilience. The American Psychological Association defines resilience this way:

Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress — such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors. It means “bouncing back” from difficult experiences.

You can boost your resilience in a number of ways. In the book “Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges,” the authors, Dr. Steven M. Southwick and Dr. Charney, studied people who experienced great stressors — prisoners of war, men in the special forces, victims of trauma or survivors of catastrophic events. They found that people with the most resilience in the face of extreme challenges shared several behaviors and mind-sets. From that research, the duo identified 10 factors associated with resilience. You don’t need to practice all 10 behaviors to build resilience; just pick the two or three or four that speak to you.

1. Adopt a positive attitude. Optimism is strongly related to resilience.

2. Reframe the situation. Just like the stressed-out study subjects were taught to reappraise stress as their friend, people who are resilient typically reframe a negative situation as an opportunity for growth, learning or change.

3. Focus on core beliefs. People with a deeply held core belief, strong faith or a commitment to altruism often show more resilience.

4. Find a role model. Seeing someone else who has come through adversity can strengthen your own resilience.

5. Face your fears. Confronting a challenge rather than avoiding it will help you cope and build confidence.

6. Fall back on religion or spirituality. For many people, strong faith or spiritual beliefs can fuel resilience.

7. Seek social support. People who reach out to friends, family and support groups fare better during stressful times.

8. Exercise. It improves mood, relieves stress and makes you physically stronger.

9. Inoculate against stress. Challenge yourself regularly in the areas of emotional intelligence, moral integrity and physical endurance.

10. Find meaning and purpose. Having a clear purpose in life can boost your emotional strength during difficult times.

Numerous studies have shown us that exercise can improve your mood.

Exercise can channel your stress response into something constructive and distract your mind from the challenges at work or home that make you feel chronically stressed. In many ways exercise appears to be a form of stress inoculation. In studies, mice given access to running wheels and tubes to explore for just two weeks became resistant to stress compared with mice who had not exercised. They measured this by exposing the mice to an aggressive mouse. After the bullying, the exercising-mice bounced back, but the sedentary mice continued to show signs of stress. The bottom line: Exercise doesn’t eliminate stress, but it does give your body the physical conditioning it needs to recover from it.

How Much Exercise Do I Need to Manage Stress? It doesn’t take much. Even small amounts of exercise can help you manage your stress. The key is consistency. Don’t let the stress of your day push exercise off the schedule.

Does the Type of Exercise Matter? The exercise that is best for relieving stress is the one you will do consistently. Find something that fits your schedule and that you enjoy. For some, that will be a morning spin class or an evening run. For others, it will be a 30-minute walk at lunch time. A Norwegian study found that people who engaged in any exercise, even a small amount, reported improve mental health compared with people who never exercised.

What About Weight Training? One study showed that six weeks of bicycle riding or weight training eased symptoms in women who received a diagnosis of anxiety disorder. The weight training was especially effective at reducing irritability .

Indeed, some research suggests that when it comes to reducing stress, you’ll get more out of exercise if you incorporate some weight training. Studies show that anaerobic or resistance exercises (working with weights) taxes muscles more than aerobic exercise like walking or running. The result is that weight training, done right, may produce more mood-boosting endorphins than cardio exercise. Exercises that stress the large muscles seem to have the biggest effect, like squats, leg presses, incline situps, military presses and bench presses.

Take it Outside

Simply taking your exercise outdoors can have a significant effect on your mood.

In a number of recent studies, volunteers who walked outdoors reported enjoying the activity more than those who walked indoors on a treadmill. Subsequent psychological tests showed outdoor exercisers scored significantly higher on measures of vitality, enthusiasm, pleasure and self-esteem and lower on tension, depression and fatigue.

A study last year of older adults found that those who exercised outside did so longer and more often than those working out indoors. The outdoor exercisers averaged about 30 minutes more exercise each week than those who walked or otherwise exercised indoors.

A few small studies have found that people have lower blood levels of cortisol, a hormone related to stress, after exerting themselves outside as compared with inside. There’s speculation, too, that exposure to direct sunlight, known to affect mood, plays a role.

A study in Austria found that almost all the participants reported that the outdoor effort had felt less strenuous to them than their time on the treadmill. And they enjoyed it more.

A small study from the University of Essex found that exercisers exposed to the color green found it easier to exercise and were in a better mood than exercisers exposed to gray or red. (Think green trees versus a cement-walled gym.)

Exercise your mind and let it rest to help it better process stress.

Giving Your Mind a Rest

For people dealing with high levels of stress, it can be hard to fathom how a few moments of meditation will help. After meditation, the stressors are still there — you’re still getting divorced, caring for an aging parent, struggling with the demands of a high-stress job. How can a few moments of deep thought possibly help your life?

It may help to think about how muscles get stronger. Unrelenting exercise simply tears down a muscle and leads to injury. Smart exercisers know the value of a day of rest — that’s when your muscles regenerate and come back stronger than before.

Now think about your mind as an emotional muscle. Unrelenting stress without a break will not make it stronger. Your emotions, your brain and your body need moments of recovery to get stronger from stress.

“It’s about stress and recovery. Just like you build a physical muscle, just like you build biceps, you have to take the same approach to life stressors,” says Jack Groppel, co-founder of the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute , which offers a course called “The Power of Positive Stress.“

Think of meditation like high-intensity interval training (H.I.I.T.) for the brain. During H.I.I.T., you go as hard as you can, then you give yourself a few minutes of recovery before returning to the exercise. This cycle is repeated multiple times and has been shown to be more effective for building strength than long, slow bouts of exercise.

Now imagine a high-intensity, high-stress workday. But every hour, you take two minutes to let your brain recover. “Stress is the stimulus for growth,” says Dr. Groppel. “Recovery is when growth occurs. If there is no recovery, there is no growth. That’s how we build the resilience muscle.”

Controlled Breathing

Controlled breathing has been shown to reduce stress, increase alertness and boost your immune system. For centuries yogis have used breath control, or pranayama, to promote concentration and improve vitality. The Buddha advocated breath-meditation as a way to reach enlightenment.

Science is just beginning to provide evidence that the benefits of this ancient practice are real. Studies have found, for example, that breathing practices can help reduce symptoms associated with anxiety, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and attention deficit disorder.

When your mind is racing or you feel keyed up, try Rock and Roll breathing, which has the added benefit of strengthening your core.

1. Sit up straight on the floor or the edge of a chair.

2. Place your hands on your belly.

3. As you inhale, lean forward and expand your belly.

4. As you exhale, squeeze the breath out and curl forward while leaning backward; exhale until you’re completely empty of breath.

5. Repeat 20 times.

One study recruited 35 unemployed men and women who were seeking work and experiencing considerable stress. All of them participated in stretching exercises, but half of them were also taught formal mindfulness meditation. After three days, everyone said they felt refreshed and better able to withstand the stress of unemployment. Yet follow-up brain scans showed differences in only those who underwent mindfulness meditation. There was more activity, or communication, among the portions of their brains that process stress-related reactions and other areas related to focus and calm. Four months later, those who had practiced mindfulness showed much lower levels in their blood of a marker of unhealthy inflammation than the relaxation group, even though few were still meditating.

To learn more about meditation, try the introductory exercise below.

Basic Mindfulness Meditation

Learn how to pay close attention to the present moment with this meditation exercise.

Find a comfortable place to sit, and a posture that is both alert and relaxed at the same time. See if you can make the spine erect, without being too rigid. STEP 2

Close your eyes (or leave them slightly open if you prefer), and take a few slow breaths. Take a few moments to loosen your body from your head to your toes, and take a few more deep breaths.

Stop to notice the sensations throughout your body — the warmth, the coolness or any discomfort. Be aware of them, but try not to fidget too much.

Pick one sensation — such as the feeling of your breath going in and out — and devote your attention to it. Just focus on that.

When your mind wanders, bring your attention back to the breath. After a few moments, your mind may wander again. Once again, notice that and simply return your attention back to the present moment.

When you’re ready — after one minute, 10 minutes or 30 minutes — open your eyes. Though your formal meditation practice may have ended, your mindful awareness can continue throughout the day.

Write it down

Another way to cope with stress: writing. It is based on the idea that we all have a personal narrative that shapes our view of the world and ourselves. But sometimes our inner voice doesn’t get it completely right. Some researchers believe that by writing and then editing our own stories, we can change our perceptions of ourselves and identify obstacles that stand in the way of better health. It may sound like self-help nonsense, but research suggests the effects are real.

Timothy D. Wilson, a University of Virginia psychology professor and author of “Redirect: Changing the Stories We Live By,” believes that while writing doesn’t solve every problem, it can definitely help people cope. “Writing forces people to reconstrue whatever is troubling them and find new meaning in it,” he said.

There are a number of methods to tap into the power of expressive writing:

Journal every day. Just writing about your thoughts, feelings and experiences every day can help. Explore your thoughts and feelings about an issue. Don’t just re-live the stress in your life but try to find meaning in it or explore how well you’ve handled certain situations. Be disciplined and write at the same time every day so it becomes a habit. In a University of Texas study, students who wrote about stressful or traumatic events for four days in a row reaped the benefits for months after. For the next six months, the writing students had fewer visits to the campus health center and used fewer pain relievers than the students in the experiment who wrote about trivial matters.

Change your story. Use writing to force yourself to confront the changes you need to make in your life. On the first day, write down your goals, then write down why you haven’t achieved them (“I don’t have the time or the money,” “Too many family responsibilities,” etc.) The next day review your writing. Now ask: What is really standing in the way of your goals? Change the story so you have control. Maybe the answer is: I don’t put myself first. I don’t make exercise a priority. I let other people talk me into spending money rather than saving.

Write a mission statement. People deal with stress better when they have a strong moral compass. This means knowing what you value in life and using that as a guidepost for all decision. By creating a mission statement people can begin to identify the underlying causes of behaviors, as well as what truly motivates them to change. “A mission statement becomes the North Star for people,” says Dr. Groppel. “It becomes how you make decisions, how you lead and how you create boundaries.” To learn more, read our article “Creating a New Mission Statement.”

Stress and Your Appetite

Stress can have a huge impact on your eating habits. During acute stress (the hours after a car accident or the shock of a layoff announcement at work), the stress response can shut down appetite. The fight-or-flight response is designed to suppress hunger — you won’t be effective in battle or run that fast if you are thinking about food. But chronic stress has the opposite effect. Repeated doses of cortisol in your body due to high stress can lead to an increase in appetite.

According to the Harvard Health Letter, gender can play a role in how you eat during times of stress. Some research suggests women are more likely overeat due to stress while men turn to alcohol or smoking.

And the reality is that food really can make you feel better during times of stress. So-called comfort food like chocolate cake and ice cream literally blunt the body’s response to chronic stress. The problem with continuing to self-medicate chronic stress with comfort foods is that it will lead to weight gain and poor health.

Just as you need to reframe your view of stress and exercise and meditate to give your body a break from stress, you can also adopt strategies to use food to help you better cope with stress.

Mindful Eating

During times of stress, we can be particularly careless about what we eat and resort to mindless snacking, grabbing sweets from the office treat table or eating bags of junk food on the run. During times of stress, it’s particularly important to engage in “mindful eating,” which involves eating slowly and relishing every bite.

“The question isn’t what are the foods to eat, in my mind,” says Dr. Michael Finkelstein, a holistic physician who oversees SunRaven , a holistic-living center in Bedford, N.Y. “Most people have a general sense of what the healthy foods are, but they’re not eating them. What’s on your mind when you’re eating: That’s mindful eating to me.”

Here’s a simple exercise to try next time you are sitting down to a delicious meal:

Place a forkful of food in your mouth. Make it something you love.

Put the fork down and resist the temptation to take a second bite.

Chew slowly. Tune in to the texture of the food, the flavor, the aroma. Focus on the colors on your plate.

Be present in the moment and think only about the food in your mouth. Reflect on the effort that went into growing or producing this food; the effort it took to prepare this meal.

Savor the moment.

To learn more, read “Mindful Eating as Food for Thought.”

Your friends and family can be both a cause of stress and a cure for it.

Lean on Loved Ones

The pressure of family responsibilities is one of the most common forms of stress. But during times of stress, our friends and family members are most likely to give us the support we need to get through it.

One of my favorite friendship studies involved a steep hill, a heavy backpack and 34 university students. Students were fitted with a backpack full of free weights equivalent to 20 percent of their body weight. They stood at the base of a hill on the University of Virginia campus with a 26-degree incline. Wearing the heavy backpack, they had to imagine climbing that hill and guess the incline. When a student stood alone, he or she tended to guess that the hill was very steep. But when they stood next to a friend, the hill didn’t look as daunting. Overall, students in pairs consistently gave lower estimates of the hill’s incline compared with students who were alone. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared.

The lesson: The world does not look as challenging with a friend by your side.

For people who study stress, the role of friendship, family and support networks can’t be overstated. Time and again research shows that social support is a defining element in our happiness, quality of life and ability to cope with stress.

Map Your Social Network

During times of high stress we have a tendency to retreat. We cancel social plans and focus on the work, money crisis or trauma that is our source of stress. But friends and social support are among the best forms of therapy to help you escape stress for brief periods of time. Friends can also make you feel better about yourself, and that mountain of stress in your life won’t look so steep.

When Dr. Southwick, Yale Medical School psychiatrist, co-wrote his book on resilience, he interviewed a number of people who had shown resilience against all odds, including former prisoners of war and people who had survived trauma. One thing they had in common was social support.

“The resilient people we interviewed actively reached out for support,” said Dr. Southwick. “They don’t sit around and wait.”

Even POWs held in isolation devised a tapping method of communication with their fellow prisoners. “Most, if not all, said it was life-saving to know they weren’t alone and they were cared for,” said Dr. Southwick.

When Dr. Southwick, a psychiatrist, meets with a new patient, one of the first things he does is construct a diagram of the patient’s social network. Sometimes they just talk about it; some patients want to map it out on paper. “Who is in your life? Who can you count on?” asks Dr. Southwick. Make your own list of your social network and keep it handy when you need to call on someone for support.

Don’t Just Seek Support, Give It

If you lead a highly stressful life, the solution may be to add one more task to your daily to-do list. Give back.

Research consistently shows that helping other people and giving social support is a powerful way to manage the stress in your life and boost your resilience. Volunteer work, mentoring, mowing your elderly neighbor’s lawn, listening to a friend who is struggling — all these can enhance your own ability to manage stress and thrive.“

Time spent helping others, sharing our knowledge and providing social and emotional support gives meaning and purpose to our lives,” said Adam Grant, a Wharton management professor and co-author of the book “Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy” with Sheryl Sandberg. “Getting out of yourself and helping others may be even more powerful than receiving social support.”

Reach Out and Touch Someone

The simple act of touching another person — or being touched — can ease your stress. James A. Coan, an assistant professor of psychology and a neuroscientist at the University of Virginia, recruited 16 women who felt they had strong support in their relationships. To simulate stress, he subjected each woman to a mild electric shock under three conditions, all while monitoring her brain. The shocks were administered in no particular order while the woman was 1) alone, 2) holding a stranger’s hand, and 3) holding her husband’s hand.

Notably, both instances of hand-holding reduced the neural activity in areas of the woman’s brain associated with stress. But when the woman was holding her husband’s hand, the effect was even greater, and it was particularly pronounced in women who had the highest marital-happiness scores. Holding a husband’s hand during the electric shock resulted in a calming of the brain regions associated with pain similar to the effect brought about by use of a pain-relieving drug.

Coan says the study simulates how a supportive marriage and partnership gives the brain the opportunity to outsource some of its most difficult neural work. “When someone holds your hand in a study or just shows that they are there for you by giving you a back rub, when you’re in their presence, that becomes a cue that you don’t have to regulate your negative emotion,” he told me. “The other person is essentially regulating your negative emotion but without your prefrontal cortex. It’s much less wear and tear on us if we have someone there to help regulate us.”

Animals Can Help

Spending time with your pet can offer a temporary reprieve from stress. Spending time with your dog and taking it for a walk is a twofer — you get the stress reduction of a pet plus the stress-busting benefits of a walk outdoors.

The evidence that pets are a source of comfort and stress relief is compelling. At Veterans Affairs hospitals, therapy animals including dogs and parrots have helped patients undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress reduce their anxiety.

Studies have shown that after just 20 minutes with a therapy dog, patients’ levels of stress hormones drop and levels of pain-reducing endorphins rise.

In a controlled study of therapy dog visits among patients with heart disease, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found a significant reduction in anxiety levels and blood pressure in the heart and lungs in those who spent 12 minutes with a visiting animal, but no such effect occurred among comparable patients not visited by a dog.

Excessive stress can take a physical toll if it’s not managed correctly.

While some stress is essential for human function, chronic stress creates a cascade of physical changes throughout your body.

Heart: During a stressful event, your heart rate increases and your body releases the stress hormones — cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline. In some parts of the body (skin, digestive system, brain) blood vessels constrict, allowing blood flow to increase to larger systems (heart, large muscles). The body is redirecting oxygen and nutrients to the areas where they are needed most to give you the strength to fight or flee. But blood flowing to a smaller area causes blood pressure to rise. Normally the effects are temporary, but some research suggests that in people with chronic stress, the effects on the heart are unrelenting, raising the risk for high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.

Immune System: Chronic stress can depress the immune system and make you more vulnerable to colds or more serious illnesses.

Diabetes Risk: During stress, the liver increases glucose production for a boost of energy to propel you during an emergency. Chronic stress can lead to extra blood sugar, increasing risk for diabetes, especially among those already at high risk, such as the overweight or those with a family history of the disease. According to the American Psychological Association , learning to manage your stress can be nearly as effective at controlling blood sugar as medication.

Stomach and Digestion: Stress can affect how fast food moves through your body, stomach acid and the absorption of nutrients. Chronic stress can also lead to overeating or alcohol use. All of these factors can contribute to a number of gastrointestinal issues including acid reflux, heartburn pain, nausea, stomach pain, ulcers and diarrhea.

Sex and Reproduction: In men, chronic stress can affect testosterone levels and sperm count, and contribute to erectile dysfunction. In women, stress can create irregular menstrual cycles and painful periods and exacerbate premenstrual syndrome. Stress can also worsen the symptoms of menopause, including more frequent and more severe hot flashes. In both men and women, chronic stress can dampen sexual desire.

Tara Parker-Pope is a columnist covering health, behavior and relationships. She is the founding editor of Well, The Times's award-winning consumer health site. More about Tara Parker-Pope

Managing Anxiety and Stress

Stay balanced in the face of anxiety with our collection of tools and advice..

How are you, really? This self-guided check-in will help you take stock of your emotional well-being — and learn how to make changes .

Bring calm and clarity into your life with these 10 tips , then identify what you are dealing with: Is it worry, anxiety or stress ?

These simple and proven strategies will help you manage stress , support your mental health and find meaning.

Persistent depressive disorder is underdiagnosed, and many who suffer from it have never heard of it. Here’s what to know .

New research suggests people tend to be lonelier in young adulthood and late life. But experts say it doesn’t have to be that way .

Caffeine can make you anxious. Here’s what to do about it .

How to Cope With Stress: 10+ Strategies and Mechanisms

If so, you might be stressed.

Stress is an inevitable part of life, affecting individuals in different ways. Some people thrive under stress, whereas others struggle. Our thresholds for how much stress we can endure differ from one person to the next.

Learning how to cope with stress is essential to ensuring that individuals maintain their physical and mental health. It is improbable to have a life completely free of stress, so we must learn how to cope.

In this post, we explore how to cope with stress using stress coping techniques. We will start with the psychological theories about stress and, from there, look at several methods, informal and formal, that can be used. Our goal is that readers should have a solid understanding of stress-management techniques that can be easily implemented.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Stress & Burnout Prevention Exercises (PDF) for free . These science-based exercises will equip you and your clients with tools to better manage stress and find a healthier balance in your life.

This Article Contains

How to cope with stress according to psychology, healthy coping strategies and mechanisms: a list, 6+ techniques your clients can try, 5 activities, prompts, and worksheets, stress-management skills for work stress, 3 questionnaires, tests, and inventories, resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message.

There are various psychological theories about coping with stress, and it is essential to understand these theories to manage stress effectively.

4 Theories about coping with stress

One of the most popular and widely accepted theories is the transactional model of stress and coping, developed by Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman (1984).

According to this model, stress results from an individual’s assessment of the stressor, its threat, and whether they have the necessary cognitive and behavioral resources to manage the stressor.

Based on this assessment, our coping mechanisms and psychological responses to stress are triggered. The model suggests that coping strategies can be either problem focused or emotion focused.

Problem-focused coping involves actively addressing the stressor, while emotion-focused coping involves managing the emotions associated with the stressor.

The transactional model of stress was expanded upon into the workplace, where it’s known as the job demand–control theory and the job demand–control–support theory (for a review, see Häusser et al., 2010; Goh et al., 2010).

In this theory, two dimensions influence the experience of stress: workload/job demands and the degree of control employees have over work tasks. The combination of high demand and low control increases the likelihood of high stress. Social support within the office has protective properties that moderate the relationship between demand and control.

The protective qualities of social support were recognized in the social support theory, another theory about coping with stress (Cohen & Wills, 1985). In this theory, social support is crucial for managing anxiety, because it helps ease feelings of anxiety and helps develop solutions to stressful environments. Social support is not limited to only immediate family and friends but includes colleagues and health care professionals.

The conservation of resources Theory (COR; Hobfoll, 1989) is another stress coping theory. This theory developed from the starting point that people feel stressed when they do not think they have the necessary resources to combat stress. However, in COR, additional emphasis is placed on the objective resources that are also available. These resources can be tangible (e.g., money, a house) or intangible (e.g., our relationships, self-worth), and individuals experience stress when their resources are threatened, depleted, or unattainable.

This theory is primarily used to explain workplace stress , and some researchers prefer it over the transactional model of stress because it:

• Is more practical and realistic
• Places less responsibility on the individual who experiences the stressor to change their mindset to combat stress
• Has predictive qualities (Hobfoll et al., 2018)

Why is stress management important?

Chronic stress can adversely affect an individual’s wellbeing and lead to mental health disorders like anxiety and depression (Hammen, 2005).

Therefore, developing good coping strategies has multiple beneficial outcomes (Cohen, 2004), including:

• Reducing the negative impact of stress
• Improving an individual’s overall quality of life by enhancing resilience
• Improving their social support network, allowing them to seek help and support from friends and family during stressful times

Here we provide a concise list of methods that can be used to cope with stress.

• Healthy coping strategies include exercise, relaxation techniques, social support, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies (CBT). Exercise has been shown to have numerous health benefits, including stress reduction, improved mood, and enhanced cognitive function (Sui et al., 2019).
• Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, and yoga have also been shown to reduce stress and improve mental health outcomes (Pascoe et al., 2017).
• Social support, such as emotional and practical support from family and friends, can help individuals cope with stress (Cohen & Wills, 1985).
• CBT helps individuals recognize and change negative thought patterns and behaviors, improving mental health outcomes (Hofmann et al., 2012).
• Additional strategies that can improve mental and physical health are getting enough sleep, eating healthily, and avoiding alcohol (or consuming it in moderation). They do not impact stress directly, but they provide the scaffolding so individuals are better positioned to cope with stressful experiences effectively.

Besides these healthy coping strategies, there are several psychological techniques or mechanisms that individuals can use to manage stress.

• One mechanism is problem-focused coping, which involves addressing the stressor directly through problem-solving strategies (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
• Emotion-focused coping involves managing the emotional response to stress through strategies such as positive reappraisal or acceptance (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
• Meaning-focused coping involves finding meaning or purpose in the stressor or the experience of coping with it (Park, 2010).

These psychological techniques can be used alongside healthy coping strategies to manage stress more effectively and maintain overall wellbeing.

Download 3 Free Stress & Burnout Prevention Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients with tools to manage stress better and find a healthier balance in their life.

Download 3 Stress & Burnout Prevention Exercises Pack (PDF)

By filling out your name and email address below.

• Email Address *
• Your Expertise * Your expertise Therapy Coaching Education Counseling Business Healthcare Other
• Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Stress can have a significant impact on both our physical and mental wellbeing. Fortunately, there are several psychological techniques and physiological strategies that can alleviate stress.

• One such technique is mindfulness-based stress reduction ( MBSR ). MBSR has decreased perceived stress, anxiety, and depression in individuals who practice it regularly (Carmody & Baer, 2009).
• Similarly, practicing mindfulness meditation has been found to reduce stress levels and improve wellbeing (Hoge et al., 2013). Mindfulness exercises can include simple techniques, such as paying attention to one’s breath or body sensations, or more structured practices, such as body scans or mindful eating .
• Another technique is CBT , which helps individuals identify and challenge negative thoughts and beliefs contributing to stress (Beck, 2011).
• Additionally, relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation and deep- breathing exercises have been shown to reduce stress (Hennefeld & Battle, 2019).
• Another technique is visualization, which involves imagining a calm, peaceful place or scenario to reduce stress and promote relaxation (Chafin & Ollendick, 2001).

Move your body to improve your mood

Physical exercise and activity have also reduced stress levels and improved mood and overall wellbeing (Craft & Perna, 2004). Physical exercise reduces stress by releasing endorphins, improving mood, combating depression , and improving physical health (Belvederi Murri et al., 2019).

One simple yet effective activity is to take a walk in nature. A study conducted by Bratman et al. (2015) found that taking a 90-minute walk in a natural environment reduced neural activity in the sub-genual prefrontal cortex, a brain region associated with rumination and negative thought patterns.

Although exercise can be completed alone, consider doing it with friends or family or joining an exercise group or club. This way, you get double the benefits: exercise’s mood-boosting effects plus social support’s protective benefits.

Consider formal social support groups

Finally, joining a support group or taking part in group therapy can also help build a sense of community and reduce feelings of isolation.

Cohen et al. (2015) found that individuals who received social support had lower levels of stress hormones in response to stressors than those who did not receive social support.

The ABC sheet

One commonly used activity is the ABC sheet , which is based on CBT and helps patients understand the relationship between their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

The name is an initialism:

• Antecedent is the event or stimulus that activates thoughts.
• Belief represents the perception or evaluation of that event.
• Consequence is the emotional or behavioral reaction that follows.

With this sheet, patients learn to identify irrational thoughts, negative beliefs, and consequences.

Once patients learn how to recognize these beliefs and behaviors, they can also learn how to challenge them, resulting in more favorable emotional and behavioral outcomes.

The Core Values Worksheet

Another worksheet is the Core Values Worksheet . With this worksheet, the underlying premise is that if we behave in a way that is incongruent with our core values, then we will experience stress.

Therefore, to reduce stress, we must identify our core values and how to align our behaviors to achieve, preserve, and satisfy them. These behaviors should be incorporated into our daily lives, not just reserved for big, life-changing decisions.

In this worksheet, the client will list their top values and then identify specific actions aligned with them. In addition to helping clients identify primary values, the tool can also help them identify incongruous behaviors that can lead to stress.

Journal prompts

Journaling is a valuable method for reducing stress and identifying patterns of behaviors and thoughts. One of the most significant advantages of journaling is that it is easy to implement and cost effective. All you need is a pencil and a notebook.

Several journal prompts can be used for coping with stress. In fact, we suggest having a look at our gratitude journal article for ideas. However, to whet your appetite, here is a short list to start with:

• Gratitude journaling: Write about three things you are grateful for each day to increase positive emotions.
• Positive self-talk: Jot down some positive affirmations or statements about yourself. This can help combat negative self-talk and increase self-esteem.
• Reflection on achievements: Write about a recent accomplishment to improve your self-worth.

For most adults, work is a source of significant stress. Unfortunately, it is a common occurrence that can lead to substantial physical and mental health issues if not adequately managed.

Developing stress-management techniques for work will improve not only wellbeing, but also productivity. Stress-management strategies for work include time management, physical activity, and mindfulness meditation.

Effective time management is a critical stress-management skill, and it involves organizing and prioritizing tasks to optimize productivity and reduce stress. For example, employees who manage their time efficiently are less likely to experience work stress (Frost & Stimpson, 2020).

To do this, individuals should set realistic goals and establish a schedule that allows them to accomplish their tasks without feeling overwhelmed. Other methods within employees’ control are to avoid procrastination and work without distraction.

For example, do not accept all tasks or requests that come your way, learn to say no or delegate, do the most difficult task first, and use a time-management system. One example of an effective time-management system is the Pomodoro technique , where you work for 25 minutes, take a five-minute break, and then after three cycles, take a longer break.

If employees do not determine their deadlines or tasks, which can be unrealistic or untenable, they should discuss these challenges with their managers or team leaders.

Employers can also significantly reduce work stress by implementing policies promoting a healthy work–life balance and providing stress-management training and support resources.

Physical activity is another critical stress-management skill that can help employees cope with work stress. Regular physical activity has been shown to reduce stress, improve mood, and increase energy levels by reducing stress hormones in the body (i.e., cortisol and adrenaline) and promoting the release of endorphins, which are natural mood enhancers (Salmon, 2018).

Physical activity can also improve cognitive function and help individuals make better decisions, which can reduce work stress (Stults-Kolehmainen & Sinha, 2014).

Other simple physical techniques that may help combat work stress include getting enough sleep, eating healthily and regularly, and avoiding alcohol (or consuming it in moderation).

Mindfulness exercises, such as mindfulness meditation, may also protect against work stress. Mindfulness meditation is a stress-management technique focusing on the present moment without judgment.

This technique helps individuals reduce stress by promoting relaxation, improving cognitive function (Schmidt et al., 2019), and reducing feelings of anxiety even in the workplace (Biegel et al., 2009). Mindfulness meditation can be easily performed in the office or a quiet workplace.

These tools have good psychometric properties (i.e., internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and validity) and are often used in peer-reviewed research.

Perceived Stress Scale

The first questionnaire is the Perceived Stress Scale, a 10-item self-report questionnaire designed to measure an individual’s subjective perception of stress (Cohen et al., 1983).

Initially, it was designed as a generic tool to measure perceived stress in a smoking cessation study. The original version contained 14 items and can be found in the original paper.

It assesses how individuals perceive their life as unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded. The Perceived Stress Scale , with scoring instructions, can be accessed via the link.

State–Trait Anxiety Inventory

A second, more general measure of anxiety and stress is the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger et al., 1983).

Originally, it was developed as two separate tools, each containing 20 questions; however, these are often administered together. This inventory is widely used, easy to administer, and freely available.

It is a 40-item self-report questionnaire that measures two types of anxiety: state and trait anxiety. State anxiety is the temporary emotional state characterized by subjective feelings of tension, apprehension, and nervousness. For example, when presented with an urgent deadline, we might feel acute but short-lived feelings of stress and worry.

In contrast, trait anxiety is a stable personality trait characterized by a tendency to experience anxiety across various situations. For example, some people tend to have higher anxiety in general that is not limited to a specific event.

Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ)

For professionals who work in industrial and organizational psychology, we recommend the JCQ (Karasek et al.,1998).

This is a 49-item self-report questionnaire that measures job stress in terms of its psychological demands, decision authority, skill discretion, and social support. Initially, it was designed for research on the relationship between job stress and cardiovascular disease.

A study by Kivimäki et al. (2012) found that high job strain (high psychological demands combined with low decision authority and low social support) was associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. The JCQ is in the manuscript’s appendix published by Karasek et al. (1998).

World’s Largest Positive Psychology Resource

The Positive Psychology Toolkit© is a groundbreaking practitioner resource containing over 500 science-based exercises , activities, interventions, questionnaires, and assessments created by experts using the latest positive psychology research.

Updated monthly. 100% Science-based.

“The best positive psychology resource out there!” — Emiliya Zhivotovskaya , Flourishing Center CEO

For readers interested in journaling techniques and prompts, we suggest the following articles:

• Journaling for Mindfulness
• Journal prompts to improve self-esteem

For readers who want to read more about mindfulness meditation, especially in the workplace. this post is a good starting point and is quite exhaustive:

• Mindfulness at Work

In addition to our blog posts and free worksheets, we’d also like to share these three tools specifically related to stress and burnout. The Stress & Burnout Prevention Exercise Pack includes the following useful worksheets:

• Energy Management Audit
• The Stress-Related Growth Scale
• Strengthening the Work–Private Life Barrier

The worksheets are easy to administer and appropriate for clients experiencing stress in different domains of their lives. Two of these tools are designed for assessment and can help identify energy levels, the most effective ways to recharge, and how clients approach and reframe life events. The third tool is an exercise to help develop work–life boundaries.

Looking for even more tools? If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others manage stress without spending hours on research and session prep, check out this collection of 17 validated stress-management tools for practitioners . Use them to help others cope with stress and create more balance in their lives.

Stress is a common experience that can have very serious negative consequences if left unmanaged. However, learning how to cope with stress is vital and will positively impact different spheres of life.

A large amount of stress is due to work demands. Finding a coping solution that works for you, especially one that can be incorporated into the work environment, is a great way to improve your mental health.

We encourage you to try these coping techniques to find the optimal one that will help you manage your stress levels.

Are there any stress coping methods you would recommend personally or that you have found highly effective in your practice? Please share them with us in the comments.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Stress & Burnout Prevention Exercises (PDF) for free .

• Beck, J. S. (2011). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
• Belvederi Murri, M., Ekkekakis, P., Magagnoli, M., Zampogna, D., Cattedra, S., Capobianco, L., Serafini, G., Calgano, P., Zanetidou, S., & Amore, M. (2019). Physical exercise in major depression: Reducing the mortality gap while improving clinical outcomes. Frontiers in Psychiatry , 9 .
• Biegel, G. M., Brown, K. W., Shapiro, S. L., & Schubert, C. M. (2009). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for the treatment of adolescent psychiatric outpatients: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 77 (5), 855–866.
• Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., Hahn, K. S., Daily, G. C., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 112 (28), 8567–8572.
• Carmody, J., & Baer, R. A. (2009). How long does a mindfulness-based stress reduction program need to be? A review of class contact hours and effect sizes for psychological distress. Journal of Clinical Psychology , 65 (6), 627–638.
• Chafin, S., & Ollendick, T. (2001). A review of empirical studies of psychoanalytically oriented treatments for PTSD. Journal of Traumatic Stress , 14 (2), 249–263.
• Cohen, S. (2004). Social relationships and health. American Psychologist , 59 (8), 676–684.
• Cohen, S., Janicki-Deverts, D., Turner, R. B., & Doyle, W. J. (2015). Does hugging provide stress-buffering social support? A study of susceptibility to upper respiratory infection and illness.  Psychological Science ,  26 (2), 135–147.
• Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior , 24 (4), 385–396.
• Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin , 98 (2), 310–357.
• Craft, L. L., & Perna, F. M. (2004). The benefits of exercise for the clinically depressed. Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry , 6 (3), 104–111.
• Frost, R., & Stimpson, N. (2020). Time management for health and social care professionals . Routledge.
• Goh, Y. W., Sawang, S., & Oei, T. P. (2010). The revised transactional model (RTM) of occupational stress and coping: An improved process approach. The Australasian Journal of Organisational Psychology , 3 , 13–20.
• Hammen, C. (2005). Stress and depression. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology , 1 (1), 293–319.
• Häusser, J. A., Mojzisch, A., Niesel, M., & Schulz-Hardt, S. (2010). Ten years on: A review of recent research on the job demand–control (–support) model and psychological well-being. Work & Stress , 24 (1), 1–35.
• Hennefeld, J., & Battle, C. L. (2019). Relaxation techniques. In The SAGE encyclopedia of abnormal and clinical psychology (pp. 2944–2946). SAGE.
• Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist , 44 (3), 513–524.
• Hobfoll, S. E., Halbesleben, J., Neveu, J. P., & Westman, M. (2018). Conservation of resources in the organizational context: The reality of resources and their consequences. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior , 5 , 103–128.
• Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J., Sawyer, A. T., & Fang, A. (2012). The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research , 36 (5), 427–440.
• Hoge, E. A., Bui, E., Marques, L., Metcalf, C. A., Morris, L. K., Robinaugh, D. J., Worthington, J. J., Pollack, M. H., & Simon, N. M. (2013). Randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation for generalized anxiety disorder: effects on anxiety and stress reactivity. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry , 74 (8), 786–792.
• Karasek, R., Brisson, C., Kawakami, N., Houtman, I., Bongers, P., & Amick, B. (1998). The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ): An instrument for internationally comparative assessments of psychosocial job characteristics. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology , 3 (4), 322–355.
• Kivimäki, M., Nyberg, S. T., Batty, G. D., Fransson, E. I., Heikkilä, K., Alfredsson, L., Bjorner, J. B., Borritz, M., Burr, H., Casini, A., Clays, E., De Bacquer, D., Dragano, N., Ferrie, J. E., Geuskens, G. A., Goldberg, M., Hamer, M., Hooftman, W. E., Houtman, I. L., … Theorell, T. (2012). Job strain as a risk factor for coronary heart disease: A collaborative meta-analysis of individual participant data. Lancet , 380 (9852), 1491–1497.
• Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping . Springer.
• Park, C. L. (2010). Making sense of the meaning literature: An integrative review of meaning making and its effects on adjustment to stressful life events. Psychological Bulletin , 136 (2), 257–301.
• Pascoe, M. C., Thompson, D. R., & Ski, C. F. (2017). Yoga, mindfulness-based stress reduction and stress-related physiological measures: A meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology , 86 , 152–168.
• Salmon, P. (2018). Effects of physical exercise on anxiety, depression, and sensitivity to stress: A unifying theory. Clinical Psychology Review , 57 , 117–131.
• Schmidt, S., Mrazek, M. D., & Haggard, M. (2019). Mindfulness in the workplace. Oxford research encyclopedia of psychology . Oxford University Press.
• Spielberger, C.D., Gorsuch, R. L., Lushene, R., Vagg, P. R., & Jacobs, G. A. (1983). Manual for the S tate–Trait Anxiety Inventory . Consulting Psychologists Press.
• Stults-Kolehmainen, M. A., & Sinha, R. (2014). The effects of stress on physical activity and exercise. Sports Medicine , 44 (1), 81–121.
• Sui, X., Ladwig, M. A., Singh, G., & Friston, K. J. (2019). Exercise and the aging brain: Fit body, fit mind? Progress in Neurobiology , 172 , 45–56.

Share this article:

Article feedback

What our readers think.

Wanna know more about psychology.

Let us know your thoughts Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Related articles

Overcome Languishing & Flourish: A Positive Psychology Guide

Amidst the turmoil of the recent pandemic, one positive psychology construct has captured more attention than any other. As societies worldwide had to endure lockdowns [...]

7 Trauma Response Types & How to Recognize Them

Over-sharing. Over-explaining. Trauma dumping. Hyperindependence. Hypersexualization. People pleasing. Do these sound like common traits your clients have? These may not be character traits but, instead, [...]

6 Best Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises to Reduce Anxiety

Our brain controls our breathing largely without conscious awareness. We shower, watch football, listen to music, and sleep while our respiratory system functions in the [...]

Read other articles by their category

• Body & Brain (50)
• Coaching & Application (58)
• Compassion (25)
• Counseling (51)
• Emotional Intelligence (23)
• Gratitude (18)
• Grief & Bereavement (21)
• Happiness & SWB (40)
• Meaning & Values (26)
• Meditation (20)
• Mindfulness (44)
• Motivation & Goals (45)
• Optimism & Mindset (34)
• Positive CBT (30)
• Positive Communication (22)
• Positive Education (47)
• Positive Emotions (32)
• Positive Leadership (19)
• Positive Parenting (16)
• Positive Psychology (34)
• Positive Workplace (37)
• Productivity (18)
• Relationships (43)
• Resilience & Coping (39)
• Self Awareness (21)
• Self Esteem (38)
• Strengths & Virtues (32)
• Stress & Burnout Prevention (34)
• Theory & Books (46)
• Therapy Exercises (37)
• Types of Therapy (64)
• Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

3 Stress Exercises Pack

Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

How to Relieve Stress

This month, we feature videos of a Greater Good presentation by Robert M. Sapolsky, one the country’s foremost experts on stress. In this excerpt from his talk, the best-selling author and Stanford University professor explains the difference between bad stress and good stress, and how we can manage the effects of chronic stress on our lives.

In 1900, what do you think were the leading causes of death in this country? 

If you were 20 to 40 years old and a woman, the single riskiest thing you could do was try to give birth. TB, Pneumonia, influenza killed a lot of other people. But few people under the age of 100 die of the flu anymore. Relatively few women die in childbirth. Instead, we die of these utterly bizarre diseases that have never existed before on the planet in any sort of numbers—diseases like heart disease, cancer, adult-onset diabetes, and Alzheimer’s.

Now, some of this has to do with nuts and bolts biology. But some of it has to do with issues that nobody ever had to think about before in medicine—totally bizarre questions like, “What’s your psychological makeup?” or “What’s your social status?” or “How do people with your social status get treated in your society?”

And this one: “Why is it that when we’re feeling unloved, we eat more starch?” Figure that out, and you’ve cured half the cases of diabetes in this country

Indeed, when you look at the diseases that do us in, they are predominantly diseases that can be caused, or made worse, by stress. As a result, most of us in this room will have the profound Westernized luxury of dropping dead someday of a stress-related disease. That’s why it’s so urgent that we understand stress—and how to better manage it.

How stress kills

Do you remember “homeostasis,” a term I guarantee you heard in ninth grade biology? Homeostasis is having an ideal body temperature, an ideal level of glucose in the bloodstream, an ideal everything. That’s being in homeostatic balance.

A stressor is anything in the outside world that knocks you out of homeostatic balance. If you’re some zebra and a lion has ripped your stomach open and your innards are dragging in the dust and you still need to get out of there—well, that counts as being out of homeostatic balance.

So to reestablish that balance, you secrete adrenaline and other hormones. You mobilize energy and you deliver it where it’s needed, you shut off the inessentials like the sex drive and digestion, you enhance immune defenses, and you think more clearly. You’re facing a short-term physical crisis, and the stress response is what you do with your body. For 99 percent of the species on this planet, stress is three minutes of screaming terror in the savannah, after which either it’s over with or you’re over with. That’s all you need to know about the subject if you’re a zebra or a lion. 

If you’re a human, though, you’ve got to expand the definition of a stressor in a very critical way. If you’re running from a lion, your blood pressure is 180 over 120. But you’re not suffering from high blood pressure—you’re saving your life. Have this same thing happen when you’re stuck in traffic, and you’re not saving your life. Instead you are suffering from stress-induced hypertension.

We humans turn on the stress response with memories, with emotions, with thoughts, and the whole punch line is: That’s not what it evolved for. Do it regularly enough, and you’re going to damage your cardiovascular system. Increased blood flow hammers on the walls of your blood vessels, causing inflammation. Fat and glucose and cholesterol glom on and begin to clog your arteries. That’s bad news. You are more at risk for chronic fatigue, sleep disruption, muscle atrophy, and probably most importantly, adult-onset diabetes, this once obscure disease that’s just on the edge of being the number one killer in this country.

Chronic stress also does bad things to the nervous system. Stress kills neurons in the part of the brain called the hippocampus and weakens the cables between neurons, so they can’t talk to each other. This impairs the formation and retrieval of long-term memory. The opposite thing happens in the amygdala, which is where we see fear in a brain scanner. In the hippocampus, stress causes stuff to shrivel up. But stress feeds the amygdala. It actually gets bigger. Chronic stress creates a hyper-reactive, hysterical amygdala, and this tells us tons about what stress has to do with anxiety disorders.

Another domain: the mesolimbic dopamine system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is about reward and pleasure. Cocaine works on the dopamine system. All the euphorians do. What are the effects of chronic stress on this part of the brain? Those pathways get depleted of dopamine, and this takes away your ability to feel pleasure. So if stress depletes your dopamine, what have you just set yourself up for? Major depression.

What about the frontal cortex? It’s the most human part of the brain; we’ve proportionally got more of it than any other species does. And what does the frontal cortex do? It does gratification postponement, self-discipline, long-term planning, emotional regulation. It’s the last part of the brain to fully mature—that doesn’t happen until you’re 25 years old, which explains a lot about the freshmen year of college.

This has a very interesting implication. If this is the last part of the brain to fully develop, by definition, then, it is the part of the brain least constrained by genes and most sculpted by experience. What does chronic stress do to the frontal cortex? Atrophy of neurons, disconnecting circuits. As a result, you make the most idiotic decisions, which are going to haunt you for the rest of your life, and yet you think they’re brilliant at the time. That’s another effect of chronic stress: Your judgment goes down the tubes.

How to manage stress

We’ve just gone on a quick tour of all the things that can go wrong from chronic stress. If you study the subject for a living, it’s amazing to you that anybody is still alive, that we haven’t just collapsed into puddles of stress-related disease.

Despite that, most of us do decent jobs at coping, and a subset of us is spectacular at coping. And thus from day one, stress researchers have wondered why some bodies and some psyches deal better with stress than others. In making sense of individual differences, what we’re essentially asking is, “What is it that makes psychological stress stressful”? And a huge elegant literature by now has shown precisely what the building blocks are.

The literature is built on experiments like this one: You have a lab rat in a cage, and every now and then, you give it a shock. Nothing major, but nonetheless, the rat’s blood pressure goes up and so do stress hormone levels. Up goes the risk of an ulcer. You are giving this rat a stress-related disease.

Now, in the second cage, there’s another rat. Every time the first rat gets a shock, so does the second. Same intensity, same duration, both of their bodies are being thrown out of homeostatic balance to exactly the same extent. 

But there’s a critical difference: Every time the second rat gets a shock, it can go over to the other side of its cage, where there’s another rat that it can bite the crap out of. And you know what? This guy’s not going to get an ulcer, because he has an outlet for his frustrations. He has a hobby.

There are other stress experiments that involve torturing rats, which suggest ways for humans to manage stress. We can give the rat a warning 10 seconds before each shock, and we find it doesn’t get an ulcer. That tells us that you are less vulnerable to a stress-related disease if you get predictive information.

More on Stress

Take this quiz to learn how stressed you are.

Watch Dr. Sapolsky's presentation on stress and how to overcome it.

Check out this essay on men, stress, and sex, which draws on Sapolsky's research.

Christine Carter provides tips on "How Not to Have a Nervous Breakdown."

Are you an educator? You might be interested in "Stopping Teacher Burnout" and "A Training to Make Teachers Less Stressed."

Another experiment: If we give the rat a lever to press, and that rat thinks he’s in control of the shocks, that helps—a sense of control decreases the stress response.

Yet another experiment tells us it helps to have friends: If a rat getting shocks has a friend it likes in the cage, and they are able to groom each other, the rat doesn’t get the ulcer. So social affiliation helps control stress.

In short, you are more likely to get a stress response—more likely to subjectively feel stressed, more likely to get a stress-related disease—if you feel like you have no outlets for what’s going on, no control, no predictability, you interpret things as getting worse, and if you have nobody’s shoulder to cry on.

Okay, these are very powerful observations. They’re helpful. But please don’t assume that if you get as much control in your life and as much predictive information in your life as possible, you will be protected from stress. To understand why, let me share some of the subtleties of this field.

Look at the rat that got a warning. Timing is everything. He didn’t get an ulcer when he got a 10-second warning. But if the warning light goes on one second before the shock occurs, it has no positive effect whatsoever, because there isn’t time for the rat to adjust anything. Or suppose, instead, the warning light comes two minutes before. That will make the ulcers worse, because the rat is sitting there, ulcerating away, thinking, “Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes.” When it comes to predictive information, there’s only a narrow window where it works.

When does a sense of control work? When you’re dealing with a mild to moderate stressor, because in those circumstances you know how much worse it could have been and can imagine, rightly or wrongly, that you had control over that improvement. But if it’s a major disastrous stressor, the last thing you want is an inflated sense of control, because that sets you up to think that the disaster is all your fault. In the case of a major disaster, we tend to minimize people’s sense of control—by saying, for example, “It wouldn’t have mattered if you had gotten him to the doctor a month ago, it wouldn’t have made a difference.” And one of the worst things we do, societally, is attribute more control to victims: “Well, what’s she going to expect if she dresses that way?” or “Well, what are they going to expect if they choose not to assimilate?”

In short, a sense of control is protective for mild to moderate stressors, but it’s a disaster for major ones. In that domain, the most humane thing you can do is foster denial and rationalization rather than a sense of responsibility.

When is stress good?

Just as not all stress management techniques work, not all stress is bad. In fact, we love stress. We pay good money for it in a scary movie or on a roller coaster ride. We love stress when it’s the right amount of stress.

When is it optimal? When it’s only moderately stressful, at the most. And good stress is transient—it’s not for nothing that you don’t have roller coaster rides going for three weeks! The stress also has to be happening in a context that feels safe overall. Moderately stressful at most, transient, safe—what does that define? 

That defines stimulation. That defines what play is. What is play about? 

It’s when a higher rank dog says to a lower ranking dog: “I am willing to suspend our dominance relations right now and allow all sorts of unpredictable interactions. To show how much I’m doing that, I’m going to give you access to my throat or my genitals, and we’re just having a great time here playing.” In play, you feel safe, and as a result, you are willing to give up some control and predictability. We say, “Surprise me!” That’s good stress.

There’s another lesson we can learn from dogs and other hierarchical mammals, like baboons: Social rank can cause stress, especially where rankings are unstable and people are jockeying for position. But social rank is not as important as social context. What patterns of social affiliation do you have? How often do you groom, how often does somebody groom you? How often do you sit in contact and play with kids?

What’s clear by now is if you have a choice between being a high-ranking baboon or a socially affiliated one, the latter is definitely the one that is going to lead to a healthier, longer life. That’s the baboon we want to be—not the one with power, but the one with friends, neighbors, and family.

About the Author

Robert M. Sapolsky

Robert M. Sapolsky, Ph.D., is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of Biological Sciences and a professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University. His most recent book is Monkeyluv: And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals. A longer version of this essay appeared in Foreign Affairs.

You May Also Enjoy

How Stress Hurts Men’s Sex Lives

Peace Among Primates

Political Primates

6 Simple Practices to Handle Holiday Stress

Greater Good Sex Tips for Guys

A Training to Make Teachers Less Stressed

And the evidence for dominance as a function of canine relationships is…....?

Far as I can see dominance can be a property of a social interaction between domestic dogs. No evidence of dominance hierarchies or persistent social dominance within domestic dogs far as I’m aware but would stand to be corrected.

Sorry, devil in the detail

K9 Kommenter | 1:29 pm, May 11, 2012 | Link

• Bipolar Disorder
• Therapy Center
• When To See a Therapist
• Types of Therapy
• Best Online Therapy
• Best Couples Therapy
• Best Family Therapy
• Managing Stress
• Sleep and Dreaming
• Understanding Emotions
• Self-Improvement
• Healthy Relationships
• Student Resources
• Personality Types
• Guided Meditations
• Verywell Mind Insights
• 2024 Verywell Mind 25
• Mental Health in the Classroom
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board
• Crisis Support

Top 10 Stress Management Techniques for Students

Elizabeth Scott, PhD is an author, workshop leader, educator, and award-winning blogger on stress management, positive psychology, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

Akeem Marsh, MD, is a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist who has dedicated his career to working with medically underserved communities.

Most students experience significant amounts of stress. This can significantly affect their health, happiness, relationships, and grades. Learning stress management techniques can help these students avoid negative effects in these areas.

Why Stress Management Is Important for Students

A study by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that teens report stress levels similar to adults. This means teens are experiencing significant levels of chronic stress and feel their stress levels generally exceed their ability to cope effectively .

Roughly 30% of the teens reported feeling overwhelmed, depressed, or sad because of their stress.

Stress can also affect health-related behaviors. Stressed students are more likely to have problems with disrupted sleep, poor diet, and lack of exercise. This is understandable given that nearly half of APA survey respondents reported completing three hours of homework per night in addition to their full day of school work and extracurriculars.

Common Causes of Student Stress

Another study found that much of high school students' stress originates from school and activities, and that this chronic stress can persist into college years and lead to academic disengagement and mental health problems.

Top Student Stressors

Common sources of student stress include:

• Extracurricular activities
• Social challenges
• Transitions (e.g., graduating, moving out , living independently)
• Relationships
• Pressure to succeed

High school students face the intense competitiveness of taking challenging courses, amassing impressive extracurriculars, studying and acing college placement tests, and deciding on important and life-changing plans for their future. At the same time, they have to navigate the social challenges inherent to the high school experience.

This stress continues if students decide to attend college. Stress is an unavoidable part of life, but research has found that increased daily stressors put college-aged young adults at a higher risk for stress than other age groups.

Making new friends, handling a more challenging workload, feeling pressured to succeed, being without parental support, and navigating the stresses of more independent living are all added challenges that make this transition more difficult. Romantic relationships always add an extra layer of potential stress.

Students often recognize that they need to relieve stress . However, all the activities and responsibilities that fill a student’s schedule sometimes make it difficult to find the time to try new stress relievers to help dissipate that stress.

10 Stress Management Techniques for Students

Here you will learn 10 stress management techniques for students. These options are relatively easy, quick, and relevant to a student’s life and types of stress .

Get Enough Sleep

Blend Images - Hill Street Studios / Brand X Pictures / Getty Images

Students, with their packed schedules, are notorious for missing sleep. Unfortunately, operating in a sleep-deprived state puts you at a distinct disadvantage. You’re less productive, may find it more difficult to learn, and may even be a hazard behind the wheel.

Research suggests that sleep deprivation and daytime sleepiness are also linked to impaired mood, higher risk for car accidents, lower grade point averages, worse learning, and a higher risk of academic failure.

Don't neglect your sleep schedule. Aim to get at least 8 hours a night and take power naps when needed.

Use Guided Imagery

David Malan / Getty Images

Guided imagery can also be a useful and effective tool to help stressed students cope with academic, social, and other stressors. Visualizations can help you calm down, detach from what’s stressing you, and reduce your body’s stress response.

You can use guided imagery to relax your body by sitting in a quiet, comfortable place, closing your eyes, and imagining a peaceful scene. Spend several minutes relaxing as you enjoy mentally basking in your restful image.

Consider trying a guided imagery app if you need extra help visualizing a scene and inducting a relaxation response. Research suggests that such tools might be an affordable and convenient way to reduce stress.

Exercise Regularly

One of the healthiest ways to blow off steam is to get regular exercise . Research has found that students who participate in regular physical activity report lower levels of perceived stress. While these students still grapple with the same social, academic, and life pressures as their less-active peers, these challenges feel less stressful and are easier to manage.

Finding time for exercise might be a challenge, but there are strategies that you can use to add more physical activity to your day. Some ideas that you might try include:

• Doing yoga in the morning
• Walking or biking to class
• Reviewing for tests with a friend while walking on a treadmill at the gym
• Taking an elective gym class focused on leisure sports or exercise
• Joining an intramural sport

Exercise can help buffer against the negative effects of student stress. Starting now and keeping a regular exercise practice throughout your lifetime can help you live longer and enjoy your life more.

Take Calming Breaths

When your body is experiencing a stress response, you’re often not thinking as clearly as you could be. You are also likely not breathing properly. You might be taking short, shallow breaths. When you breathe improperly, it upsets the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body.

Studies suggest this imbalance can contribute to various physical symptoms, including increased anxiety, fatigue, stress, emotional problems, and panic attacks.

A quick way to calm down is to practice breathing exercises . These can be done virtually anywhere to relieve stress in minutes.

Because they are fast-acting, breathing exercises are a great way to cope with moments of acute stress , such as right before an exam or presentation. But they can also help manage longer-lasting stress such as dealing with relationships, work, or financial problems.

Practice Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

Another great stress management technique for students that can be used during tests, before bed, or at other times when stress has you physically wound up is progressive muscle relaxation ( PMR ).

This technique involves tensing and relaxing all muscles until the body is completely relaxed. With practice, you can learn to release stress from your body in seconds. This can be particularly helpful for students because it can be adapted to help relaxation efforts before sleep for a deeper sleep.

Once a person learns how to use PMR effectively, it can be a quick and handy way to induce relaxation in any stressful situation, such as bouts of momentary panic before a speech or exam, dealing with a disagreement with your roommate, or preparing to discuss a problem with your academic advisor.

Listen to Music

A convenient stress reliever that has also shown many cognitive benefits, music can help relieve stress and calm yourself down or stimulate your mind depending on what you need in the moment.

Research has found that playing upbeat music can improve processing speed and memory. Stressed students may find that listening to relaxing music can help calm the body and mind. One study found that students who listened to the sounds of relaxing music were able to recover more quickly after a stressful situation.

Students can harness the benefits of music by playing classical music while studying, playing upbeat music to "wake up" mentally, or relaxing with the help of their favorite slow melodies.

Build Your Support Network

Halfpoint Images / Getty Images

Having emotional support can help create a protective buffer against stress. Unfortunately,  interpersonal relationships can also sometimes be a source of anxiety for students. Changes in friendships, romantic breakups, and life transitions such as moving away for college can create significant upheaval and stress for students.

One way to combat feelings of loneliness and make sure that you have people to lean on in times of need is to expand your support network and nurture your relationships.

Look for opportunities to meet new people, whether it involves joining study groups or participating in other academic, social, and leisure activities.

Remember that different types of relationships offer differing types of support . Your relationships with teachers, counselors, and mentors can be a great source of information and resources that may help you academically. Relationships with friends can provide emotional and practical support.

Widening your social circle can combat student stress on various fronts and ensure you have what you need to succeed.

Eat a Healthy Diet

Niedring/Drentwett / Getty Images

You may not realize it, but your diet can either boost your brainpower or sap you of mental energy. It can also make you more reactive to the stress in your life. As a result, you might find yourself turning to high-sugar, high-fat snacks to provide a temporary sense of relief.

A healthy diet can help combat stress in several ways. Improving your diet can keep you from experiencing diet-related mood swings, light-headedness, and more.

Unfortunately, students are often prone to poor dietary habits. Feelings of stress can make it harder to stick to a consistently healthy diet, but other concerns such as finances, access to cooking facilities, and time to prepare healthy meals can make it more challenging for students.

Some tactics that can help students make healthy choices include:

• Eating regularly
• Carrying a water bottle to class
• Keeping healthy snacks such as fruits and nuts handy
• Limiting caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol intake

Find Ways to Minimize Stress

One way to improve your ability to manage student stress is to look for ways you cut stress out of your life altogether. Evaluate the things that are bringing stress or anxiety into your life. Are they necessary? Are they providing more benefits than the toll they take on your mental health? If the answer is no, sometimes the best option is just to ditch them altogether.

This might mean cutting some extracurricular activities out of your schedule. It might mean limiting your use of social media. Or it might mean learning to say no to requests for your time, energy, and resources. 

While it might be challenging at first, learning how to prioritize yourself and your mental well-being is an important step toward reducing your stress.

Try Mindfulness

When you find yourself dealing with stress—whether it's due to academics, relationships, financial pressures, or social challenges—becoming more aware of how you feel in the moment may help you respond more effectively.

Mindfulness involves becoming more aware of the present moment. Rather than judging, reacting, or avoiding problems, the goal is to focus on the present, become more aware of how you are feeling, observe your reactions, and accept these feelings without passing judgment on them.

Research suggests that mindfulness-based stress management practices can be a useful tool for reducing student stress. Such strategies may also help reduce feelings of anxiety and depression.

A Word From Verywell

It is important to remember that stress isn't the same for everyone. Figuring out what works for you may take some trial and error. A good start is to ensure that you are taking care of yourself physically and emotionally and to experiment with different stress relief strategies to figure out what works best to help you feel less stressed.

If stress and anxiety are causing distress or making it difficult to function in your daily life, it is important to seek help. Many schools offer resources that can help, including face-to-face and online mental health services. You might start by talking to your school counselor or student advisor about the stress you are coping with. You can also talk to a parent, another trusted adult, or your doctor.

If you or a loved one are struggling with anxiety, contact the  Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline  at 1-800-662-4357 for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.

For more mental health resources, see our  National Helpline Database .

American Psychological Association. Stress in America: Are Teens Adopting Adults' Stress Habits?

Leonard NR, Gwadz MV, Ritchie A, et al. A multi-method exploratory study of stress, coping, and substance use among high school youth in private schools . Front Psychol. 2015;6:1028. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01028

Acharya L, Jin L, Collins W. College life is stressful today - Emerging stressors and depressive symptoms in college students . J Am Coll Health . 2018;66(7):655-664. doi:10.1080/07448481.2018.1451869

Beiter R, Nash R, McCrady M, Rhoades D, Linscomb M, Clarahan M, Sammut S. The prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of college students . J Affect Disord . 2015;173:90-6. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2014.10.054

Hershner SD, Chervin RD. Causes and consequences of sleepiness among college students . Nat Sci Sleep . 2014;6:73-84. doi:10.2147/NSS.S62907

Gordon JS, Sbarra D, Armin J, Pace TWW, Gniady C, Barraza Y. Use of a guided imagery mobile app (See Me Serene) to reduce COVID-19-related stress: Pilot feasibility study . JMIR Form Res . 2021;5(10):e32353. doi:10.2196/32353

Cowley J, Kiely J, Collins D. Is there a link between self-perceived stress and physical activity levels in Scottish adolescents ? Int J Adolesc Med Health . 2017;31(1). doi:10.1515/ijamh-2016-0104

Paulus MP.  The breathing conundrum-interoceptive sensitivity and anxiety .  Depress Anxiety . 2013;30(4):315–320. doi:10.1002/da.22076

Toussaint L, Nguyen QA, Roettger C, Dixon K, Offenbächer M, Kohls N, Hirsch J, Sirois F. Effectiveness of progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, and guided imagery in promoting psychological and physiological states of relaxation . Evid Based Complement Alternat Med . 2021;2021:5924040. doi:10.1155/2021/5924040.

Gold BP, Frank MJ, Bogert B, Brattico E.  Pleasurable music affects reinforcement learning according to the listener .  Front Psychol . 2013;4:541. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00541

Thoma MV, La Marca R, Brönnimann R, Finkel L, Ehlert U, Nater UM.  The effect of music on the human stress response .  PLoS ONE . 2013;8(8):e70156. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070156

American Psychological Association. Manage stress: Strengthen your support network .

Nguyen-rodriguez ST, Unger JB, Spruijt-metz D.  Psychological determinants of emotional eating in adolescence.   Eat Disord . 2009;17(3):211-24. doi:10.1080/10640260902848543

Parsons D, Gardner P, Parry S, Smart S. Mindfulness-based approaches for managing stress, anxiety and depression for health students in tertiary education: A scoping review . Mindfulness (N Y) . 2022;13(1):1-16. doi:10.1007/s12671-021-01740-3

By Elizabeth Scott, PhD Elizabeth Scott, PhD is an author, workshop leader, educator, and award-winning blogger on stress management, positive psychology, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

Appointments at Mayo Clinic

• Stress management

Stress relievers: Tips to tame stress

Stress getting to you? Try some of these tips for stress relief.

Is stress making you angry and grouchy? Stress relievers can help bring back calm and peace to your busy life. You don't have to put a lot of time or thought into stress relievers. If your stress is getting out of control and you need quick relief, try one of these tips.

Almost any form of physical activity can act as a stress reliever. Even if you're not an athlete or you're out of shape, exercise can still be a good stress reliever.

Physical activity can pump up your feel-good endorphins and other natural neural chemicals that boost your sense of well-being. Exercise also can refocus your mind on your body's movements. This refocus can improve your mood and help the day's irritations fade away. So go on a walk, take a jog, work in your garden, clean your house, bike, swim, weight train, vacuum or do anything else that gets you active.

Eat a healthy diet

Eating a healthy diet is an important part of taking care of yourself. Aim to eat many fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Avoid unhealthy habits

Some people may deal with stress with unhealthy habits. These may include drinking too much caffeine or alcohol, smoking, eating too much, or using illegal substances. These habits can harm your health and increase your stress levels.

During meditation, you focus your attention and quiet the stream of jumbled thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress. Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that can help both your emotional well-being and your overall health. Meditation can empower us to enhance our well-being.

You can practice guided meditation, guided imagery, mindfulness, visualization and other forms of meditation anywhere at any time. For example, you could meditate when you're out for a walk, riding the bus to work or waiting at your health care provider's office. Try an app to show you how to do these exercises. And you can try deep breathing anywhere.

A good sense of humor can't cure all ailments. But it can help you feel better, even if you have to force a fake laugh through your grumpiness. When you laugh, it lightens your mental load. It also causes positive physical changes in the body. Laughter fires up and then cools down your stress response.

So read some jokes, tell some jokes, watch a comedy or hang out with your funny friends. Or give laughter yoga a try.

Connect with others

When you're stressed and irritable, you may want to isolate yourself. Instead, reach out to family and friends and make social connections. Even one good friend who listens can make a difference.

Social contact is a good stress reliever because it can offer distraction, give support, and help you put up with life's up and downs. So take a coffee break with a friend, email a relative or visit your place of worship.

Got more time? Try volunteering for a charity and help yourself while helping others.

Assert yourself

You might want to do it all, but you can't, at least not without paying a price. Learning to say no or being willing to delegate can help you manage your to-do list and your stress. Healthy boundaries are important in a wellness journey. Everyone has physical and emotional limits.

Saying yes may seem like an easy way to keep the peace, prevent conflicts and get the job done right. But instead, it may cause you inner conflict because your needs and those of your family come second. Putting yourself second can lead to stress, anger, resentment and even the wish to take revenge. And that's not a very calm and peaceful reaction. Remember, you're a priority.

With its series of postures and breathing exercises, yoga is a popular stress reliever. Yoga brings together physical and mental disciplines that may help you reach peace of body and mind. Yoga can help you relax and ease stress and anxiety.

Try yoga on your own or find a class — you can find classes in many areas. Hatha yoga, especially, is a good stress reliever because of its slower pace and easier movements.

Get enough sleep

Stress can cause you to have trouble falling asleep. When you have too much to do — and too much to think about — your sleep can suffer. But sleep is the time when your brain and body recharge. Most adults need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night.

And how well and how long you sleep can affect your mood, energy level, focus and overall functioning. If you have sleep troubles, make sure that you have a quiet, relaxing bedtime routine. For example, listen to soothing music, make sure the area you sleep in is cool, dark and quiet, put phones and tablets away, and stick to a regular schedule.

Keep a journal

Writing down your thoughts and feelings can be a good release for otherwise pent-up feelings. Don't think about what to write — let it happen. Write anything that comes to mind. No one else needs to read it. So don't aim for perfect grammar or spelling.

Let your thoughts flow on paper, or on the computer screen. Once you're done, you can toss out what you wrote or save it to think about later.

Get musical and be creative

Listening to or playing music is a good stress reliever. It can provide a mental distraction, lessen muscle tension and lower stress hormones. Turn up the volume and let your mind be absorbed by the music.

If music isn't one of your interests, turn your attention to another hobby you enjoy. For example, try gardening, sewing, reading or sketching. Or try anything that makes you focus on what you're doing rather than what you think you should be doing.

Seek counseling

If new stressors are making it hard for you to cope or if self-care measures aren't relieving your stress, you may want to think about therapy or counseling. Therapy also may be a good idea if you feel overwhelmed or trapped. You also may think about therapy if you worry a great deal, or if you have trouble carrying out daily routines or meeting duties at work, home or school.

Professional counselors or therapists can help you find the sources of your stress and learn new coping tools.

There is a problem with information submitted for this request. Review/update the information highlighted below and resubmit the form.

From Mayo Clinic to your inbox

Sign up for free and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips, current health topics, and expertise on managing health. Click here for an email preview.

Error Email field is required

Error Include a valid email address

To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of email communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail.

Thank you for subscribing!

You'll soon start receiving the latest Mayo Clinic health information you requested in your inbox.

Sorry something went wrong with your subscription

Please, try again in a couple of minutes

• How stress affects your health. American Psychological Association. http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/stress.aspx. Accessed Jan. 24, 2023.
• Relaxation techniques: What you need to know. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. https:// www.nccih.nih.gov/health/relaxation-techniques-what-you-need-to-know. Accessed Jan. 23, 2023.
• Meditation and mindfulness: What you need to know. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation-and-mindfulness-what-you-need-to-know. Accessed Jan. 23, 2023.
• Yoga: What you need to know. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/yoga-what-you-need-to-know. Accessed Jan. 23, 2023.
• Stress and your health. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. https://www.womenshealth.gov/mental-health/good-mental-health/stress-and-your-health. Accessed Jan. 23, 2023.
• I'm so stressed out! Fact sheet. National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/so-stressed-out-fact-sheet. Accessed Jan. 24, 2023.
• Seaward BL. Essentials of Managing Stress. 5th ed. Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2021.
• Creagan ET (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic. Feb. 8, 2023.
• A very happy brain
• Being assertive
• Bridge pose
• Caregiver stress
• Cat/cow pose
• Child's pose
• COVID-19 and your mental health
• Does stress make rheumatoid arthritis worse?
• Downward-facing dog
• Ease stress to reduce eczema symptoms
• Ease stress to reduce your psoriasis flares
• Forgiveness
• Job burnout
• Learn to reduce stress through mindful living
• Manage stress to improve psoriatic arthritis symptoms
• Mayo Clinic Minute: Meditation is good medicine
• Mountain pose
• New School Anxiety
• Positive thinking
• Seated spinal twist
• Standing forward bend
• Stress and high blood pressure
• Stress relief from laughter
• Support groups
• Tips for easing stress when you have Crohn's disease

Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission.

• Opportunities

Mayo Clinic Press

Check out these best-sellers and special offers on books and newsletters from Mayo Clinic Press .

• Mayo Clinic on Incontinence - Mayo Clinic Press Mayo Clinic on Incontinence
• The Essential Diabetes Book - Mayo Clinic Press The Essential Diabetes Book
• Mayo Clinic on Hearing and Balance - Mayo Clinic Press Mayo Clinic on Hearing and Balance
• FREE Mayo Clinic Diet Assessment - Mayo Clinic Press FREE Mayo Clinic Diet Assessment
• Mayo Clinic Health Letter - FREE book - Mayo Clinic Press Mayo Clinic Health Letter - FREE book
• Healthy Lifestyle
• Stress relievers Tips to tame stress

We’re transforming healthcare

Make a gift now and help create new and better solutions for more than 1.3 million patients who turn to Mayo Clinic each year.

• IELTS Scores
• Life Skills Test
• Find a Test Centre
• Alternatives to IELTS
• General Training
• Academic Word List
• Topic Vocabulary
• Collocation
• Phrasal Verbs
• Writing eBooks
• Reading eBook
• All eBooks & Courses
• Sample Essays
• Stress Essay

IELTS Stress Essay

This is a model IELTS stress essay. It is about stress in modern society and how to prevent it.

It is a causes and solutions type essay. In other words, you have to identify what causes stressand then suggest solutions.

Stress is now a major problem in many countries around the world.

What are some of the factors in modern society that cause this stress and how can we reduce it?

This type of essay lends itself to two body paragraphs - one explaining the causes and the next discussing some possible solutions.

As is important with any IELTS essay, you must always read the question carefully.

The topic is often narrowed down to a particular group of people or topic.

Narrowing Down the Topic

The key here is that ' modern society ' is mentioned.

If you just talk about stress in general but don't connect it to modern society you may be in danger of not fully answering the question .

You need to brainstorm some issues specific to the world we live in today that may result in stress.

What things effect us today that did not (or not too such an extent) 10, 20, 30 years ago?

Using Personal Pronouns

Also, you may notice that ' we ' is used a lot in the stress essay.

Remember an IELTS essay is not quite the same as an academic essay you will normally write. It is can be more personal as you only have your own experience to support your answer with.

You should avoid too many personal pronouns if possible such as ' I ' throughout the essay but you may wish to use this to give your opinion or examples from your own experience at times. This is ok, but don't overdo it.

This question specifically says how can ' we ' reduce it. So it is already making it personal. So it is ok to write about what all of us, or ' we ', can do.

Model Stress Essay

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

What are some of the factors in modern society that cause this stress, and how can we reduce it?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge.

Write at least 250 words.

Stress Essay Model Answer

Stress is a problem that can have detrimental effects on many people’s lives, and there are various factors in modern society responsible for this. However, there are ways to limit the potential impacts.

The modern world we live in today presents us with many issues that we did not have to cope with in the past. Firstly, there are issues of terrorism that we are constantly confronted with in the media. Whether these are real or not, we are led to believe our lives are in constant danger, be it flying on a plane or travelling on public transport. Climate change is another worry that everyone has to face. The results of a significant rise in temperatures could radically affect our ways of life, and our children’s too. There are also more health issues to be concerned about than in the past, with rises in alzheimer’s, diabetes, and stroke to name but a few. All of these concerns can result in stress.

Tackling such problems will not be easy, but there are measures that can be taken. Governments and the media could play their part by ensuring that instead of persistently bombarding us with such negative images and information about the world in which we live, we are given more positive stories too. However, given this is unlikely to happen, we need to develop our own strategies to distract us from these influences. Of course exercising regularly is one thing we should do as this has been shown to increase endorphin levels and lead to feelings of happiness. Sleeping enough helps us to recuperate and restore our body. Finally, eating properly can improve our health and result in less worry about potential diseases.

All in all, although there are many factors around us today which lead to stress, we can take steps to reduce it. Given that the strains we face in modern society will likely get worse, ignoring it is not an option for many people.

<<< Back

Next >>>

More Causes & Solutions Essays:

Global Warming Essay: Why is the planet warming & what can be done?

In this global warming essay you are asked in the question to discuss the causes of global warming and possible solutions for individuals and the government.

Essay: Why are traditional festivals and celebrations disappearing?

IELTS essay on the disappearance of traditional festivals and celebrations - view a model answer and tips on how to answer the question

Why might International travel sometimes make people prejudiced?

This essay is about why international travel might sometimes make people prejudiced rather than broad minded. It's a causes and solutions type IELTS essay.

Why do many children have difficulty paying attention in class?

This IELTS essay is about why many children have difficulty paying attention and concentrating in class in school.

Essay on Museums and Historical Places: Why don't local people visit?

Essay on Museums and Historical Places: This is a causes (or 'reasons') and solutions essay as you have to explain why local people visit these places less than tourists, and then present ways to encourage more local people to visit.

Youth Crime Essay: Why is crime involving the young rising in cities?

This youth crime essay considers why crime involving the young is rising in many cities and what measures there are to reduce it.

Why is there a lack of communication between younger and older people?

This IELTS Essay is about the decline in communication between younger and older people in society. It is a causes and solutions type essay question.

Any comments or questions about this page or about IELTS? Post them here. Your email will not be published or shared.

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

• Click on the HTML link code below.
• Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

Band 7+ eBooks

"I think these eBooks are FANTASTIC!!! I know that's not academic language, but it's the truth!"

Linda, from Italy, Scored Band 7.5

All 4 Writing eBooks for just  $25.86 30% Discount Find out more >>

IELTS Modules:

Other resources:.

• All Lessons
• Band Score Calculator
• Writing Feedback
• Speaking Feedback
• Teacher Resources
• Free Downloads
• Recent Essay Exam Questions
• Books for IELTS Prep
• Useful Links

Recent Articles

IELTS Bundle Writing eBooks: 30% Off

Jun 01, 24 09:55 AM

House Sitting

May 31, 24 03:59 AM

Key Phrases for IELTS Speaking: Fluency and Coherence

May 26, 24 06:52 AM

Important pages

IELTS Writing IELTS Speaking IELTS Listening   IELTS Reading All Lessons Vocabulary Academic Task 1 Academic Task 2 Practice Tests

Connect with us

Before you go...

Check out the ielts buddy band 7+ ebooks & courses.

Copyright © 2022- IELTSbuddy All Rights Reserved

IELTS is a registered trademark of University of Cambridge, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia. This site and its owners are not affiliated, approved or endorsed by the University of Cambridge ESOL, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia.

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Healthcare (Basel)

How to Relax in Stressful Situations: A Smart Stress Reduction System

Yekta said can.

1 Computer Engineering Department, Bogazici University, 34342 Istanbul, Turkey; [email protected] (N.C.); [email protected] (D.E.); rt.ude.nuob@yosre (C.E.)

Heather Iles-Smith

2 Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust/University of Leeds, Leeds LS1 3EX, UK; [email protected]

Niaz Chalabianloo

Javier fernández-Álvarez.

3 General Psychology and Communication Psychology, Catholic University of Milan, 20123 Milan, Italy; [email protected] (J.F.-Á.); [email protected] (C.R.); [email protected] (G.R.)

Claudia Repetto

Giuseppe riva.

Stress is an inescapable element of the modern age. Instances of untreated stress may lead to a reduction in the individual’s health, well-being and socio-economic situation. Stress management application development for wearable smart devices is a growing market. The use of wearable smart devices and biofeedback for individualized real-life stress reduction interventions has received less attention. By using our unobtrusive automatic stress detection system for use with consumer-grade smart bands, we first detected stress levels. When a high stress level is detected, our system suggests the most appropriate relaxation method by analyzing the physical activity-based contextual information. In more restricted contexts, physical activity is lower and mobile relaxation methods might be more appropriate, whereas in free contexts traditional methods might be useful. We further compared traditional and mobile relaxation methods by using our stress level detection system during an eight day EU project training event involving 15 early stage researchers (mean age 28; gender 9 Male, 6 Female). Participants’ daily stress levels were monitored and a range of traditional and mobile stress management techniques was applied. On day eight, participants were exposed to a ‘stressful’ event by being required to give an oral presentation. Insights about the success of both traditional and mobile relaxation methods by using the physiological signals and collected self-reports were provided.

1. Introduction

Stress constitutes a complex process that is activated by a physical or mental threat to the individuals’ homeostasis, comprising a set of diverse psychological, physiological and behavioral responses [ 1 ]. Although it is usually considered a negative response, stress actually constitutes a key process for ensuring our survival. However, when a stress response is repeatedly triggered in the absence of a challenging stimulus, or if there is constant exposure to challenging situations, stress can become harmful. Evidence suggests that, in either of these two contexts, stress is a persistent factor for the development of psycho-pathological conditions [ 2 , 3 ].

When faced with stressful events, people make autonomic and controlled efforts to reduce the negative impact and maximize the positive impact that every specific situation may provoke. Generally, this process is denominated as emotion regulation, formally defined as the process by which individuals can influence what emotions they have, when they have them and how they experience and express those emotions [ 4 ]. It has been suggested that the term emotion regulation can be understood as a broad tag that comprises the regulation of all responses that are emotionally charged, from basic emotions to complex mood states as well as regulation of everyday life [ 5 ].

Failure to address triggers of stress has been shown to lead to chronic stress, anxiety and depression, and attributed to serious physical health conditions such as cardiovascular disease [ 6 ]. The World Health Organization concluded that psychological stress is one of the most significant health problems in the 21st-century and is a growing problem [ 7 ]. There are various interventions to minimize stress based on individual preferences and requirements. Stress management techniques including ancient practices such as Tai Chi [ 8 ] and yoga [ 9 ] as well as other physical activities [ 10 ] are often cited as being helpful in combating stress. Likewise traditional meditation, mindfulness [ 11 ] and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) [ 12 ] all have established benefits. These techniques are not applicable in office or social environments, or during most daily routines. Therefore, a smart device based stress management application may be of benefit. Recently, smartphone applications such as Calm, Pause, Heartmath and Sway have been developed for indoor environments. However, these applications are not individualized nor do they include biofeedback and studies that validate their effects are limited [ 13 ].

In this study, we used the stress level detection scheme using physiological signals and added a physical activity based context analyzer. When the user experiences a high stress level, the system suggests appropriate stress reduction methods (traditional or mobile). We further compare the effects of traditional and mobile stress alleviation methods on physiological data of 15 international Ph.D. students (participants) during eight days of training. In addition, 1440 h of physiological signals from Empatica E4 smart bands were collected in this training event. Stress management techniques based on the emotion regulation model of James Gross [ 4 ] were applied to reduce participant stress levels. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first one suggesting appropriate stress reduction methods based on contextual information and comparing both traditional and mobile stress management interventions in the real-life environment using a commercial smart-band based automatic stress level detection system that eliminates motion artifacts. Using such a system is essential because these offline stress level detection algorithms could be used in real-time biofeedback apps.

Application of our stress level detection algorithm, in a real world context, could allow individuals to receive feedback regarding high stress levels along with recommendations for relaxation methods. Additional continued monitoring may also enable the individual to better understand the effectiveness of any stress reduction methods. However, for our stress detection algorithm to be applied in daily life, the smart device should be unobtrusive (i.e., should not be comprised of cables, electrodes, boards). Our system works on smart-bands which are perfect examples of this type of unobtrusive wearable device.

This paper describes emotion regulation in the context of stress management and how yoga and mindfulness can be used for regulating emotions ( Section 2 ). Methods of detecting stress and analyzing context based on physical activity are described ( Section 3 ) and data are presented related to our method for stress level detection with the use of smart-bands ( Section 4 ). Experimental results and discussion are also presented ( Section 5 ) and we present the conclusions and future works of the study ( Section 6 ).

The major research contributions of this study are the following:

• Developing a physical activity based context analyzer and relaxation method suggestion system
• Comparison of stress reduction methods (mobile mindfulness, traditional mindfulness and yoga) and their effectiveness in the context of stress management with the use of an unobtrusive smartwatch based stress level detection system
• Application of James Gross’s prominent emotion regulation model in the context of stress management and measuring the physiological component with smart bands.

2. Background

2.1. emotion regulation in the context of stress management.

Stress is a normal part of daily life. However, its effects often vary across individuals and despite similar circumstances, some people do not feel under strain while others may be severely affected. Multiple reasons exist for these differences between individuals, including how people perceive reality and how they respond to the numerous stimuli to which they are exposed. When a person believes that a certain situation surpasses their available coping mechanisms, it is referred to as perceived stress. Thus, perceived stress varies from person to person depending on the value that an individual gives to a situation and their self-recognition of the resources to deal with it.

Numerous psychological scientists have investigated perceived stress. Individuals who display a mismatch between contextual demands and perceived resources constantly (rather than during a specific moment in time) are referred to as experiencing chronic stress. Chronic stress has not only been shown to be very relevant in people’s well-being and quality of life, but also important in the appearance and maintenance of several physical and mental diseases [ 14 ].

As a consequence, mounting research has focused on the mechanisms that people implement in order to alleviate the physical and cognitive burden associated with that perceived stress. Coping styles, stress management techniques, self-regulation, or emotion regulation techniques are different labels that define the way people implement certain behavioral, cognitive, or emotional strategies to maintain allosteric load [ 15 ]. In other words, every living organism needs to vary among plasticity and stability in order to survive. Human beings are not the exception to the rule and the complex system that applies to every single person and the necessity of reaching a constant level of regulation permits the individuals to pursue their goals.

Specifically, emotion regulation has been defined as the study of “the processes by which we influence which emotions we have when we have them, and how we experience and express them” [ 4 ]. A large body of evidence has shown that there are very different consequences depending on the effectiveness people achieve to regulate their emotions. Naturally, both at an implicit or explicit level, people regulate emotions in order to maintain those allosteric levels previously mentioned. Therefore, when there are specific stressors that demand a particular cognitive or physical response, the emotional reactivity may be stronger and the need for a proper regulation more relevant. Indeed, emotion regulation has shown to be a transdiagnostic factor that is present at a wide range of mental disorders. In other words, the way people initiate, implement and monitor their emotional processes, in order to reach more desirable states, has a significant impact on the stress levels. Some emotion regulation (ER) strategies have shown to be correlated with mental health issues. Among these strategies, cognitive reappraisal, problem-solving, or acceptance shall be mentioned as strategies that are negatively correlated with psychopathology, while rumination, experiential avoidance, or suppression are positively correlated with psychopathology [ 16 ]. In this regard, hinging on the different ER strategies deployed, ER can constitute a protective factor to face stress responses that all individuals experience after minor or major stressors [ 17 ]. Additionally, an adaptive regulation of emotions, by managing stress, may also be beneficial for clinical populations, such as people suffering from affective disorders [ 18 , 19 ].

Therefore, from whole psychotherapeutic treatments to single self-applied applications, studies in the literature have focused on how people can better regulate their emotions and manage their stress levels. Among many other techniques, cognitive behavioral therapy, autogenic training, biofeedback, breathing exercises, relaxation techniques, guided imagery, mindfulness, yoga, or Tai-Chi, are some of the stress management interventions that have received attention from researchers [ 20 , 21 ].

2.2. Yoga and Mindfulness: As Tools for Emotion Regulation

2.2.1. yoga.

Yoga is an ancient Eastern practice that developed more than 2000 years ago. Although its original creator and source are uncertain, the earliest written word ‘Yoga Sutra’ describes the philosophy of yoga focussing on growing spirituality, regulating emotions and thoughts. Initially, the focus was on awareness of breathing and breathing exercises ‘pranayama’ to calm the mind and body, ultimately reaching a higher state of consciousness.

As yoga evolved, physical movement in the form of postures was included and integrated with yogic breathing ‘prana’ and elements of relaxation. The underlying purpose is to create physical flexibility, reduce pain and unpleasant stimuli and reduce negative thoughts and emotions to calm the mind and body, thereby improving well-being. In the healthcare literature, the benefits are reported to be far-reaching both for mental and physical health conditions such as anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease, cancer and respiratory symptoms. It is also reported to reduce muscular-skeletal problems and physical symptoms through increasing the awareness of the physical body.

Yoga has become a global phenomenon and is widely practiced in many different forms. Generally, all types of yoga include some elements of relaxation. Additionally, some forms include mainly pranayama and others are more physical in nature. One such practice is vinyasa flow which involves using the inhale and exhale of the breathing pattern to move through a variety of yoga postures; this leads to the movement becoming meditative. The practice often includes pranayama followed by standing postures linked together with a movement called vinyasa, (similar to a sun salutation) which helps to keep the body moving and increases fitness, flexibility and helps maintain linkage with the breath. The practice also often includes a range of seated postures, an inversion (such as headstand or shoulder stand) and final relaxation ‘savasana’.

2.2.2. Mindfulness

Mindfulness involves being more present at the moment by acknowledging the here and now, often referred to as ‘being present’ rather than focussing on the past or future [ 8 ]. Being present may include being aware of our surroundings and the environment, or of what we are eating and drinking and physical sensations such as the sun or wind on our skin.

Acknowledging the thoughts and body are also aspects of mindfulness. Each day humans experience thousands of thoughts, the majority being of no consequence. In some instances, these thoughts are repetitive and negative in nature which can lead to increased stress and the related unpleasant physical symptoms such as feeling anxious, nausea and tension headaches. Being mindful includes an awareness of our thinking and whether we are caught up with our thoughts rather than being aware of the moment. Additionally, on a daily basis, awareness of the physical body may be minimal; being mindful includes increasing this awareness through becoming more connected with the sensations in the body. This might include experiencing the legs moving when walking, or feeling the ground under the feet or the natural way of the body whilst standing.

Mindfulness has been shown to be of benefit to physical and mental health. It is currently recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence [ 22 ] as adjunctive therapy to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for the prevention of relapse depression.

However, it may be challenging for some individuals to do this with a multitude of distractions around them and, therefore, they may choose to identify a particular time and place when and where they can sit in a comfortable position to start to become aware of their breathing and bodily sensations.

2.2.3. Mobile Mindfulness Inspired By Tai-Chi—Pause

Tai-Chi is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training, its health benefits and meditation. There is good evidence of benefits for depression, cardiac and stroke rehabilitation and dementia [ 23 ]. The term Tai-Chi refers to a philosophy of the forces of yin and yang, related to the moves. An iPhone application Pause inspired by Tai-Chi is used for guided mindfulness which draws upon the principles of mindfulness meditation to trigger the body’s rest and digest response, quickly restoring attention [ 24 ].

3. Related Work

Researchers have created the ability to detect stress in laboratory environments with medical-grade devices [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]; smartwatches and smart bands started to be used for stress level detection studies [ 29 , 30 , 31 ]. These devices provide high comfort and rich functionality for the users, but their stress detection accuracies are lower than medical-grade devices due to low signal quality and difficulty obtaining data in intense physical activity. If data are collected for long periods, researchers have shown that their detection performance improves [ 32 ]. During movement periods, the signal can be lost (gap in the data) or artifacts might be generated. Stress level detection accuracies for 2-classes by using these devices are around 70% [ 29 , 30 , 33 , 34 ].

After detecting the stress level of individuals, researchers should recover from the stressed state to the baseline state. To the best of our knowledge, there are very few studies that combine automatic stress detection (using physiological data) with recommended appropriate stress management techniques. Ahani et al. [ 35 ] examined the physiological effect of mindfulness. They used the Biosemi device which acquires electroencephalogram (EEG) and respiration signals. They successfully distinguished control (non-meditative state) and meditation states with machine learning algorithms. Karydis et al. [ 36 ] identified the post-meditation perceptual states by using a wearable EEG measurement device (Muse headband). Mason et al. [ 37 ] examined the effect of yoga on physiological signals. They used PortaPres Digital Plethtsmograph for measuring blood pressure and respiration signals. They also showed the positive effect of yoga by using these signals. A further study validated the positive effect of yoga with physiological signals; researchers monitored breathing and heart rate pulse with a piezoelectric belt and a pulse sensor [ 21 ]. They demonstrated the effectiveness of different yogic breathing patterns to help participants relax. There are also several studies showing the effectiveness of mobile mindfulness apps by using physiological signals [ 20 , 38 , 39 ]. Svetlov et al. [ 20 ] monitored the heart rate variability (HRV), electrodermal activity (EDA), Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and EEG values. In other studies, EEG and respiration signals were also used for validating the effect of mobile mindfulness apps [ 38 , 39 ]. When the literature is examined, it could be observed that the effect of ancient relaxation methods and mobile mindfulness methods are examined separately in different studies. Ancient methods generally require out of office environments that are not suitable for most of the population, since, in the modern age, people started to spend more time in office-like environments. On the other hand, some smartphone applications such as Pause, HeartMath and Calm do not require extra hardware or equipment and be applicable in office environments. Hence, an ideal solution depends on the context of individuals. A system that monitors stress levels, analyzes the context of individuals and suggests an appropriate relaxation method in the case of high stress will benefit society. Furthermore, mobile methods along with the ancient techniques should be applied in stressful real-life events and their effectiveness should be compared by investigating physiological signals. When the literature is examined, there is not any study comparing the performance of these methods in real-life events (see Table 1 ). Another important finding is that these methods should be compared with unobtrusive wearable devices so that they could be used for a biofeedback system in daily lives. Individuals may be reluctant to use a system with cables, electrodes and boards in their daily life. Therefore, a comparison of different states with such systems could not be used in daily life. There is clearly a need for a suggestion and comparison of ancient and mobile meditation methods by using algorithms that could run on unobtrusive devices. An ideal system should detect high stress levels, suggest relaxation methods and control whether users are doing these exercises right or not with unobtrusive devices. Our algorithm is suitable to be embedded in such daily life applicable systems that use physiological signals such as skin temperature (ST), HRV, EDA and accelerometer (ACC). In this paper, we present the findings of our pilot study that tested the use of our algorithm during general daily activities, stress reduction activities and a stressful event.

Comparison of our work with the studies applying different types of meditation techniques for stress management in the literature.

4. Methodology

4.1. unobtrusive stress detection system with smart bands.

Our stress detection system developed in [ 32 ] allows users to be aware of their stress levels during their daily activities without creating any interruption or restriction. The only requirement to use this system is the need to wear a smart band. Participants in this study wore the Empatica E4 smart band on their non-dominant hand. The smart band provides Blood Volume Pressure, ST, EDA, IBI (Interbeat Interval) and 3D Acceleration. The data are stored in the memory of the device. Then, the artifacts of physiological signals were detected and handled. The features were extracted from the sensory signals and fed to the machine learning algorithm for prediction. In order to use this system, pre-trained machine learning models are required. For training the models, feature vectors and collected class labels were used.

4.1.1. EDA Preprocessing Artifact Detection and Removal Methods

The body sweats when emotional arousal and stress are experienced and, therefore, skin conductance increases [ 40 ]. This makes EDA a promising candidate for stress level detection. Intense physical activity and temperature changes contaminate the SC (Skin Conductance) signal. Therefore, affected segments (artifacts) should be filtered out from the original signal. In order to detect the artifacts in the SC signal, we used an EDA toolkit [ 41 ] which is 95% accurate on the detection of the artifacts. While developing this tool, technicians labeled the artifacts manually. They trained a machine learning model by using the labels. In addition to the SC signal, 3D acceleration and ST signals were also used for artifact detection. We removed the parts that this tool detected as artifacts from our signals. We further added batch processing and segmentation to this tool by using custom software built-in Python 2.7.

4.1.2. EDA Feature Extraction Methods

After the artifact removal phase, features were extracted from the EDA signal. This signal has two components phasic and tonic; features from both components were extracted (see Table 2 ). The cvxEDA tool [ 42 ] was used for the decomposition of the signal into these components. This tool uses convex optimization to estimate the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) activity that is based on Bayesian statistics.

EDA features and their definitions.

Tonic Component Features

The tonic component in the EDA signal represents the long-term slow changes. This component is also known as the skin conductance level. It could be regarded as the indicator of general psychophysiological activation [ 43 ].

Phasic Component Features

The phasic component represents faster (event-related ) differences in the SC signal. The Peaks of phasic SC component as a reaction to a stimulus is also called Skin Conductance Response [ 43 ]. After we decompose the phasic component from the EDA signal, peak related features were extracted.

4.1.3. Heart Activity Preprocessing (Artifact Detection and Removal) and Feature Extraction Methods

Heart activity (or, more specifically, HRV) reacts to changes in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) caused by stress [ 44 ] and it is, therefore, one of the most commonly used physiological signal for stress detection [ 40 ]. However, vigorous movement of subjects and improperly worn devices may contaminate the HRV signal collected from smartwatches and smart bands. In order to address this issue, we developed an artifact handling tool in MATLAB programming language [ 45 ] that has batch processing capability. First, the data were divided into 2 min long segments with 50% overlapping. Two-minute segments were selected because it is reported that the time interval for stress stimulation and recovery processes is around a few minutes [ 46 ]. The artifact detection percentage rule (also employed in Kubios [ 47 ]) was applied after the segmentation phase. In this rule, each data point was compared with the local average around it. When the difference was more than a predetermined threshold percentage, (20% is commonly selected in the literature [ 48 ]), the data point was labeled as an artifact. In our system, we deleted the inter-beat intervals detected as the artifacts and interpolated these points with the cubic spline interpolation technique which was used in the Kubios software [ 47 ]. The time-domain features of HRV are calculated. In order to calculate the frequency domain features, we interpolated the RR intervals to 4 Hz. Then, we applied the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). These time and frequency domain features (see Table 3 ) were selected because these are the most discriminative ones in the literature [ 30 , 49 , 50 ].

HRV features and their definitions [ 32 ].

4.1.4. Accelerometer Feature Extraction Methods

Research has shown that movements of the human body and postures can indeed be employed as a means to detect signs of different emotional states. The dynamics of body movement were investigated by Castellano et al. who used multimodal data to identify human affective behaviors. Specific movement metrics, such as the amount of movement, intensity and fluidity, were used to help deduct emotions, and it was found that the amount of movement was a major factor in distinguishing different types of emotions [ 51 ]. Melzer et al. investigated whether movements comprised of collections of Laban movement components could be recognized as expressing basic emotions [ 52 ]. The results of their study confirm that, even when the subject has no intention of expressing emotions, particular movements can assist in the perception of bodily expressions of emotions. Accelerometer sensors may be used to detect these movements and different types of affect. The accelerometer sensor data are used for two different purposes in our system. Firstly, we extracted features from the accelerometer sensor, for detecting stress levels. We also selected the features to be used as described in Table 4 [ 53 ] and, as mentioned above, this sensor was also employed to clean the EDA signal in the EDAExplorer Tool [ 41 ].

ACC features and their definitions.

4.1.5. Skin Temperature

A skin temperature signal is used for the artifact detection phase of the EDA signal in the EDAExplorer Tool [ 41 ]. After we divide our data into segments, different modalities were merged into one feature vector. The heart activity signal started with a delay (to calculate heartbeats per minute at the start) and all signals were then synchronized. We included start and end timestamps for each segment, and each modality was merged with a custom Python script.

4.1.6. Machine Learning Classifier Algorithms

The Weka machine learning toolkit [ 54 ] is used for identifying stress levels. The Weka toolkit has several preprocessing features before classification. Our data set was not balanced when the number of instances belonging to each class was considered. We solved this issue by removing samples from the majority class. We selected random undersampling because it is the most commonly applied method [ 55 ]. In this way, we prevented classifiers from biasing towards the class with more instances. In this study, we employed five different machine learning classification algorithms to recognize different stress levels: MultiLayer Perceptron (MLP), Random Forest (RF) (with 100 trees), K-nearest neighbors (kNN) ( n = 1–4), Linear discriminant analysis (LDA), Principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM) with a radial basis function. These algorithms were selected because they were the most commonly applied and successful classifiers for detecting stress levels [ 30 , 48 ]. In addition, 10-fold stratified cross-validation was then applied and hyperparameters of the machine learning algorithms were fine-tuned with grid search. The best performing models have been reported.

4.1.7. Dimensionality Reduction

We applied correlation-based feature selection (CBFS) technique which is available in the Weka machine learning package for combined signal [ 56 ]. The CBFS method removes the features that are less correlated with the output class. For every model, we selected the ten most important features. This method is applied for MLP, RF, kNN and LDA. In order to create an SVM based model, we applied PCA based dimensionality reduction where the covered variance is selected as 0.95 (the default setting).

4.1.8. Insights from the Feature Selection Process

The CBFS method computes the correlation of features with the ground truth label of the stress level. Insights about the contribution of the features to the stress detection performance can be obtained from Figure 1 and Figure 2 . Three of the best features (over 0.15 correlation) are frequency domain features. These features are high, low and very-low frequency components of the HRV signal (see Figure 1 ). When we examine the EDA features, peaks per 100 s feature are the most important and distinctive feature by far. Since the EDA signal is distorted under the influence of the stimuli, the number of peaks and valleys increases. Lastly, when the acceleration signal is investigated, the most discriminative feature is mean acceleration in the z -axis (see Figure 2 b). This could be due to the nature of hand and body gestures which are caused by stressed situations.

Top-ranking features selected for the HRV signal.

Top-ranking features selected for the EDA and ACC signals.

4.2. Relaxation Method Suggestion by Analyzing the Physical Activity-Based Context

Context is a broad term that could contain different types of information such as calendars, activity type, location and activity intensity. Physical activity intensity could be used to infer contextual information. In more restricted environments such as office, classrooms, public transportation and physical activity intensity could be low, whereas, in outdoor environments, physical activity intensity could increase. Therefore, an appropriate relaxation method will change according to the context of individuals.

For calculating physical activity intensity, we used the EDAExplorer tool [ 41 ]. The stillness metric is used for this purpose. It is the percentage of periods in which the person is still or motionless. Total acceleration must be less than a threshold (default is 0.1 [ 41 ]) for 95 percent of a minute in order for this minute to count as still [ 41 ]. Then, the ratio of still minutes in a session can be calculated. For the ratio of still minutes in a session, we labeled sessions below 20% as still, above 20% as active and suggested relaxation method accordingly (see Figure 3 ).

The whole system diagram is depicted. When a high stress level is experienced, by analyzing the physical activity based context, the system suggests the most appropriate reduction method.

4.3. Description of the Data Collection Procedure

The proposed stress level monitoring mechanism, for real-life settings, was evaluated during an eight day Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) training event in Istanbul, Turkey, for the AffecTech project. AffecTech is a program funded by Horizon 2020 (H2020) framework established by the European Commission. The AffecTech project is an international collaborative research network involving 15 PhD students (early stage researchers (ESR)) with the aim of developing low-cost effective wearable technologies for individuals who experience affective disorders (for example, depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder).

The eight-day training event included workshops, lectures and training with clearly defined tasks and activities to ensure that the ESR had developed the required skills, knowledge and values outline prior to the training event. At the end of the eight-day training, ESRs were required to deliver a presentation about their PhD work to two evaluators from the European Union where they received feedback about their progress (see Figure 4 for raw physiological signals at the start of the presentation). For studying the effects of emotion regulation on stress, yoga, guided mindfulness and mobile-based mindfulness, sessions were held by a certified instructor.

Sample data belong to a presentation session. The increase in EDA, ST and IBI could be observed when the subject started the presentation.

During the training, physiological and questionnaire data were collected from the 16 ESR participants (9 men, mean age 28); 15 ESRs and one of the AffecTech project academics, all of whom gave informed consent to participate in the study. Participants were from different countries with diverse nationalities (two from Iran, two from Spain, two from Italy, one from Argentina, one from Pakistan, one from China, one from Switzerland, one from Belarus, one from France, one from England, one from Barbados, one from Turkey and one from Bulgaria). Due to the fault of one of the Empatica E4 devices, it was not possible to include data from one participant. The remaining 15 participants completed all stages of the study successfully.

During the eight days of training and presentations, psychophysiological data were collected from 16 participants during the training event from Empatica E4 smart band while they are awake. For studying the effects of emotion regulation on stress, yoga, guided mindfulness and mobile-based mindfulness sessions were held by a certified instructor. The timeline of the event is shown in Figure 5 .

Time-line depicting eight days of the training event. Presentations, relaxations and lectures are highlighted.

4.3.1. Physiological Stress Data

The psychophysiological signal data were collected using the Empatica E4 smart band whilst participants were awake throughout the eight days of the AffecTech training. Physiological data included IBI, EDA, ACC (Accelerometer) and ST and stored in different csv files. In addition, 27.39% of the data are obtained from free times (free day and after training until subjects slept 5:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.), 43.83% of the data comes from lectures in the training, 11.41% is the presentation session and relax sessions consist of 17.35% of the data. As mentioned previously, we randomly undersampled (most commonly applied method [ 55 ] ) the data to overcome the class imbalance problem. The participants’ blood pressure (BP) was also recorded using CE(0123) Harvard Medical Devices Ltd. automated sphygmomanometer prior to and after each stress reduction event (yoga and mindfulness), in order to demonstrate whether the participants stress levels were modified. On each occasion that the participants’ BP was recorded, the mean of three recordings was used as the final BP. A reduction in the participants’ blood pressure and/or pulse rate may be seen, which demonstrates a reduction in stress level.

4.3.2. Ethics

The procedure used in this study was approved by the Institutional Review Board for Research with Human Subjects of Boğaziçi University with the approval number 2018/16. Prior to data acquisition, each participant received a consent form describing the experimental procedure and its benefits and implications to both the society and the subject. The procedure was also explained verbally to the subject. All of the data are stored anonymously.

4.3.3. Questionnaire Self-Report Stress Data

A session-based self-report questionnaire comprised of six questions based on the Nasa Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) [ 57 ]. The frustration scale was specifically used to measure perceived stress levels [ 32 ]. We asked the following question to the participants for each session:

How irritated, stressed and annoyed versus content, relaxed and complacent did you feel during the task?

Questionnaires were completed daily (at the end of the day) and, after each presentation, lecture and stress reduction event (such as yoga and mindfulness).

4.3.4. Stress Management Scheme Using Yoga and Mindfulness

During the eight day training, it is assumed that the participants’ stress levels are likely to have increased day by day because they were required to give a presentation (perceived as a stressful event) reporting their PhD progress to the EU project evaluators at the end of the training.

Underpinned by James Gross’s Emotion Regulation model (see Figure 6 ) [ 4 ], we modified the situation to help the participants to reduce their thoughts of the end of the training presentation. To help participants manage their stress levels, we applied Yoga and mindfulness sessions on two separate days (day three and day four, respectively). These sessions lasted approximately 1 h and, throughout the sessions, participants wore an Empatica E4 smartband. In addition to the physiological signals coming from the Smartbands, participants’ blood pressure values were also recorded before and after the yoga and mindfulness sessions.

Application of James Gross’s Emotion Regulation model [ 4 ] in the context of stress management.

5. Experimental Results and Discussion

5.1. statistical data analysis, 5.1.1. validation of different perceived stress levels by using the self-reports.

In order to validate that the participants experienced different perceived stress levels in different contexts (lecture, relaxation, presentation), we used the Frustration item (see Section 4.5) from the NASA-TLX [ 57 ]. The distribution of answers is demonstrated in Figure 7 . Our aim is to show that the perceived stress levels (obtained from self-report answers) differ in relaxation sessions considerably when compared to the presentation session (high stress). To this end, we applied the t -test (in R programming language) to the perceived stress self-report answers of yoga versus presentation, mindfulness versus presentation and pause (mobile mindfulness) versus presentation session pairs. The paired t -test is used to evaluate the separability of each session. The degree of freedom is 15. We applied the variance test to each session tuple; we could not identify equal variance in any of the session tuples. Thus, we selected the variance as unequal. We used 99.5% confidence intervals. The t -test results’ ( p -values and test statistics) are provided in Table 5 . For all tuples, the null hypothesis stating that the perceived stress of the relaxation method is not less than the presentation session is rejected. The perceived stress levels of participants for all meditation sessions are observed to be significantly lower than the presentation session (high stress).

Visual representation of the frustration scores collected in different types of sessions.

T -test results for session tuple comparison of perceived stress levels using self-reports.

5.1.2. Before and After Physiological Measurements for Evaluating Performance of Yoga and Mindfulness with Blood Pressure

In this section, we compared the effect of stress management tools such as yoga and mindfulness on blood pressure. It is expected that blood pressure sensors will be part of unobtrusive wrist-worn wearable sensors soon. We plan to integrate a blood pressure (BP) module to our system when they are available. Therefore, by using the measurements of a medical-grade blood pressure monitor, we provided insights about how stress reaction affects BP. We further applied and tested the prominent emotion regulation model of James Gross by analyzing these measurements in the context of stress management. We measured the diastolic and systolic BP and pulse using a medical-grade blood pressure monitor before and after the yoga and mindfulness sessions. In order to ensure that the participants were relaxed and that an accurate BP was recorded, BP was measured three times with the mean as the recorded result. A one-sample t -test was applied to the difference between mean values. The results are shown in Table 6 .

The difference between the mean diastolic blood pressure, the mean systolic blood pressure and the mean pulse, before and after sessions of guided mindfulness and guided yoga. (* p < 0.05).

Mindfulness decreased the systolic BP, –1.13% (ns), increased diastolic BP, +1.75% ( p < 0.05) and decreased the pulse –5.75% ( p < 0.05). Medicine knows that systolic blood pressure (the top number or highest blood pressure when the heart is squeezing and pushing the blood around the body) is more important than diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number or lowest blood pressure between heartbeats) because it gives the best idea of the risk of having a stroke or heart attack. In this view, the significant reduction of systolic BP after mindfulness is an important result.

Moreover, the difference between systolic and diastolic BP is called pulse pressure. For example, 120 systolic minus 60 diastolic equals a pulse pressure of 60. It is also known that a pulse pressure greater than 60 can be a predictor of heart attacks or other cardiovascular diseases, while a low pulse pressure (less than 40) may indicate poor heart function. In our study, pulse pressure was lower after mindfulness (we had both a significant reduction in systolic BP and an increase in diastolic BP), but its value was higher than 40 (42.69 mean difference before the mindfulness and 40.48 mean difference after the mindfulness), suggesting that this result can also be considered clinically positive.

During yoga, there was a decrease in systolic BP by −5.81% ( p < 0.05), diastolic BP by −1.93% (ns) and increase in pulse +8.06% ( p < 0.05). Yoga appears to be more effective than mindfulness at decreasing systolic and diastolic blood pressure, although mindfulness seems to be more effective than yoga for decreasing the pulse due to the activity involved in yoga.

5.2. Physiological Stress Level Detection with Wearables by Using Context Labels as the Class Label

We tested our system by using the known context labels of sessions as the class label. We used Lecture (mild stress), Yoga and Mindfulness (relax) and Presentation in front of the board of juries (high stress) as class labels by examining perceived stress self-report answers in Figure 6 . We investigated the success of relaxation methods, different modalities and finding the presenter.

5.2.1. Effect of Different Physiological Signals on Stress Detection

We evaluated the effect of using the interbeat-interval, the skin conductance and the accelerometer signals separately and in a combined manner on two and three class classification performance. These classes are mild stress, high stress and relax states from mindfulness and yoga sessions. The results are shown in Table 7 , Table 8 and Table 9 . For the three-class classification problem, we achieved a maximum accuracy of 72% by using MLP on only HRV features and 86.61% with only accelerometer features using the Random Forest classifier and 85.36% accuracy combination of all features with LDA classifier (see Table 7 ). The difficulty in this classification task is a similar physiological reaction to relax and mild stress situations. However, since the main focus of our study is to discriminate high stress from other classes to offer relaxation techniques in this state, it did not affect our system performance. We also investigated high-mild stress and high stress-relax 2-class classification performance. For the discrimination of high and mild stress, HRV outperformed other signals with 98% accuracy using MLP (see Table 8 ). In the high stress-relax 2-class problem, only HRV features with RF achieved a maximum accuracy of 86%, whereas ACC features with MLP achieved a maximum of 94% accuracy. In this problem, the combination of all signals with RF achieved 92% accuracy which is the best among all classifiers (see Table 9 ). For all models, EDA did not perform well. This might be caused by the loose contact with EDA electrodes in the strap due to loosely worn smartbands.

Effect of different modalities and their combination on the system performance. Note that the number of classes is fixed at 3 (high stress, mild stress and relax).

Effect of different modalities and their combination on the system performance. Note that the number of classes is fixed at 2 (high stress and mild stress).

Effect of different modalities and their combination on the system performance. Note that the number of classes is fixed at 2 (high stress and relax).

5.2.2. Effectiveness of Yoga, Mindfulness and Mobile Mindfulness (Pause)

We applied three different relaxation methods to manage stress levels of individuals. In order to measure the effectiveness of each method, we examined how easily these physiological signals in the relaxation sessions can be separated from high stress presentations. If it can be separated from high stress levels with higher classification performance, it could be inferred that they are more successful at reducing stress. As seen in Table 10 and Table 11 , mobile mindfulness has lower success in reducing stress levels. Yoga has the highest classification performance with both HR and EDA signals.

The classification accuracy of the relaxation sessions using stress management methods and stressful sessions using EDA.

The classification accuracy of the relaxation sessions using stress management methods and stressful sessions using HRV.

6. Conclusions

In this study, by using our automatic stress detection system with the use of Empatica-E4 smart-bands, we detected stress levels and suggested appropriate relaxation methods (i.e., traditional or mobile) when high stress levels are experienced. Our stress detection framework is unobtrusive, comfortable and suitable for use in daily life and our relaxation method suggestion system makes its decisions based on the physical activity-related context of a user. To test our system, we collected eight days of data from 16 individuals participating in an EU research project training event. Individuals were exposed to varied stressful and relaxation events (1) training and lectures (mild stress), (2) yoga, mindfulness and mobile mindfulness (PAUSE) (relax) and (3) were required to give a moderated presentation (high stress). The participants were from different countries with diverse cultures.

In addition, 1440 h of mobile data (12 h in a day) were collected during this eight-day event from each participant measuring their stress levels. Data were collected during the training sessions, relaxation events and the moderated presentation and during their free time for 12 h in a day, demonstrating that our study monitored daily life stress. EDA and HR signals were collected to detect physiological stress and a combination of different modalities increased stress detection, performance and provided the most discriminative features. We first applied James Gross ER model in the context of stress management and measured the blood pressure during the ER cycle. When the known context was used as the label for stress level detection system, we achieved 98% accuracy for 2-class and 85% accuracy for 3-class. Most of the studies in the literature only detect stress levels of individuals. The participants’ stress levels were managed with yoga, mindfulness and a mobile mindfulness application while monitoring their stress levels. We investigated the success of each stress management technique by the separability of physiological signals from high-stress sessions. We demonstrated that yoga and traditional mindfulness performed slightly better than the mobile mindfulness application. Furthermore, this study is not without limitations. In order to generalize the conclusions, more experiments based on larger sample groups should be conducted. As future work, we plan to develop personalized perceived stress models by using self-reports and test our system in the wild. Furthermore, attitudes in the psychological field constitute a topic of utmost relevance, which always play an instrumental role in the determination of human behavior [ 58 ]. We plan to design a new experiment which accounts for the attitudes of participants towards relaxation methods and their effects on the performance of stress recognition systems.

Acknowledgments

We would like to show our gratitude to the Affectech Project for providing us the opportunity for the data collection in the training event and funding the research.

Author Contributions

Y.S.C. is the main editor of this work and made major contributions in data collection, analysis and manuscript writing. H.I.-S. made valuable contributions in both data collection and manuscript writing. She was the yoga and mindfulness instructor in the event and contributed the related sections regarding traditional and mobile methods. She also led the blood pressure measurement efforts before and after relaxation methods. D.E. and N.C. contributed equally to this work in design, implementation, data analysis and writing the manuscript. J.F.-Á., C.R. and G.R. contributed the experiment design and provided valuable insights into both emotion regulation theory. They also contributed to the related sections in the manuscript. C.E. provided invaluable feedback and technical guidance to interpret the design and the detail of the field study. He also performed comprehensive critical editing to increase the overall quality of the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This work has been supported by AffecTech: Personal Technologies for Affective Health, Innovative Training Network funded by the H2020 People Programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 722022. This work is supported by the Turkish Directorate of Strategy and Budget under the TAM Project number DPT2007K120610.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

20 Scientifically Proven Ways to Relieve Stress Quickly

[table-of-contents] stripped

How does your body feel right now? Is your jaw clenched, are your shoulders tight and does it feel like your neck is in a vice? Or maybe you feel chill right now, but boy, those symptoms sound so familiar!

We hear you — stress can sometimes feel like a part of daily life, and that’s not great news for your health. According to the Mayo Clinic , when this type of tension runs rampant in our lives, it can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and more. Along the way, it can cause headaches , muscle pain, exhaustion , stomach issues and depression .

So to protect your well-being — and to find a measure of happy calm in your day — it makes sense to have a number of quick moves and fixes that can bring down your level of tension quickly.

Ways to relieve stress quickly

1.use your breath.

Breath-work is a tried-and-true, research-based method that’s a gentle but speedy way to bring down your anxiety level, by lowering your blood pressure and heart rate. One type of breath-work to try: alternate nostril breathing. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, put your right thumb over your right nostril and inhale through your left nostril; then release your thumb, place your ring finger over your left nostril and exhale via your right one. Without moving your finger, inhale via your right nostril, close it with your thumb, exhale left, inhale left, close that nostril, exhale right, etc. Experts suggest that you start with 11 rounds at first.

2. Get up and dance!

The same study review also found that when dance movement is worked into therapy, subjects reported a significant decrease in physical signs of stress (such as reduced cortisol levels) — and people reported that they were better able to psychologically cope with stress in their lives as well. So take dance breaks when you're at home, or sign up for dance classes — also stress-busting!

3. Take a walk

Even just a 10-minute brisk stroll can lower your anxiety levels, research shows shows. It makes sense, considering that any sort of exercise boosts mood-regulating neurochemicals in your brain. This includes serotonin, which helps induce a feeling of calm, and dopamine, which activates the brain’s reward system. Combine your walk with listening to music you love, or a phone conversation with a friend, and you’ll get an extra boost. Or walk with a friend or even a group, because socializing is another feel-good activity.

4. Create some art

A large-scale review of studies found that drawing, working with clay and doing other sorts of art activities can significantly reduce anxiety and bring on a feeling of calm, as measured by a decrease in cortisol , heart rate and blood pressure. It doesn't matter if you're good at it: What you produce is less important than just the process of creation itself.

5. Listen to music you love

A study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology showed that listening to relaxing music helped lower the levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) in college students during exams, and they also self-reported feeling less stressed. Listening to music that they considered energizing had the opposite effect — however, in general, listening to the stuff they enjoyed seemed to be very important. So if bouncy music is your jam, you may just find your muscles unclenching.

6. Stretch your body

Stretching relaxes and loosens the body, of course, but there’s also evidence that it can ease the mind — because when your body is tense, your mind gets, well, tight as well. A 2013 controlled trial showed that doing 10 minutes of stretching for three months made people feel less anxious and burned out. And according to UHS Berkeley , stretching in a slow and mindful way is a great way to reduce stress. Research there suggests that as you stretch, you breathe in a slow and controlled way, and focus on the muscles you want to stretch.

7. Get outside

There’s a reason why nature has been called “Vitamin N” — there’s plenty of research backing up the idea that it’s not just good for the soul, but good for the body as well. It can reduce feelings of stress overall, and help you deal with tension as it comes up.

8. Do progressive relaxation

This is a long-established technique that lets you release feelings of mental stress by tensing and relaxing your muscles. According to the Mayo Clinic , this can lower your blood pressure, slow your heart rate, and make those pesky stress hormones become less active. One method of progressive relaxation you can try out is to work your way from your toes up to your neck and head. Lie down or sit in a quiet place, close your eyes, and tense the muscles in your toes and feet for five seconds, then release. Move on to your calves—tighten the muscles, hold, then release. Keep going up your body until you reach your neck, your jaw, your forehead—and by then, you should feel pretty chill!

9. Try chewing gum

Yes, it sounds weird, but for various scientific reasons, there’s some evidence that when you chew gum, it can reduce stress (it has to do with neurons in various parts of the brain , but the research isn’t clear about exactly why it can help). Just make sure the gum is sugarless, because having to visit the dentist to deal with cavities is definitely not good for one’s stress level.

10. Pet your fur-baby (or someone else’s!)

There’s a bunch of research showing that interacting with dogs and cats is good for both improved mood and stress relief. For example, one study on college students that were given the chance to interact, pet and cuddle with these critters for 10 minutes in an animal visitation program found a reduction in cortisol levels in saliva and reported less psychological stress. Other research has found an increase in emotional support when the pet is the person’s own. So if you have a dog or cat, take advantage of that when you’re feeling tense; and if you’re not, consider volunteering at a local animal shelter — for the animals’ benefit as well as your own!

11. Take a quick nap

If you had a lousy night’s sleep, there’s some evidence that taking a nap could ease some of your body's physical stress the next day. Note that the study was small, included only men and was done in 2015 — but it actually measured the levels of exuded stress hormones in the body (in other words, it wasn't just that the study subjects felt better). And hey, any excuse for turning off your brain via a quick catnap is probably welcome. One thing to note, though: Naps aren't recommended for those with sleep disorders.

12. Get a splash of chill (literally)

Splash or dunk your face in a bowl of ice cold water for 15 to 20 seconds. Weird but true: There's some evidence that immersing your face in cold water engages your body’s relaxation system to counteract your stress response. You can also ttake a cold shower, or hold an ice cube or chilly drink to your face.

13. Get rid of one nagging little task

Pick one thing you’ve been putting off — dropping that pile of clothes off at the drycleaner, calling your financial planner, returning the too-small jacket you ordered–and just do it. Today. Chores like this take up space in our brain, causing an underlying level of stress; crossing even one of them off your mental list will give you a few moments of “ahhhhh.”

14. Cross off a health worry, too

Stressing about a weird-looking mole, a postponed vaccine or an unusual bump on your leg? This kind of concern also leads to underlying tension that can wear on our souls. Call your doctor to discuss it, to cross that worry off your list.

15. Get your ha-ha on

Watching a funny video and experiencing “mirthful laughter” had an immediate and significant effect on perceived stress, according to a study on healthy women done at Western Kentucky University. The study didn’t look at whether the stress reduction lasted, but when you’re looking for a quick way to bring your stress temperature down, grab your phone and look at whatever cracks you up, whether that’s videos of cats doing weird things or your favorite comic’s latest Instagram reel.

16. Swap chores with a friend

Here’s a way to get in some socializing (good for your body and mind!) and get rid of an annoying chore that’s eating away at your well-being: Agree that you’ll spend some time at your place, say, cleaning out your junk drawer, and then go to her home and tackle the dusting. Follow it up with a glass of wine for the win!

17. Sniff some lavender

There have been a lot of dubious health claims about essential oils, but there’s actually research to support the relaxing power of lavender. One study showed its effectiveness in helping to ease anxiety in people with anxiety disorders, so it’s worth a try to see if it brings you a measure of peace. Put a couple of drops in an aromatherapy diffuser or simply onto a piece of cloth, close your eyes and inhale.

18. Cancel something — anything

Especially if you tend to over-schedule your time, take a look at your calendar and see what you can postpone or even cancel. It’s key to your mental health to give yourself the time and space in your brain in order to recharge, particularly since there’s so much of life that can’t be changed or cancelled!

19. Reconsider negative friendships

Speaking of cancelling: You know those people who just suck the life out of you, either with constant negativity, criticism, judgy-ness or gossip? If there’s no reason why you have to keep them in your life (meaning, they’re not a relative you can’t avoid), then it’ll definitely lead to less stress if you can see them less often or end the friendship completely .

20. Ease Sunday stress

If you spend the last part of your weekend worrying about the week ahead, it’s a great idea to take some steps to ease that tension. One way to do that: Schedule something fun or pleasurable for Monday or Tuesday, whether that’s an after-work meet-up with a friend, or a quick lunchtime mani self-care break! Having a cool activity to look forward to can reduce some of that dread, and that good feeling can snowball into a better week all around.

When to seek professional help

Some signs of stress include: change in sleep or eating habits, irritablity, sadness and trouble concentrating. If you're finding yourself stressed often and for long periods of time, or if your stress is causing you to feel overwhelmed and not in control of your emotions, it's time to get help from a licensed professional. A therapist can help you develop your own coping mechanisms for dealing with stress. In an acute crisis or an emergency, don’t hesitate to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK or text “NAMI” to 741-741.

Home — Essay Samples — Geography & Travel — Adventure — Benefits of Adventurous Experiences

Benefits of Adventurous Experiences

• Categories: Adventure Personal Experience

About this sample

Words: 800 |

Published: Jun 6, 2024

Words: 800 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Resilience and personal growth, stimulating creativity, social connections and interpersonal skills, mental well-being and stress relief.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Geography & Travel Life

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

1 pages / 629 words

2 pages / 1057 words

3 pages / 1502 words

2 pages / 1058 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Adventure

Embarking on my first international trip was a transformative experience that opened my eyes to new cultures, perspectives, and ways of life. The excitement and anticipation leading up to the journey were palpable, and the [...]

Adventure tourism has emerged as a popular and thriving sector within the broader travel industry. This essay delves into the dynamics of adventure tourism, exploring its appeal, benefits, and challenges. Through an in-depth [...]

Introduction:In the gripping non-fiction book, "The Cruelest Miles," written by Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury, we are transported back to the winter of 1925 in Alaska, where an unimaginable race against time unfolds. The [...]

Embarking on a journey alone offers a unique opportunity for personal growth, self-discovery, and enriched experiences. The benefits of traveling alone are vast and multifaceted, encompassing both the intrinsic advantages of [...]

The serene allure of spring break beckons students to indulge in diverse experiences, forging lasting memories. As the anticipation of relaxation and adventure intertwined, my spring break of 2015 unfolded into an unforgettable [...]

There was a mixed feeling of excitement and guilt as the dream of going on a lone journey was finally coming true with the fact that my family still supposed that I was doing my internship in Delhi. The bus continued along its [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Stress and Its Effects on Health Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Physical effects, psychological effects, behavioral effects.

Stress is the emotional strain or tension experienced by an individual due to a reaction toward various demanding and influential situations. The challenging or compelling situations are termed stressors. Stressors can be internal or external and include life changes such as losing a significant figure, low socioeconomic status, relationship problems, occupational challenges, and familial or environmental factors. An individual’s response to stressors influences the outcome of their life. Health is a state of complete social, emotional, and physical well-being and not merely the absence of disease. Stress is a common risk factor for negative health status secondary to negative adaptation and coping with the stressors. Stressors can create a strain on one’s physical, psychological and behavioral well-being, leading to lasting effects that are detrimental to one’s health.

Stress is associated with various physical health impacts on an individual. In an online cross-sectional survey by Keech et al. (2020) to determine the association between stress and the physical and psychological health of police officers, the findings illustrate that stress negatively impacts physical and psychological well-being. One hundred and thirty-four police officers were involved in the study (Keech et al., 2020). The findings demonstrate that stress resulted in various short and long-term physical effects that included increased heart rates, sweating, high blood pressure, and long-term development of the cardiac condition. In addition, stress resulted in the development of gastrointestinal disorders such as peptic ulcer and irritable bowel syndrome. Keech et al. (2020) note that stress’s associated physical health effects are explained by various mechanisms that include overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis.

Overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system results in increased sympathetic actions on the peripheral body organs leading to increased sweat production, heart rate, respiration rate, and urinary and bowel elimination. The study notes that chronic stress without positive adaptation measures results in the progressive development of hypertension, peptic ulcers, and irritable bowel syndrome as long-term effects (Keech et al., 2020). Within the gastrointestinal tract, chronic stress activity on the sympathetic nervous system results in increased parietal cell action. Overactivity of the parietal cells results in excessive gastric acid production, gradually eroding the mucosa, and ulceration occurs.

The effects of stress on the cardiovascular system are explained in a review by Kivimäki & Steptoe (2017) to determine the impact of stress on the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases. In the review, stress is identified to cause cardiovascular conditions secondary to the effects of sustained sympathetic action on heart contractility and peripheral vascular resistance (Kivimäki & Steptoe, 2017). The sympathetic nervous system contributes to normal heart and blood vessel contractility. However, when the system is overstimulated, a surge in contractility above the normal limits ensues, leading to the progressive development of heart conditions.

Psychological well-being incorporates a positive mental health status evidenced by an individual’s satisfaction with life, happiness, rational thinking and decision-making, and positive mood patterns. Stress has been associated with alterations in an individual’s psychological wellness. An explanation for alteration in an individual’s psychological well-being secondary to stress is negative adaptation. Keech et al. (2020) note that an individual’s response to a stressor determines whether stress results in positive or negative effects. In the online cross-sectional survey by Keech et al. (2020), the findings illustrate that pressure resulted in the development of anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorders as long-term effects among the participants. Exposure to stressful situations resulted in progressively developing anxiety among the individual secondary to persistent worry over the issue. The anxiety results in other physical manifestations, including increased heart rate, palpitations, sweating, and altered mobility. Depression and bipolar conditions were also associated with chronic stress secondary to the impacts of stress on neurotransmitter function and nerves.

Similar findings are noted in a cross-sectional study by Zhang et al. (2020) to compare the prevalence and severity of stress-associated mental health symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and insomnia among healthcare workers during the COVID pandemic. Five hundred and twenty-four healthcare workers were involved in the study. The study findings illustrate that 31.3% of the participants developed depression secondary to the stressful working environment, 41.2% reported anxiety, and 39.3% reported sleep disturbances (Zhang et al., 2020). The scientific explanation for the relationship between stress and depression was attributed to the effects of stressful periods on neurotransmitter homeostasis. Chronic stress results in the altered regulation of neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. Alterations in serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine resulted in the progressive development of depression and anxiety. Sleep disturbances reported by the participants are attributed to alterations in cortisol hormone homeostasis secondary to overstimulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis.

Stressful situations can also lead to alterations in the behavioral patterns of an individual. The most common behavioral effects secondary to stress include the development of eating disorders, altered sleeping patterns, impaired concentration, and drug abuse especially alcohol. Alterations in sleep and eating patterns are linked to stress’s effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis (HPA). Exposure to stressful events leads to increased activation of the HPA axis with a net effect of increased catecholamine production (adrenaline and noradrenaline) (Moustafa et al., 2018). Increased adrenaline and noradrenaline production results in dysregulation in the eating and sleeping patterns. Sustained high levels of cortisol results in difficulty falling asleep and increased metabolic processes. The biological clock regulates the typical sleeping pattern that relies on producing the sleep hormone melatonin. Melatonin production by the pineal gland is regulated indirectly by the concentration of serum cortisol levels and directly by light perception. Imbalances in the serum concentration cycle secondary to stress results in imbalanced melatonin production and concentration with a net effect of sleeping difficulties.

The emotional strain caused by stress increases the risk of alcohol and other illicit drug use and dependence. Moustafa et al. (2018) conducted an integrative literature review to determine the relationship between childhood trauma, early-life stress, alcohol and drug use, addiction, and abuse. The review findings illustrate that stress increases the risk of alcohol and drug use, addiction, and abuse among the victims. An explanation for the increased risk is the individuals’ lack of identification and implementation of effective coping strategies (Moustafa et al., 2018). Lack of effective coping strategies results in maladaptive measures such as illicit drug use and alcohol consumption. Extensive use of the maladaptive measures results in progressive addiction and drug abuse among individuals with an increased predisposition to other health effects. Alcohol consumption and other illicit drug use over time increase the risk of developing cardiac, respiratory, and liver conditions.

Stress is the emotional strain or tension experienced by an individual due to a reaction toward various demanding and influential situations. Individual response to stressors influences their health. Maladaptive response to stress results in various physical, psychological, and behavioral negative effects. Negative effects of stress on physical health include increased heart rates, sweating, high blood pressure, and long-term development of the cardiac condition. Psychological effects include the development of anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorders. The behavioral effects of stress on an individual include the development of eating disorders, altered sleeping patterns, impaired concentration, and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Based on the research findings, it is essential for healthcare providers to identify strategic measures and health initiatives to educate and sensitize the community members on effective stress management approaches in all settings to aid in combating the health effects.

Keech, J. J., Cole, K. L., Hagger, M. S., & Hamilton, K. (2020). The association between stress mindset and physical and psychological well being: Testing a stress beliefs model in police officers . Psychology & Health , 35 (11), 1306-1325. Web.

Kivimäki, M., & Steptoe, A. (2017). Effects of stress on the development and progression of cardiovascular disease . Nature Reviews Cardiology , 15 (4), 215–229. Web.

Moustafa, A. A., Parkes, D., Fitzgerald, L., Underhill, D., Garami, J., Levy-Gigi, E., Stramecki, F., Valikhani, A., Frydecka, D., & Misiak, B. (2018). The relationship between childhood trauma, early-life stress, and alcohol and drug use, abuse, and addiction: An integrative review . Current Psychology , 40 (2), 579–584. Web.

Zhang, X., Zhao, K., Zhang, G., Feng, R., Chen, J., Xu, D., Liu, X., Ngoubene-Italy, A. J., Huang, H., Liu, Y., Chen, L., & Wang, W. (2020). Occupational Stress and Mental Health: A comparison between frontline medical staff and non-frontline medical staff during the 2019 novel Coronavirus Disease outbreak . Frontiers in Psychiatry , 11 . Web.

• AUD: Psychopharmacologic Treatments
• Mood and Stress Psychology: Causes, Effects and Treatments
• Jessie as the Most Sympathetic Character of “Night, Mother” by Marsha Norman
• Intergenerational Trauma and Traumatic Memory
• The Lifespan Theory Applied to a Grieving Case
• Psychological Conditions in Addition to Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory
• Self-Control: Individual Development Plan
• Arachnophobia: Systematic Desensitization Project
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, December 19). Stress and Its Effects on Health. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stress-and-its-effects-on-health/

"Stress and Its Effects on Health." IvyPanda , 19 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/stress-and-its-effects-on-health/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Stress and Its Effects on Health'. 19 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Stress and Its Effects on Health." December 19, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stress-and-its-effects-on-health/.

1. IvyPanda . "Stress and Its Effects on Health." December 19, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stress-and-its-effects-on-health/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Stress and Its Effects on Health." December 19, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stress-and-its-effects-on-health/.

• MEMBER LOGIN
• MEDIA RELATIONS

Military Stress

• ASSESSMENTS
• DOCUMENTARIES

18 Quick Ways To Relax Instantly, According To Science

• February 11, 2022

Then it’s important you learn how to relax and de-stress yourself immediately with these simple and effective relaxing techniques.

Why do you need to relax?

RELATED:  10 Best Arts & Crafts To Do When You’re Stressed Out (And Need A Break)

Between balancing careers, relationships, social life, and family, modern lifestyles have become extremely complicated and stressful. By learning how to relax,  you can calm your mind and body , heal from your daily dose of stress, and create some much-needed time for yourself.

According to the  American Psychological Association  (APA), stress levels among American people have increased significantly in the past 10 years. The economy and workplace stress are the major factors contributing to the rising stress levels.

The  American Institute of Stress  stated,   “Numerous studies show that job stress is far and away from the major source of stress for American adults and that it has escalated progressively over the past few decades.”

Unfortunately,  chronic stress can lead to a lot of mental and physical health issues  like depression, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

This is why it has become more important now than ever that you learn how to relax using techniques that can immediately take the edge off from the moment and help you control your emotions.

So, if you are looking for some helpful tips and strategies to relax, then these tips can make you calm down in less than 15 minutes.

1. meditate..

There is a good reason why this is on the top of the list.  Meditation allows us to observe our thoughts  and emotions in a detached, non-judgmental way.

Psychologist Robbie Maller Hartman, Ph.D. says, “ Research suggests  that daily meditation may alter the brain’s neural pathways, making you more resilient to stress.”

Meditating for as little as 10 minutes every day can significantly reduce your stress and anxiety instantaneously. Studies have discovered that meditation can not only  help in reducing stress , regular practice of meditation can also  minimize the risk of cardiovascular disease .

Meditation expert and  author Light Watkins explain , “Real people living busy lives can meditate successfully on their seven-year-old couch, in bed alone or next to their snoring partner, in the passenger seat of their car, at work, at the kitchen table, in the backseat during a road trip, on a park bench, or in a bus or plane seat.”

All you need is to sit down, close your eyes, and bring your attention to your breath.

RELATED:  8 Natural Remedies For Anxiety & Stress That Are Incredibly Powerful

2. Breathe deeply.

Therapist Scott Dehorty, LCSW-C says , “Breathing is the number one and most effective technique for reducing anger and anxiety quickly.”

Breathing techniques are incredibly helpful when you are trying to learn how to relax immediately. You can do this anywhere and at any time. All you need is to take 5 minutes off and focus on your breath. Breathe in fresh cool air through your abdomen and breathe out warm air releasing all your tension.

Certified life coach and psychologist Judith Tutin, Ph.D. says, “Deep breathing counters the effects of stress by slowing the heart rate and lowering blood pressure.”

There are different types of breathing exercises like  box breathing , the  7/11 breathing  technique,  alternate nostril breathing , and many others that can help you relieve stress and balance your mind and body.

Emily Fletcher, the founder of Ziva Meditation, said that alternate nostril breathing “helps to balance the right and left hemispheres of the brain and has immediate energizing and calming effects.”

3. Practice mindfulness.

If you want to reduce stress, anxiety, and fear immediately, then shift your focus from negative thoughts and bring your attention to the present moment.

By becoming aware of the present moment, you will be able to realize the beauty hidden in the present, instead of thinking about your past or worrying about your future.  Mindfulness allows you to live in the now , which is actually all we have.

Psychologist Judith Tutin, Ph.D. explains, “Take 5 minutes and focus on only one behavior with awareness.”

It will allow you to pause, slow down, and enjoy the moment. So whenever you are too stressed, focus on your senses to relax immediately. This is one of the best tips to learn how to relax.

According to a Harvard Health Publishing report, mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques and meditation can greatly help in relieving mental stress and anxiety. Moreover, an analysis of studies published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal revealed that mindfulness meditation has proven effective in coping with psychological stress, depression,   and even physical pain.

Psychologist Deborah E. Dyer, Ph.D. explains, “Focus on your breath and be keenly aware of where you are. By focusing on your breath and your immediate circumstances, it is a form of focus that pulls you into the present and away from your wandering thoughts, which are likely the primary cause of your stress.”

4. Scan your body.

Scanning your own body mentally can help you understand where you are holding tension, how it affects you, and help you release stress as well.

All you need to do is sit comfortably or lie on your back and just scan your body from your toes to your scalp. As you move through each part of your body, gently notice how it feels physically.

Judith Tutin, Ph.D. adds, “Simply be aware of places you feel tight or loose without trying to change anything.”

By simply scanning your body for 2 minutes you can help it relax. Breathe deeply into your body while scanning and imagine fresh breath flowing to the specific body part you are scanning. Be aware of the sensations and repeat the process for each body part.

Wellness coach and  author Elizabeth Scott, MS explains , “Body scan meditation is a good way to release the tension you might not even realize you’re experiencing.”

Studies have found  that body scan meditation can help with stress relief, improve sleep, enhance self-awareness, reduce pain, and boost self-compassion.

Elizabeth adds, “By mentally scanning yourself, you bring awareness to every single part of your body, noticing any aches, pains, tension, or general discomfort. The goal is not to relieve the pain completely, but to get to know it and learn from it so you can better manage it.”

5. Listen to music.

If you want to know how to relax, then all you need to do is plug in your earphones and listen to your favorite music.  Experts have found that music can have an instant calming effect on our mind and body.

According to a  2017 study , “a minimum of 20 min of music listening” can lower stress levels remarkably. Another  2015 study  found that listening to music is highly effective in reducing stress.

The research stated, “Results revealed that mere music listening was effective in reducing subjective stress levels. The most profound effects were found when ‘relaxation’ was stated as the reason for music listening, with subsequent decreases in subjective stress levels and lower cortisol concentrations.”

Moreover, listening to your favorite music can also reduce your anxiety, heart rate, and blood pressure.

Cathy Benninger, an assistant professor at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, suggests,   “Create a playlist of songs or nature sounds (the ocean, a bubbling brook, birds chirping), and allow your mind to focus on the different melodies, instruments, or singers in the piece.”

However, you can also listen to more peppy and upbeat tunes to lift your mood and even sign along. These are undoubtedly the most effective science-backed relaxation techniques that will enable you to relieve stress and anxiety instantly.

6. Try hydrotherapy.

Splashing some cold water on your face and pulse points can help you cool your body temperature and make you feel energized. Running cold water or putting  ice on your wrists  can help you calm down quickly as major arteries run through the wrists.

7. Get some sun.

Step out of your home or office for a while and feel the warm sun on your skin.  Vitamin D from the sunshine  can lift your mood instantly.

8. Take a quick walk.

Getting some fresh air and moving your body for just 10 minutes can clear your head and make you feel ready for the tasks ahead.

Laugh out loud with your friends and family. Watch your favorite sitcoms or funny videos on YouTube to  enjoy a full-on laugh-out session .

10. Chew gum.

Chewing gum can help you  keep stress away  and enhance your productivity and mood.

11. Practice creative visualization.

Mentally imagine what you want — your goals, objectives, dreams, and think about how you want to feel about it.

12. Massage your hands.

If you want to know how to relax, then simply give yourself a hand massage for 5 minutes,  according to research .

13. Eat the right food.

Food and drinks like dark chocolate, honey, and green tea are known to relieve stress and anxiety.

14. Stretch.

Instead of going for an hour-long yoga session, you can stretch certain body parts while on the go to relieve body tension and relax your muscles.

15. Take some alone time.

Spend some time alone and gather your thoughts and emotions. Spending 5 minutes with yourself can help you calm down a lot.

16. Look outside.

Simply stare outside from the window and look at the sky, clouds, tries, park, or even people walking outside. Take a break from the screen and look at life.

17. Sniff oranges.

The citrusy scent of oranges can help to reduce stress and anxiety and boost your mood,  according to studies .

18. Pet a furry friend.

Spending some time with your pet can help to greatly reduce your stress and anxiety levels instantly,  studies have found . Now you have more reasons to spend time with your furry friends.

Well, there you have it! Relaxing is easy.

Stress has become an inherent part of our daily lives today. This is why it is crucial that we intentionally make relaxing a daily habit as well.

Now that you know how to relax and destress yourself even in the most difficult moments, make sure to deliberately follow these strategies and practice these tips whenever possible during your normal daily schedule.

These relaxation strategies are quick and easy that can be practiced whenever you want.  So go ahead and relax your mind and body. You deserve it.

Original post

Theo Harrison is a writer who focuses on relationships, health and wellness, and psychology. For more of his content, visit his author profile  on The Mind’s Journal.

More Articles

The hits keep coming. So how do we fight back against stress?

New Research Sheds Light on the Impact of Stress on Tobacco Users

Four Tools For A Healthier Relationship With Stress

Relax and Unwind: Ways to deal with stress and methods to fall asleep

Stress Awareness Month: Tips for keeping tensions in check

Are Workers Really Rage Quitting? Here’s What To Do Instead

Harnessing Emotional Intelligence: A Key To Reducing Stress At Work

Understanding the relationship between bruxism and stress

Air pollution associated with increased risk of stress and depression, in turn affecting heart health: study

Virtual reality environment for teens may offer an accessible, affordable way to reduce stress

Free All-in-One Office Suite with PDF Editor

Edit Word, Excel, and PPT for FREE.

Read, edit, and convert PDFs with the powerful PDF toolkit.

Microsoft-like interface, easy to use.

Windows • MacOS • Linux • iOS • Android

Select areas that need to improve

• Didn't match my interface
• Too technical or incomprehensible
• Incorrect operation instructions
• Incomplete instructions on this function

Fields marked * are required please

Please leave your suggestions below

• Quick Tutorials
• Practical Skills

How to Remove Page Breaks in Word for Your Essay? [For Students]

I once had a really frustrating moment as a student when I stumbled upon a section break while writing an essay. The break appeared because I was using a template provided by my teachers, and figuring out how to remove page breaks in Word for students turned into an hour-long hunt. It was a waste of precious time that I could have used to focus on my essay. If you're experiencing something similar, I’ve got you covered. Here's a simple guide to help you remove a section break from your page without losing your sanity.

What Is the Difference Between Page Break and Section Break?

Page breaks and section breaks are both useful tools in Microsoft Word for controlling the layout of your document, but they serve distinct purposes:

Page Break:

A page break in Microsoft Word serves to insert a new page at the insertion point, ensuring that the content following it begins on a fresh page. This is particularly useful when you want to start a new section, chapter, or topic on a new page, or when you need to ensure that certain content, such as a table or image, is displayed entirely on one page without being split across multiple pages.

However, there are situations where it becomes necessary to remove page breaks. For example, unintentional page breaks can disrupt the flow of content, causing formatting issues. Therefore, learning how to delete or remove a page break can be really handy for students, considering the amount of projects, theses, and assignments they have to work on.

Starting a new chapter or section on a new page.

Ensuring that a figure or table appears at the bottom of a page without being split across pages.

Managing the flow of text and visuals to enhance readability.

Impact on Formatting:

Affects only the placement of text and does not alter formatting settings such as margins, headers, or footers.

Section Break:

A section break indeed divides a document into sections, allowing for the application of various formatting settings to each section. These settings can include margins, headers, footers, columns, and more. With section breaks, you can customize the layout and appearance of different parts of your document to suit your specific needs.

Creating a report with varied page layouts for different sections (e.g., a title page with wider margins, followed by body text with standard margins).

Formatting references with different numbering styles compared to the main body of text.

Changing the page orientation (from portrait to landscape) for specific sections.

Allows for independent formatting of each section created with the section break.

Word is a great tool, but to make sure you can follow along on your mobile, Windows, or Mac, I'll use WPS Office for the demo. It's a free office software that's compatible with all Word document versions and can even convert your papers to PDF without losing format.

How to Remove Page Breaks in Word for your Written Essay?

One common habit of mine was to insert page breaks intermittently. This allowed flexibility for later additions, such as tables or extra content. However, it often led to the necessity of removing these breaks just before the final submission. Thus, learning how to remove page breaks in Word proves invaluable, preventing last-minute panic when submitting or printing your work. Let's explore a few methods to easily delete page breaks in Word.

Method 1: Remove Page Breaks With Delete

The first method is by far the easiest. Simply locate the page break and use the "Delete" key on your keyboard to remove it from your document.

Step 1: Open the Word document in WPS Writer containing the unnecessary page breaks.

Step 2: Navigate to the Home tab and click on the "Show/Hide Editing Marks " icon in the home ribbon.

Step 3: Select the "Show/Hide Paragraph Marks" option to reveal paragraph marks in your document.

Step 4: Scroll down and locate the page breaks in your document. With the help of paragraph marks, page breaks are easily distinguishable.

Step 5: Once you locate the page break, double-click to select it, and then press the "Delete" or "Backspace" key on your keyboard to remove the page break.

Method 2: Remove Page Break With Find and Replace

The second method is also very useful for students to remove page breaks in Word. In this method, students don't have to manually search for page breaks; instead, they can use the Replace tool to find and replace page breaks automatically. So, if your document contains numerous page breaks, this method of how to delete page breaks in Word is a must.

Step 1: Let's open the Word document in WPS Writer.

Step 2: Now, navigate to the Home tab and click on the "Find and Replace" button in the home ribbon.

Step 3: Select "Replace" to access the Replace tool in WPS Writer. Alternatively, students can also use the shortcut key "Ctrl + H" to access the Replace tool directly.

Step 4: In the Replace dialog, click on "More" to access additional Replace features in WPS Writer.

Step 5: Next, click on the "Special" button to open a dropdown menu with all the special Replace features.

Step 6: In this Special dropdown, we will select "Manual Page Breaks" since we need to remove page breaks from our document.

Step 7: Notice how the "Find what" field is automatically populated with "^m" .

Step 8: Leave the "Replace with" field empty, then click on the "Replace All" button.

Step 9: WPS Writer will notify the number of replacements made throughout the document.

Use Word, Excel, and PPT for FREE, No Ads.

Edit PDF files with the powerful PDF toolkit.

Microsoft-like interface. Easy to learn. 100% Compatibility.

Boost your productivity with WPS's abundant free Word, Excel, PPT, and CV templates.

How to Remove Section Breaks in Word for your Essay Written?

Section breaks are typically added to customize formatting for each section, such as margins, paragraph spacing, and so on. However, if you wish to remove a section break in Word , follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the Word document in WPS Writer from which you want to remove the section break.

Step 2: To easily locate the section break in the document, navigate to the Home tab and click on the "Show/Hide Editing Marks" button.

Step 3: Next, select the "Show/Hide Paragraph Marks" option to activate paragraph marks in your document. Now, simply locate the section breaks in your document.

Step 4: Once the section break is located in your document, double-click to select it, and then press the "Delete" or "Backspace" key to remove the section break from your document.

Bonus Tips: How to Convert Word to PDF without losing Format

WPS Office enables you to convert your documents to PDF without losing formatting. This is crucial for students who need to submit papers in a specific format, as it ensures that all your hard work won't get messed up when shared or printed. With WPS Office , you can seamlessly convert to PDF, knowing that your layout, fonts, and graphics will stay intact.

Here is how students can easily convert their papers to PDF using WPS Writer:

Step 1: Open your paper document in WPS Writer, then click on the Menu button at the top left.

Step 2: Next, click on the "Export to PDF" option in the menu.

Step 3: In the Export to PDF dialog, select "Common PDF" in the "Export Type" field, then click "Export to PDF" to convert your Word document to PDF .

Use AI Tools to Perfect Your Paper

Unfortunately, we weren’t blessed with AI during our time, so everything had to be done manually. This often meant spending hours combing through our essays, only to find that we'd missed some errors. As a result, our grades could suffer because of those overlooked mistakes. But with the advent of AI, students today have it a lot easier. WPS AI in WPS Office offers a range of tools to help you perfect your work. It automatically checks for spelling and grammar errors, ensuring that your essays are polished and error-free. This not only saves you time but also boosts your confidence when submitting assignments.

WPS AI also offers more than just proofreading. It can help you generate outlines, providing a structured way to organize your thoughts. It can even suggest new ideas or topics to include in your papers, making brainstorming sessions less stressful. This kind of AI assistance transforms the essay-writing process into a more enjoyable and efficient task, allowing you to focus on what matters most: creating compelling content. With WPS AI, you can approach your studies with greater ease and efficiency.

To make sure your thesis or assignment doesn't have any mistakes, let's use WPS Writer's AI Spell Check.

Step 1: Open your document and turn on the "AI Spell Check" option at the bottom of the screen.

Step 2: If there's a word or phrase highlighted with a colored line, click on it.

Step 3: The WPS AI Spell check pane will pop up on the right side showing suggestions.

Step 4: Look through the suggestions and choose the one that fits best.

Apart from WPS AI Spell check, WPS Writer's AI feature is a fantastic ally when tackling a project. It can help us craft a comprehensive outline, providing valuable support throughout the process. Let's take a closer look at its capabilities.

Step 1: To access WPS AI Writer, first open WPS Office and click on "New" in the left pane.

Step 2: Next, click on "Docs" to create a new document.

Step 3: Now, click on "WPS AI" at the top right corner of the screen.

Step 4: The WPS AI pane will open on the right.

Step 5: Now that we have WPS AI with us, my practice is to engage with WPS AI to provide project details initially, and then ask WPS AI to create an outline accordingly.

Step 6: Once the outline has been generated, review it and request any desired changes. Finally, click on "Insert" to paste the outline onto the document and format it according to your preferences.

FAQs about Remove Page Breaks in Word

1. why can't i remove a page break in word.

There are two types of page breaks in Word: manual and automatic. You can freely add or remove manually inserted page breaks. However, automatically inserted page breaks by Word help maintain your document's layout integrity. Therefore, you cannot delete automatic page breaks, as they play a crucial role in maintaining the software's formatting.

2. Is there a quick way to delete page breaks in Word?

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to remove a page break:

Step 1: Go to the "Home" tab.

Step 2: Click on "Show/Hide" in the toolbar. This action will reveal non-printing elements such as paragraph markers and page breaks.

Step 3: Locate the page break you want to remove.

Step 4: Double-click on the page break to select it.

Step 5: Press the "Delete" key on your keyboard to remove the page break from your document.

3. How can I ensure that my document maintains a polished appearance when printed or converted to PDF?

To ensure your document prints or converts to PDF smoothly, carefully review it after removing any page breaks for layout issues. Additionally, consider utilizing software such as WPS Office for efficient PDF conversion while preserving formatting integrity.

Ease Your Academic Stress With WPS Office

Page breaks are annoying, especially when they pop up unexpectedly in your essays. Often, teachers use templates with these breaks for organizing content, but there's no reason to have them in your work. If you want to learn how to remove page breaks in Word For students and tidy up your essay, WPS Office offers a more convenient solution. You can easily manage your document's layout and eliminate those unwanted breaks. As a student, using WPS Office can help you keep your assignments clean and well-organized. Download WPS Office now to make your work easier and stress-free.

• 1. How to remove all page breaks from word document
• 2. How to Do Hanging Indent in Word for Your Essay? [For Students]
• 3. How to Remove Page Breaks in Word[2024]
• 4. How to Remove Section Breaks in Word? [For Students]
• 5. How to Use Track Changes in Word for Your Essay? [For Students]
• 6. How to Double Space in Word for Your Essay: A Guide for Students

15 years of office industry experience, tech lover and copywriter. Follow me for product reviews, comparisons, and recommendations for new apps and software.

• International

US Jobs report

Russia's war in Ukraine

Hunter Biden's gun trial

Donald Trump found guilty of all 34 charges in hush money trial

By CNN's Kara Scannell, Lauren Del Valle and Jeremy Herb in the courthouse

Our live coverage has ended. Follow  the latest news on Donald Trump's guilty verdict or read through the updates below. 

Stormy Daniels' attorney says she was "really emotional" after verdict

From CNN's Kaanita Iyer

Stormy Daniels' attorney Clark Brewster said his client was "really emotional" following former President Donald Trump's guilty verdict in the hush money case.

He told CNN's Kaitlan Collins that Daniels faced the "realization of the finality" and had "a lot of emotions flowing."

Brewster also responded to Trump attorney Todd Blanche saying he'd raise Daniels' testimony in appeal, arguing that "it was straightforward" and "they had an opportunity to cross examine her."

Stormy Daniels' friend said "it's a joyous day" after Trump's guilty verdict

From CNN's Piper Hudspeth Blackburn

Alana Evans, friend of Stormy Daniels and an adult film star told CNN’s Abby Phillip that she — and Daniels — absolutely feels vindicated by Trump’s guilty verdict, calling it a “joyous day.” 

"We were deemed credible, and it's heartwarming in that way because so many people judge us for who we are — our backgrounds — it's something that's thrown in our faces again and again ... it isn't a reflection of who we are as people," Evans said. Evans added that she's "really happy simply because it meant that at the end of the day, it really is a adult film star who is stepping forward and being the person to put that man to the truth."

Here's what happens now that Trump has been convicted in his hush money criminal case

From CNN's Devan Cole

A New York jury  convicting Donald Trump  on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records brought the former president’s weekslong trial to a close but ushered in a new phase of the historic case.

Now in the unique position of being the first former US president convicted of a felony, Trump faces the possibility of a prison sentence or probation for his crimes stemming from a hush money payment scheme he helped facilitate ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump – who is known for mounting lengthy appeals of court rulings against him – has said he will appeal the conviction, which can be done after he is sentenced.

Here’s what to know about the case following Trump’s conviction:

When will Trump be sentenced?

Judge Juan Merchan has set Trump’s sentencing for 10 a.m. ET on July 11. For now, the former president will remain out of prison as he awaits his sentencing. Prosecutors did not ask for Trump to post any bond.

Can Trump appeal his conviction?

Shortly after Trump was convicted, his attorney Todd Blanche asked Merchan for an acquittal of the charges notwithstanding the guilty verdict. The judge rejected the pro forma request.

Can Trump still be elected president?

Nothing in the US Constitution bars a convicted criminal from running for the nation’s highest office, University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard L. Hasen has consistently said.

“The Constitution contains only limited qualifications for running for office (being at least 35 years old, a natural born citizen, and at least 14 years a resident of the U.S.),” Hasen continued.

Will the conviction cost Trump his right to vote?

Trump is a Florida resident. When it comes to the Manhattan guilty verdict just rendered,  Trump’s right to vote in Florida  in November’s election will depend on whether he is sentenced to a term in prison and if he has finished serving that prison sentence by the time of the election.

Florida’s felon voting prohibitions apply to people with out-of-state convictions. However, if a Floridian’s conviction is out of state, Florida defers to that state’s laws for how felon can regain their voting rights.

Read more on the aftermath of Trump's guilty verdict.

Correction: This post has been updated to reflect when Trump is allowed to file an appeal.

In pictures: Trump convicted in hush money case

For the first time in history, a former US president has been convicted of a felony.

A jury on Thursday found Donald Trump guilty  on 34 charges of falsifying business records. Prosecutors alleged that the former president engaged in a cover-up scheme to hide reimbursement payments made to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who had paid hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels to stop her from going public about a past affair with Trump before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied the affair.

See more photos from the trial .

Trump is facing 3 other criminal cases while running again for president

From CNN’s Devan Cole, Amy O'Kruk and Curt Merrill 

The hush money criminal case against former President Donald Trump was only one of  four criminal cases  he is juggling while running again for president.

The former president still faces criminal indictments in Georgia, Washington, DC, and Florida. Trump has pleaded not guilty to every charge in these cases. 

Here's a recap of each case: 

• Hush money:  Trump was first indicted in March 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney on state charges related to a hush-money payment to an adult film star in 2016. Prosecutors alleged Trump was part of an illegal conspiracy to  undermine  the integrity of the 2016 election. Further, they alleged he was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including the $130,000 payment. He was found guilty of all 34 counts on Thursday.
• Classified documents:  Trump was indicted in June 2023 by a federal grand jury in Miami for taking classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials. The National Archives said in early 2022 that at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from the estate, including  some that were classified . The charges were brought by special counsel Jack Smith. However,  Judge Aileen Cannon  has  indefinitely postponed the trial , citing significant issues around classified evidence that would need to be worked out before the federal criminal case goes to a jury.
• Federal election interference:  Smith separately charged the former president last August with four crimes over his efforts to reverse the 2020 election results. The indictment alleges Trump and a co-conspirator "attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol by calling lawmakers to convince them ... to delay the certification" of the election. That case is currently on hold  as the Supreme Court  weighs Trump’s claims of presidential immunity in the matter.
• Fulton County:  State prosecutors in Georgia brought a similar election subversion case against Trump and others. An Atlanta-based grand jury on August 14, 2023, indicted Trump and 18 others on state charges stemming from their alleged efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 electoral defeat. A trial date has not yet been set in that case.

Track the criminal cases  against Trump.

The post was updated with details from Thursday's verdict.

Melania Trump is in New York City, source says

From CNN's Kristen Holmes

Former first lady Melania Trump and her son, Barron Trump, are currently in New York, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. The two were already in New York when the verdict was read earlier Thursday, although it was not immediately clear when they arrived in the city.

Melania Trump did not attend a fundraiser dinner with Trump at a private residence Thursday night in New York City.

She was not seen at court during the trial.

Schumer says “no one is above the law” after Trump verdict

From CNN's Morgan Rimmer

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer posted a brief statement about the verdict in former President Donald Trump's hush money trial on social media. 

"No one is above the law. The verdict speaks for itself," the New York Democrat said. 

Trump attorney Todd Blanche outlines appeal arguments

Donald Trump's attorney Todd Blanche told CNN's Kaitlan Collins Thursday that the former president's legal team plans to argue in its appeal of the verdict that the jury was biased against Trump and the timing of the trial was unfair.

"Every single person on the jury knew Donald Trump as president, as candidate, from 'The Apprentice' so I don't accept that this was a fair place to try President Trump," Blanche said.

He added: "There was so much publicity around the witnesses and around – leading up to the trial that our system of justice isn't supposed to be a system where every person who walks into the courtroom knows about the case."

"The law says a person is entitled to a fair trial in front of a jury of their peers and we just think that because of everything around the lead up this trial, it made it very difficult for the jury to evaluate the evidence kind of independent of what they knew coming in," Blanche said.

Blanche previewed that Trump's legal team will now "vigorously fight" with motions due in a few weeks. And "if that is not successful," the attorney said they will appeal following the sentencing in July.

Please enable JavaScript for a better experience.