8 Simple Ways to Fight Stress Naturally

If you're facing a stressful situation or suffer from chronic anxiety that causes every situation to feel stressful, you’re not alone. Fortunately, there are a number of very simple and completely natural things that you can do to fight that stress in the moment and get your mind relaxed and re-centered. Here are some of our favorite ways to fight stress naturally.

1. Aromatherapy

There are so many different essential oils to choose from when you’re looking for a way to calm and relax a troubled mind. Some of the most commonly used are lavender and rose. You may also want to burn incense like sandalwood or nag champa to relax. When the scent molecules from these enter your body, they trigger your brain to slow your heart rate and balance out your hormones.

2. Deep Breathing

It may sound overly simple, but you would be surprised at how much calmer you can become by taking a few moments and doing some deep breathing. One of the things that you subconsciously do when you’re stressed is breathe faster and shallower which can then increase your stress and anxiety even more. Count three seconds in and four seconds out and try to breathe from your diaphragm rather than your chest.

3. Cocoon Your Face

Cocooning is a simple way to immediately calm your mind and help you feel more at ease, and it’s great to do while you’re working on deep breathing. Put the palms of your hands on your cheeks and allow your fingers to spread out and rest over your closed eyes. Even in a moment of feeling overwhelmed by stress, this will help you to relax and refocus so you can tackle the problem with confidence.

4. Take a Break

Problems don’t get solved by worry, and most of the time, if you walk away for a few minutes, the problem will still be there when you get back, so take a mental break from the problem to reduce your stress. Go for a walk, read or watch something funny, do a few yoga poses or listen to some positive music. Many times, getting away from the problem for a bit will help you solve it with a cleared mind.

5. Herbal Helps

There are a number of herbs that have been shown to help reduce stress and calm your body naturally. Some herbs that are well-known for helping with stress include Siberian ginseng, licorice, withania, and rhodiola. Some calming herbs are chamomile, kava, damiana, St. John’s wort, oats, and passionflower. Some of these can be found in tea form and others, in capsules.

6. Self-Affirmations

You may be uncomfortable with the idea of talking to yourself out loud, but it’s actually a great way to help yourself be calm in the face of stressful situations. Keep all of your statements positive and calming, and try using a mirror to look yourself in the eyes. Some things that you can say to yourself to help re-center your mind are: “It’s going to be okay” and “Just keep breathing. You can do this.”

7. Phone a Friend

Whether it’s a close family member or friend, sometimes just talking to someone who knows you and loves you can help lower your stress level. In some situations, they may be able to help, but even if they can’t, just being able to express yourself to someone else and get all of those emotions verbalized can help you see the situation more clearly so you can get out of it more easily.

8. Get Professional Help

If talking it out with a friend or loved one isn’t enough and it seems like no matter what you do, the stress and anxiety are still there, then it may be time to get some professional help, and there’s no reason to feel ashamed to admit when you need help. Just like you visit a doctor when something is physically wrong with you, you should also be seeing someone when there’s something emotionally off.

By following some or all of these suggestions, you can help get yourself out of a stressful situation and begin to see a reduction in the overall anxiety levels that you may be experiencing in your life in a way that’s safe and natural.