Three most important things for reducing stress:
1. Sleep
2. Diet
3. Resilience
You can improve them with the below:
* Start monitoring your heart rate variability (HRV). You can use HRV to help you understand the triggers for your stress. There’s loads of articles on the web about it. I monitor HRV through the night with Oura ring. Low usually means you are stressed or not recovered.
* Try to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day. This is incredibly important and really works.
* If you struggle sleeping, use blue light blocking glasses and try to not use screens which emit blue light after sundown. Also try to get exposure to morning light everyday.
* Don’t eat at least 3 hours before bed!!
* Have your last alcoholic drink 3-4 hours before bed. Don’t drink a lot or cut it out entirely.
* Ensure you remain hydrated throughout the day
* If you can, take cold showers
* Try to meditate for 10-15 mins a day
* Make sure you start relaxing a few hours before bed
* Very important: Try to only eat whole foods. No sugar. No refined carbs. Lots of vegetables. Food has a massive impact on stress levels.
* Eating food you are intolerant to will increase your stress levels. Keep a rough diary of what you eat. If something makes you feel a bit off then make a note and try to narrow down what good it was. Once you know what it is... stop eating that food. You can gradually reintroduce with experiments.
* Exercise is good for stress reduction and resilience. Go running or cycling but.... This is very important: you NEED to monitor your heart rate. If you are not fit or new to exercise then you don’t want to go over 140 bpm. Eg I’ve been running since I was 10 and 80% of my runs are done at 145bpm. I rarely go over 170 bpm because it stresses the body a lot. If you are out of breath then you need to stop or walk. If you keep doing this you will get faster as the same HR (if you care!).
* Don’t read or watch the news.
* Go and sit in a park. Green spaces like parks help to reduce stress.
Good luck dude!