The pandemic created more stress for many people, and the effects are still lingering. A calm mind gives you more resilience when life throws chaos at you. Whether stress is affecting your relationships, your work, or your social life, cultivating a more relaxed state of mind will help. Try the following four tips during stressful times.
- Vape CBD e-liquid
An ever-growing body of research suggests that CBD helps to relieve anxiety and calm your mind. Vaping CBD e-liquid offers you a fast delivery method. You can buy assorted flavors and flavorless types of CBD vape juice. A full-spectrum, broad-spectrum, and isolated e-juices are the most in-demand verities. None of these will get you high as they contain 0.3% or less THC, and they are all made from the best quality hemp. You can choose a product that suits your palette and with the potency to address your needs. Vape the CBD e-liquid or put it under your tongue like a CBD tincture.
Always make sure the CBD products you buy are made from the best quality hemp because there are unscrupulous suppliers who offer inferior products. You need to also ensure products are tested in third-party labs to verify the cannabinoid content, THC levels, etc.
- Do Breathing Exercises
Breathing is a powerful way to regulate your emotions. You can use the way you breathe to change how you feel. It is not always that easy to control your breathing when you are feeling stressed. You may not even realize that your breathing subconsciously speeds up. Taking breaths deep, slow, and conscious can be invaluable in a stressful situation.
One of the most calming breathing exercises is to breathe into the count of four, hold, and then breathe out to the count of. eight. As you’re doing this, the long exhale help to reduce your heart rate and blood pressure.
Another breathing exercise is to try diaphragmatic breathing. This engages your abdominal muscles, stomach, and diaphragm while breathing – where you breathe into your belly rather than your chest. Taking slow and regular breaths that fill your belly rather than your chest means you consciously work on breathing deeper. You should practice this breathing exercise for about 10 minutes three to four times each day.
- Exercise Your Body
Stressful situations increase the level of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol in your body. Physical exercise helps to metabolize these stress hormones. It resets your mind into a calmer state and improves your physical health.
In the start, exercise is often more work than fun. When you start getting into shape, you will grow to enjoy it and even depend on it.
The reason exercise calms your mind is that it releases endorphins or ‘feel-good’ chemicals that diminish your stress. They are responsible for the feelings of relaxation and optimism that follow a hard workout.
Your sleep will improve when you exercise, which also helps you to feel calmer and deal better with stressful situations.
When you participate in some form of group exercise, this can give you the opportunity to make friends. You will feel more of a commitment to exercise because you don’t want to let the group down.
- Become More Connected
The greatest human need, after shelter and food, is connecting with other people in a positive way. Everyone has a deep need to belong. Fulfilling this need releases oxytocin and natural opioids in your body that makes you feel calmer.
The knowledge that you have the support of others can be very calming. Just sharing with someone else about what you are going through is helpful. It can help to put your worries in perspective.
How do you become more connected? When you first take care of yourself and your own wellbeing, you are more able to turn outward and feel more connected.
In times of stress, becoming more connected with nature can help to calm your mind. You don’t need to isolate yourself in nature for a week to feel its effects. This is about looking out of a window at a mountain and seeing how it changes as the clouds cover it or examining a tree as you take a short walk around the block. If you spend time observing nature, you will experience more connection to the world in general and to others. It can lower your stress, improve your focus and lift your mood. It reduces your nervous system arousal and can even increase your sense of self-esteem.
