6 Home Remedies to Reduce Stress and Improve Mood

SadaNews - Everyone feels anxious from time to time. Occasional anxiety is a natural response to uncertainty about what will happen next, whether it's in the minutes, days, or few months to come.

There are many ways you can adopt to combat anxiety and improve your mood after a tiring workday, an upsetting incident you've experienced, or even a strange situation that has negatively impacted you. These techniques that you can implement from home can provide you with quick relief:

1. Practice Deep Breathing or Meditation

Studies have linked proper breathing to stress relief. Deep breathing exercises include the following:

- Diaphragmatic breathing

- Alternate nostril breathing

- Box breathing

Deep breathing aims to focus your attention on your breath, making it slower and deeper. When you breathe deeply through your nose, your lungs fully expand, and your belly rises. This helps to slow down your heart rate, according to the "Health" website.

Research shows that practicing yoga and meditation helps reduce stress and promote mental health.

Yoga may also help lower cortisol levels, blood pressure, and heart rate, while increasing gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels, a neurotransmitter that is low in individuals with mood disorders.

2. Engage in Daily Physical Activity

The physical symptoms of anxiety result from the "fight or flight" response, which floods the body with adrenaline and other chemicals that cause stress. Exercise helps burn off these chemicals and promotes relaxation. Physical activity is a helpful way to manage anxiety. Aim to engage in some form of physical activity three to four times a week, and vary your activities to avoid boredom, such as walking, cycling, swimming, and more.

3. Make Time for Favorite Hobbies

Amid today's stressful lifestyles, it is important to set aside time to engage in an activity solely for enjoyment as part of your self-care.

You can express your artistic side by using drawing as a means to express your feelings, distract yourself, and gain other stress management benefits. The end result will be a beautiful, personal piece of work that you can enjoy or share.

Coloring is another great activity for stress relief and has recently gained popularity.

4. Listen to Music

Listening to music appears to reduce stress through its effects on both the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system. Most studies, which were primarily conducted on healthy adults, have shown a decrease in cortisol levels (a well-known biomarker of stress) and in sympathetic activity (decreased heart rate and blood pressure). The structural elements of music, such as melody, rhythm, tone, and frequency, seem to influence individual relaxation responses, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

5. Maintain a Regular Sleep Schedule

The National Sleep Foundation in the United States has confirmed that stress and sleep are closely related. When we do not get enough sleep, our bodies enter a "fight or flight" state, meaning that the body releases stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. If sleep deprivation and excessive stress hormone production persist, you will feel the effects of chronic stress.

6. Follow a Balanced Diet

A 2022 research review indicates that individuals following a diet high in ultra-processed foods and added sugars are more likely to experience higher stress levels.

Additionally, chronic stress may drive you to overeat and consume more ultra-processed foods.

If you are not consuming enough nutrient-dense whole foods, this may increase the risk of deficiencies in essential nutrients that regulate stress and mood, such as magnesium and B vitamins.

Limiting consumption of highly processed foods and beverages and eating more whole foods can help ensure that your body is properly nourished and may improve your ability to cope with stress.

Whole food options include:

- Vegetables

- Fruits

- Beans

- Fish

- Nuts

- Seeds