Quick Quotes Top 5 Things to do if you Feel Stressed

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Stress and its Effects

Between 2016 and 2017, a staggering 12.5 million working days were lost due to stress, depression or anxiety, according to the Health and Safety Executive; that’s around 23.8 days lost per person suffering from a stress-related condition. Other statistics recorded by the HSE also show that from 2014 to 2017, for every 100,000 workers, the average number of work-related stress cases of depression or anxiety was 1,170 for males and 1,880 for females.

Sometimes, living a completely stress-free life seems like a mere impossibility, but that doesn’t have to be the case. There are many great ways to control and fight stress effectively. Here’s our list of some that you might find useful:

1. A healthy, varied diet

A balanced diet consisting of vitamins and minerals is the key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and one that is rarely affected by stress. All in moderation, eating fruit, vegetables, and foods that are high in protein and low in saturated fats and sugar will lower the amount of cholesterol in your blood, decrease your risk of developing heart disease, and help you avoid obesity and tooth decay. Good foods that help with stress management include asparagus, avocado, blueberries, almonds, oranges, salmon, spinach, and much more. Of course, you can still have treats occasionally, but finding the balance and not having too much of some things can radically change your mood and stress levels. We all know these facts, but we need to focus on making it a priority in our hectic lives.

2. Exercise

Regular exercise is an important part of maintaining good physical and mental health and can make you feel your best by reducing stress levels and raising energy levels. The brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters that are released during physical activity act as natural painkillers and improve sleeping patterns, which in turn directly reduce stress and help towards other related symptoms and conditions.

While fitting exercise into our routines may, in itself, be stressful, there are a variety of things you can do to keep the body moving and still fit it into your schedule; whether that’s doing shorter, high-intensity workouts or substituting watching half an hour or television for a brisk walk or jog. Exercise doesn’t have to be vigorous, you can try mixing it up; even by going swimming or doing yoga can make your weekly schedule more diverse.

Getting the body moving in any way is always positive and can have a huge impact on our stress levels.

3. Meditation

Meditation is a practice available to anyone seeking to try it out in order to increase calmness, boost happiness and reduce stress. Spending five to ten minutes of your day meditating or learning the art of meditation will encourage a healthy lifestyle, improve concentration, strengthen your immune system and cardiovascular health; enhancing your life overall.

There are even Apps available to help you learn about how to meditate and practice it. A popular, recommended App is Headspace; it is free and includes various programmes for basic meditation, anxiety, depression, stress and many more.

Many feel that they don’t have time to fit this into their busy schedule, but if we can dedicate 5 to 10 minutes on social media or watching television, as many of us naturally do, then why not change up our routine and use that short amount of time for improving and controlling our mental state, rather than filling it with screens and things likely to trigger more stress.

4. Spend quality time with family and/or friends

Quality time with loved ones has profound effects. Time together as a family or with friends creates bonds, builds self-esteem, nurtures positive behaviors, creates memories, leads to increased happiness and as a result, relieves stress and other challenging conditions.

It is commonly known that laughing on a daily basis also reduces mental and physical tensions, so spending time with loved ones increases the chance of laughter and light-heartedness. Even if you need to be serious with your friends or family, getting things off your chest can alleviate any pressures or strains that come with everyday life and instantly make you feel better, whether that’s slightly or drastically.

5. Sleep more

A decent amount of sleep can make us feel ready for the day and like we have the ability to take on the world. In addition to boosting moods and eliminating under-eye circles, getting enough undisturbed sleep can prevent serious health problems, such as heart attacks, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and many more.

As well as physical health, getting more sleep also contributes hugely to mental health, our safety and general quality of life; all of which create a lifestyle that allows us to stress less and think straight more often.

If you have difficulties sleeping, try listening to sleep stories (these can also be found in Apps; try ‘Calm’), meditation, exercise, reading and try to avoid looking at screens too much at least half an hour before bed.

Although we are fully aware of how important sleep is, it is easy to forget this fact and we don’t make it a top priority in our lives. Little sleep can affect us in so many different ways and a lot of the time, we might not even recognise it until it all escalates and makes us ill.

If you live a hectic life and think you are susceptible to getting stressed, or even if you suffer from stress-related conditions regardless of a busy lifestyle, here at Quick Quote Protect, our advisors offer a wide range of Life Insurance Policies to cover you if you were to develop any stress-related health problems. You can contact our expert team for free to find out more information.

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