How to Reduce Stress: The Best Creative Ways to Cope

Stress is a part of everybody’s life and it’s important that we try to find ways to deal with it. Whether it is due to work pressures, family responsibilities, health issues or unexpected life changes stress can significantly impact your physical and mental well-being. Some stress can be beneficial and act as a motivator. But when stress is chronic, it can lead to serious health problems including anxiety, depression and more.  Finding effective ways to manage and reduce stress is essential to maintaining overall health and improving quality of life.

Explore Mindfulness and Meditation to Reduce Stress

Mindfulness and meditation are powerful stress management tools. These techniques help to focus our attention on the present moment. This enables us to more easily accept what is happening without judgment. 

Photo by Inzmam Khan

Even a few minutes of sitting quietly doing deep breathing exercises everyday can help to lower your stress levels and improve your ability to cope with life challenges.

There are apps that can help you with guided meditation and mindfulness. They are perfect for beginners or those who are looking to take their practice to another level.

Engage in Physical Activity

Physical activity is one of the most effective ways to manage stress. Exercise releases endorphins, natural mood lifters that can help to reduce feelings of anxiety and depression. 

Exercise also helps improve sleep which is often disturbed by stress. Physical activity can help you clear your mind by focusing on physical movements rather than worries.

If workout routines are not your cup of tea, consider hiking, dancing or running.

Take Up a Hobby to Relieve Stress

Art and crafts help us express our emotions and challenge stress into a creative direction. Drawing, knitting, sculpting, painting, origami or any other hobby that involves creating something with your hands can be therapeutic. 

This type of creativity allows you to externalize all your thoughts and feelings. This can be helpful if you find it difficult to express yourself verbally. Crafting can also serve as a form of meditation in some cases. It focuses your attention on the details at hand and helps you to be present in the moment.

Being able to reduce your stress in healthy ways helps ensure you are not turning to substances for stress relief. Substance abuse such as using illegal drugs or misuse of alcohol can lead to the need for rehabilitation at facilities such as Serenity at Summit to help you cope.

Garden or Spend Time in Nature to Reduce Stress

Spending time in nature has been shown to reduce stress and enhance overall well-being. It also improves your mood. 

Gardening offers a combination of physical activity, mindfulness and exposure to the natural world as well.

The act of planting, harvesting, and tending to the garden helps us focus on the present moment can also provide us a sense of purpose.

If you don’t have a green thumb or access to a garden, simply spending time outdoors is beneficial.

Take a walk in the park, go for a hike in the woods or sit by a lake. Being near water is particularly helpful for stress relief. Being near the sights, sounds and smells of nature calms both mind and body.

Learn Something New

Learning something new can be a fantastic way to distract yourself from stress. It also stimulates your brain in a positive way. 

Studying a new language or topic, taking up a musical instrument or even just trying out a new recipe are great ways to lose yourself in what you are doing, relieve stress, and boost your self-confidence.

Connect With Loved Ones to Reduce Stress

Being surrounded by friends and family and those who wish you well is a great way to distract yourself and reduce stress. 

It may not eliminate our problems, but any activity that takes our mind off of our challenges sometimes helps us to see new opportunities or solutions.

Spending time with others is also a great way to feel less alone and isolated as we work to reduce stress and cope.

Thank you as always for reading.

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KindCompassCoach

Joan Senio is the founder of KindCompassCoach. Her career includes 20+ years as a private sector corporate executive and 15 years (and counting) as a consultant and coach. The common thread through her professional life has been a commitment to compassionate leadership, including leading and mentoring current and future leaders, and women from all walks of life. KindCompassCoach articles are backed by research and include facts and advice from a wide variety of experts. Joan is a member of the International Organization of Life Coaches, serves as a thought-leader for KuelLife.com and is a regular contributor to PsychReg and Sixty and Me.