5 tips to help combat stress

Are you feeling stressed? Many people experience stress, but luckily there are ways to help combat stress and help you to manage its effect on you.

These top 5 tips on how to tackle and manage stress and anxiety, and help you get the most out of life.

1. Exercise.
   Yoga and pilates are great for stress reduction and calming your body. Pilates especially provides a sense of calmness and relief from stress. Breathing in pilates is designed to improve blood circulation and encourage relaxation.
2. Meditation.
   Meditation calms the mind, and is great either early morning or before bed, and breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system or the ‘brakes’ for stress.
3. Take a break.
   We recommend taking a 30 minute break each day to just be away from technology, noise and daily activities and sit in silence. This can reduce stress and anxiety, improve focus and boost productivity.
4. Limit caffeine.
   Caffeine negatively affects the body in several ways. It increases anxiety, makes focusing more difficult, and can disrupt sleep patterns. All of these can lead to further stress. So cutting out that morning coffee or choosing decaf options will help you have a more productive day.
5. Set small achievements.
   Realistically, we can only achieve three things per day. But when life is busy, we can create lists as long as our arm and then become stressed when we don’t complete them. Setting smaller, more achievable goals and tracking them can make us feel more accomplished and satisfied. Knowing we have achieved our goals can reduce stress and increase productivity and motivation. They can also make us passionate again.