These symptoms make life miserable and can cause myriad health issues, burnout, and even a nervous breakdown. According to a recent Massachusetts Lawyer Well-Being Study, 77% of the attorneys surveyed reported burnout and considered changing their careers. Reverse the Effects of Stress With 7 Self-Care Countermeasures The effects of stress can be reversed by focusing on some simple countermeasures throughout the day.
Do Deep Breathing Exercises
The more you fill your lungs with oxygen, the better. By breathing deeply and regularly, you can force your body to relax and clear your mind. First, stress causes us to breathe shallowly, which reduces the amount of oxygen that gets to our brain and causes our frontal lobes to shut down. By breathing deeply, we can get our rational minds to think more clearly and solve problems. Deep breathing also causes our diaphragms and lungs to expand more completely, which activates the vagus nerve and helps us relax and reduce the effects of stress.
Add Physical Exercise to Your Daily Routine
Not only does exercise cause us to breathe deeply (see above), but it has numerous health benefits, including increased circulation and muscle tone and stimulating endorphins, melatonin, serotonin, and oxytocin. These “feel-good” hormones make us feel better and relaxed. You don’t have to do strenuous exercise for this to be beneficial. Yoga, stretching, chair exercises, a walk around the office complex, anything to raise your heart rate and improve breathing will work.
Stop Multitasking
Constant multitasking increases stress levels because it forces our brains to be in a high state of alertness for extended periods without rest. This leads to a feeling of overwhelm and a decrease in overall well-being. It is important to rest and decompress during the day, even for only 15 minutes. Take a walk, meditate, listen to your favorite song, read a poem, look at the artwork, and plan for the evening, the weekend, or your next vacation. Any of these activities will allow your brain to rest briefly and relax. Schedule several 15-minute breaks during your workday to substantially reduce the effects of stress.
Eat More Nutritional Foods
Your brain and body are connected, so whatever affects your body will affect your brain. Consuming junk food, processed food, and food with high levels of calories, fat, sugar, or salt increases cortisol levels in your body. Cortisol is the main stress hormone. High levels of caffeine also raise the stress on your body and mind and can overstimulate your stress response. Similarly, alcohol overstimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which stimulates the production of glucocorticoids (stress hormones). Ironically, even though you may drink to relax, alcohol causes more stress in your body. Read More
Pay attention to what you consume. Eat as many raw vegetables as you can. Stay away from alcohol, caffeine, and pretty much anything that comes in a box, bag, or can. You will feel much better, have more energy, and be clearer-minded.
Apply Cold Water
Neuroscientists have discovered that cold water on the skin will activate your parasympathetic nervous system, otherwise known as the rest-and-digest response. This response is opposite to the sympathetic nervous system’s fight-or-flight response. When you feel stressed, wash your hands with cold water, splash cold water on your face, take a cold shower, or jump in an ice-covered lake (kidding). It will hack your brain and jumpstart it into relaxing. Combined with other relaxation techniques, this is a great trick to reduce the effects of stress.
Get Grounded
Getting outside into nature is extremely beneficial. It engages every sense and helps you relax. When you are in the middle of the downtown concrete jungle, finding nature may be difficult. You can bring plants, flowers, or aromatics to help you connect with nature and return to the moment. When focused on working, our minds often dwell on the past or the future, which usually causes stress. When we look at a flower or a plant, we tend to forget all that and focus on the plant, flower, or nature. Those who practice “grounding” or “earthing” — the practice of connecting regularly to the earth’s energy — often use “earthing” pads, which are designed to ground you to the planet even if you are in a multistory building.
While more research is needed on the health benefits of grounding, there’s no doubt that the more you can bring nature into your office, the more you can relax.
Boost Your Dopamine
When we get excited about something or plan for a pleasurable moment, our brains excite their dopamine control system. When this happens, we feel pleasure. This is why we feel noticeably better when we look at photos of loved ones or favorite places. Put pictures that evoke pleasant memories around your office and focus on them. Remembering these happy moments will reduce stress.
Replacing Stress Hormones With “Feel Good” Hormones
The fastest way to reverse the effects of stress is to eliminate stress-related adrenalin and cortisol from our systems and other glucocorticoids. The steps outlined above have been shown to rapidly replace those stress hormones with “feel-good” hormones such as endorphins, melatonin, serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine. Try them, and you will be amazed at how relaxed you can become and start enjoying life again.