My 5 Practices for Keeping Stress at Bay, Specially Now

The advice of staying home and practicing social distance is sounding loud and clear. This quarantine has resulted into making available resources to take care of our emotional health. As I mentioned in the previous post, it’s natural to feel stressed when facing unknown and out-of-our-control situations, especially now that our routines haven been completely altered. So, I was asked about what things we could do to alleviate stress. Therefore, I decided to put together all the practices I’ve been using and some new that have helped me through this pandemic.

5 Strategies to Reduce Stress in Uncertain Times

1. Meditate

You just need a couple of minutes to meditate. I recommend 5. Try to practice at the same moment of the day each time as to create the habit. I prefer to meditate during the mornings, right after I wake up.

• Find a place where you won’t be bothered or interrupted.
• Sit in a comfortable position. It can be on the floor, chair, sofa, etc.
• Set a timer for as long as you choose to practice.
• Close your eyes.
• Take some seconds to notice the weight of your body over the chair or floor, the weight of your hands over your legs, the sounds you hear around you.
• Then, take some other seconds to check on your body. Go from head to toes and observe how it feels — whether it’s tense or relaxed, heavy or light. Don’t try to change it.
• Now, for the rest of the practice, focus in your breath. Where do you feel the movement? It can be, for example, in the top of your stomach or on your chest. If it helps, count up to 10, one with the inhalation, two with the exhalation, and so forth. Once you get to 10, start all over.
• When the time is up, open your eyes and take a moment to look around and see how you feel now.

If you prefer it, there’re some apps to guide you. I use Headspace, but there’re others.

Note: Meditating is not about accomplishing a blank mind. That’s not possible. On the contrary, the idea is to gain awareness of our inner world. It’s about being observers, not allowing our thoughts and feelings to carry us away without even realizing we are thinking and feeling.

If one day your mind is too cloudy and you find it very difficult to concentrate on your breath, that’s ok. Once you realize you’ve been distracted, turn your attention back to it, as many times as needed. There’ll be days when you’ll find it easier and others when meditating will be hard.

2. Keep a Journal

It doesn’t matter the means, digital document or physical notebook. What’s important is that you vent your thoughts and feelings. I don’t want to sound repetitive, but this practice helps you clear your mind, have a better perspective on things, calm anxiety, and know yourself better. You can also talk to a friend. The thing is that when we express ourselves, those heavy thoughts start feeling lighter.

3. Go Back to Your Present Moment

This strategy more than a practice is a reminder. Remember that our thoughts and feelings are usually rooted in the past or future. When you go back to the now, you release that imaginary burden of those things that, once again, you can’t control. In the following lines, you’ll find some practices to bring your attention back to the present:

• Try to be aware every time you sit down or stand up. You can also try to gain awareness of the physical and mental signs of anxiety in your body. Another alternative is to realize when you reach for your phone — have you noticed most of the times we grab it out of reflex, and not because we’re supposed to do something in concrete?
• As we’ve talked before, make a list with all your worries. Focus in those you can work on and design a plan.
• I share again Elizabeth Gilbert’s recommended practice. Think of 5 things you can see right now, 4 things you can hear, 3 you can feel, 2 you can smell, and 1 you can taste.
• You can always go back to your breath, just as we did on the meditation. Follow your body while you breathe in and breathe out. Stay there as long as you need.
• Listen to some music, but don’t play it just as background. Pay attention to it, the lyrics, the melody.

4. Practice a sport or hobby

There are certain activities that have the power to help us forget everything around us, except for the activity per se. In my case, it’s boxing. You require so much attention that there’s no way your mind can wander. For you, it might be a hobby. Explore and find a practice that hooks you and forces you to focus in it and nothing else. Once you find it, practice with frequency.

5. Grab some fresh air

I know that during the quarantine, if you don’t have a patio or balcony, this strategy might be a bit complicated. Open the window and stay there for a while. Having the opportunity to see the landscape, feel the breeze on your face, it’s just refreshing. It’s as if the wind could take away all the noisy thoughts. You are left with what you observe and the positive energy with its creative and inspirational power. It sounds poetic, but try it and you’ll see what I mean.

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I would like to finish with a tip I got from experts. Take a few minutes a day to give yourself permission for worrying. Allow your mind to ruminate. Then, move forward.

If you have another tip or practice to release or alleviate stress, share it in the comment section below.