Eat a healthy diet because the food you eat can improve or worsen your mood and affect your ability to cope with life’s stressors.
Try a relaxing activity. Explore relaxation or wellness programmes, which may incorporate meditation, muscle relaxation, or breathing exercises. Schedule regular times for these and other healthy and relaxing activities.
Stay connected. You are not alone, keep in touch with people who can provide emotional support and practical help. Ask for help from friends, family and community or religious organizations. The simple act of talking face-to-face with another human can trigger hormones that relieve stress when you’re feeling agitated or insecure.
While stress is almost inevitable, how you react to and manage stress is important to your overall well-being and health. Life will always throw punches at you, but you can control how much of the punches you take. You should not let stress affect you by learning how to reduce their impact on your well-being. The less you allow stress to affect you, the more you can enjoy the moments you have. Though it is easier said than done, it is important for you to learn how to effectively live a stress-free life in healthy ways.
Rest or Be Rested
It seems unimaginable to write about rest. After all, rest is like breathing: It is automatic. Or rest is like brushing, eating: It’s something we automatically do every day, sometimes several times a day. But do you know that you can rest without being rested? This is like going to bed to sleep without achieving rejuvenation and then waking up tired and struggling to get out of bed.
Most people do not know the difference between resting and sleeping. The idea of sleeping is to get some rest. In sleep you are merely closing your eyes and in most cases your thoughts and body systems are overly active while in rest your thoughts and systems are fully relaxed and healing takes place. The aim of going to bed is that while sleeping you are rested.
Rest is necessary for your health and has been shown to improve cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure and cortisol levels. Taking holidays in particular has also been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and increase lifespan. A famous study known as the Framingham Heart Study followed roughly 12,000 men between the ages of 35 and 57, who were at risk of heart disease, for nine and women who do not take vacations are, respectively, 30 to years. Using the data from this study, researchers found that men 50% more likely to suffer heart attacks than those who do.
People who work long hours without having some rest have a 20% higher mortality rate than those who do and women who fail to take time off work are more likely to suffer from depression and, according to one study, 50% more likely to have for variables that are known to show a relationship to a longer a heart attack 10 These results remained true even after controlling lifespan, such as higher income and education.
Below are ideas on how you can really rest. Thankfully, we can relearn to rest fully and wholeheartedly.
Your bedroom should be set up as a restful, soothing place that is conducive to sleep – it should not be used as a work or general social networking area. Remove the television, any other screens (your bedroom is not a movie theatre!), electrical appliances and any work related materials. Ensure the room is adequately dark at night. Light is the main factor that influences our circadian rhythm which affects our sleep-wake cycles. Melatonin, the sleeping hormone, is necessary to achieving a deep restful state. This hormone can only be adequately secreted in the dark and peaks between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. Most cases of insomnia (those who cannot sleep at night) have been linked to years of suppression of melatonin secretion.
Engage in activities that help in winding down, such as playing soothing music, having an herbal tea such as camomile, turning out lights in the rest of the house, doing a relaxation technique. Do not take coffee or other stimulants before bedtime.
Try to go to sleep and get up at the same time every day. This helps set your body’s internal clock and optimize the quality of your sleep. Sleep-wake and other daily patterns are part of our circadian rhythms, which are governed by the body’s internal or biological clock, housed deep within the brain. Choose a bed time when you normally feel tired, so that you do not toss and turn. If you’re getting enough sleep, you should wake up naturally without an alarm. If you need an alarm clock, you may need an earlier bedtime.
The more your weekend/weekday sleep schedules differ, the worse the confusing symptoms you’ll experience. If you need to make up for a late night, opt for a daytime nap rather than sleeping in. This allows you to pay off your sleep debt without disturbing your natural sleep-wake rhythm. Maintain a constant sleeping schedule to maximize your overall health outcome.
Be smart about napping and limit naps to 15 to 20 minutes in the early afternoon. If you get sleepy way before your bedtime, get off the couch and do something mildly stimulating, such as washing the dishes, calling a friend, or getting clothes ready for the next day. If you give in to the drowsiness, you may wake up later in the night and have trouble getting back to sleep. Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of major organizations have this habit of taking short naps while at work to rest the brain and the body as required by their hectic workload.
People who exercise regularly sleep better at night and feel less sleepy during the day. Regular exercise also improves the symptoms of insomnia and increases the amount of time you spend in the deep, restorative stages of sleep.
Peaceful bedtime routine sends a powerful signal to your brain that it’s time to wind down and let go of the day’s stresses. Sometimes even small changes to your environment.