Healthy Habits for Stressful Times

Whether election anxiety, holiday stress, or day to day worry (speaking of, who’s cruel joke was it to have Halloween, Daylight Savings, and Election Day all in the span of a few days–hang in there friends), life sometimes sends us into dysregulation. While we can’t control outcomes, we can take steps to reduce our mental and emotional load.

Healthy habits for stressful times:

Prioritize rest. 

Getting enough sleep is ideal, but sometimes insomnia happens and stressing over the lack of sleep only propels the cycle. Choose calming and restful activities, e.g., meditate, sit on the couch and do nothing, give yourself permission to be unproductive.

Nourish your body.

Forgetting to eat and stress eating are both sides of the same stress coin. If possible, prepare easy to grab, nourishing snacks (it’s okay to buy precut fruit and veggies) and keep a water bottle close. Try to habit stack if you tend to forget to eat/hydrate during stressful times, e.g., pair going to the bathroom with drinking a glass of water.

Move.

Sometimes it can feel as if there is a little anxious creature running around inside our bodies when we are stressed. Give that manifestation or worry an outlet and move your body. Take a walk, go for a run, dance, lift weights, go swimming–whatever movement your body loves, do it.

Take a note from nature.

Nature persists and much of it has been here far longer than we have. Look at the night sky for perspective, watch a sparrow flit around with joyful lightness, listen to the sound of running or lapping water, touch your feet to the ground (sand is a really great option), smell lavender–allow nature to help ground you through its myriad sensory gifts.

Limit information overload.

Thanks to the ease of obtaining information these days, it is easy to forget that our brains are not designed for constant input. Make a plan ahead of time that keeps you off your phone, e.g., warn your friends/family/coworkers that you will be turning off your phone, decide a set number of times that you can check social media/election results/the news and then keep a tally and stick to your limit, choose an alternative activity proactively (e.g., reading, journaling, coloring, taking a walk with a neighbor). Mindless scrolling is more likely when we don’t have an intentional alternative plan set in place.

Stress happens. Acknowledge it and then be mindful about making intentional choices to minimize its negative impact on you. You got this!