This is how you learn to unwind

Stress is unavoidable, but not insurmountable. The key is to learn how to manage stress. Keep these tips handy for when you're not sure where to turn. And in case of emergency: a big hug immediately lowers your stress levels, whether it's from your best friend, a baby, or an alpaca.

In this article, we explain how to recognize stress and provide 9 tips that you can apply right away.

Unnecessary

Stress throws your body off balance. Too much stress is a significant blow to your health, mood, and performance. The stress we deal with today is often unnecessary. It often has nothing to do with real danger but much more with daily choices.

We get worked up in traffic, get angry with a colleague, fear saying something wrong, or become restless when we haven't finished our work by the end of the day.

Survival mode

Stress activates your sympathetic nervous system, leading to the production of stress hormones (including adrenaline and cortisol). These hormones raise your blood pressure, release energy, and temporarily suppress your immune system. You are now in full action mode; the fight-or-flight response.

Whether you have mental, emotional, or physical stress, your body produces stress hormones in all cases. A bit of stress can be useful, such as when you have a deadline, but if you burden yourself with various forms of chronic (often useless) stress for an extended period, your body becomes exhausted, you may experience various symptoms, and you have an increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and mental disorders.

Manage mental stress

Examine yourself for stress symptoms such as fatigue, procrastination, social withdrawal, or chest pain. Many symptoms go unnoticed as stress. 

Here's what you can do right away to manage your stress levels:

1. Stop multitasking

Multitasking is unnatural. Our brains are incredibly bad at it, and by performing multiple complex tasks simultaneously, they get completely off track. The result: less focus and more stress. Plan what you're going to do that day in the morning, set your priorities, and stick to one task at a time.

6. Work on your FOMO 

Are you always on, following thousands of people on Insta, and always front and center with popcorn when something's going on? Always wanting to be in the know about everything is exhausting. Leave the juice for what it is and understand that you're only feeding an addiction and causing stress. The same goes for your email. Schedule fixed times to check your inbox (once in the morning and once at the end of the day).

Constantly checking your inbox is a form of multitasking, and that's killing for your concentration and productivity. Filter out what's really important.

7. Move (at your own pace)

The runners' high you get after running comes from a hefty dose of feel-good chemicals (endorphins) being released. So, moving is a natural way to increase your happiness chemicals while reducing stress hormones like cortisol. You don't have to run your butt off; all types of cardio (walking, swimming, dancing) work to relax.

8. Do fun aka relaxing things

Don't just focus on performing and working hard, even if it gives you a lot of joy and satisfaction. Without relaxing, you won't sustain this way of working for long and will burn yourself out. Therefore, ensure balance and plan fun, relaxing things every week.

9. Look on the bright side

Are you a pessimist? It won't surprise you that you probably have higher stress levels than the eternal sunshine in the house. Preconceiving what could go wrong causes stress, blocks creativity, and perseverance. A nice, proven technique to adopt a more positive outlook on life is to write down five things you're grateful for every day.

What it comes down to