{"id":1101,"date":"2010-06-10T14:59:24","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T14:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html"},"modified":"2010-06-10T14:59:24","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T14:59:24","slug":"the-great-stress-eraser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html","title":{"rendered":"The Great (and Small) Stress Erasers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"Ocean<\/a><\/span>It’s amazing. I write about stress and healing and spiritual wellbeing for a living. I have all sorts tips in my head–I can instantly offer suggestions to calm down, rev up, clear your energy, enliven your life. And yet, the moment I’m overwhelmed by intense stress myself, I forget every last thing. I turn into a cookie-eating, non-exercising, non-meditating, validation-seeking, under-sleeping, dehydrated, uncreative, whiny, kvetchy stress bomb.<\/p>\n

So, let’s help each other remember, shall we? I’m going to jog my memory with a list. Please add to it if you will. And if it’s “obvious,” all the better–somehow simple is the first thing to go when the cortisol takes over.<\/p>\n

10 Ways to De-Stress Now<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Breathe.<\/strong> Inhale, exhale. Now. Three times slow. Sign up for “Breathe Text<\/a>“–a free test service that reminds you to breathe once a day. Brilliant!<\/p>\n

2) Drink water.<\/strong> Hydrated brains and bodies work better. Stress is dehydrating. So keep that BPA-free water bottle extra close.<\/p>\n

3) Sleep.<\/strong> Make your bedroom calm and cozy and try to get eight full hours. Study upon study shows the essentialness of sleep. And if you can’t sleep, just relax about it. Calmly lying in the dark with your eyes closed, resting, is better than staying awake, reading or worrying.<\/p>\n

4) Ask for support. <\/strong>Call that buddy who will listen and understand. Mainly just listen, sans advice. Better yet, meet for tea and a hug with your chat.<\/p>\n

5) Move your body. <\/strong>Stress gets stuck in our actual flesh. Gentle stretches, easy walking, self-massaging, yoga, and dancing will all keep the energy moving through and out of you.<\/p>\n

6) Skip the sugar.<\/strong> Feeling stress-snacky? Think twice before cookie-diving. Keep apples, carrots, almonds, and other balancing snacks nearby. When your blood sugar is not zig-zagging you have a much better chance of managing what life tosses your way.<\/p>\n

7) Look at pretty pictures. <\/strong>Even if you’re stuck behind a desk you can check out photos of things that calm you–pretty landscapes, adorable animals, beautiful homes. It can bring you down a notch and sometimes that’s all you need. (I love these blogs for that purpose: Color Me Katie<\/a>, Design Sponge<\/a>, Cute Overload<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

8) Get out in nature. <\/strong>Leafy green goodness lowers blood pressure. Go walk down a quiet road, sit in a tree-lined park, take a hike, hug a tree, lie on a lawn–anything that will get you contact with the earth mama in a gentle, easy way.<\/p>\n

9) Sniff something lovely. <\/strong>I suggest essential oils. Even carrying around a bottle of simple pure lavender oil (your local health food store should have some) and taking a noseful can remind your system to chill, now. <\/p>\n

10) Make a “<\/strong>What’s Bothering Me<\/strong><\/a>” list.<\/strong> See this article here<\/a> on that, but somehow getting it all down on paper can free your brain to drain. <\/p>\n

K,, I already feel better! Now you! What’s your favorite quick de-stress tip?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like what you see? <\/strong>Click here to subscribe<\/strong><\/font><\/a> and get Fresh Living in your in-box every day!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s amazing. I write about stress and healing and spiritual wellbeing for a living. I have all sorts tips in my head–I can instantly offer suggestions to calm down, rev up, clear your energy, enliven your life. And yet, the moment I’m overwhelmed by intense stress myself, I forget every last thing. I turn into a cookie-eating, non-exercising, non-meditating,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-valerie-reiss","category-holistic-living"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Great (and Small) Stress Erasers - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Great (and Small) Stress Erasers - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s amazing. I write about stress and healing and spiritual wellbeing for a living. I have all sorts tips in my head–I can instantly offer suggestions to calm down, rev up, clear your energy, enliven your life. And yet, the moment I’m overwhelmed by intense stress myself, I forget every last thing. I turn into a cookie-eating, non-exercising, non-meditating,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-10T14:59:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Ocean_Spokojny-thumb-300x225-14921.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vreiss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Great (and Small) Stress Erasers - Fresh Living","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Great (and Small) Stress Erasers - Fresh Living","og_description":"It’s amazing. I write about stress and healing and spiritual wellbeing for a living. I have all sorts tips in my head–I can instantly offer suggestions to calm down, rev up, clear your energy, enliven your life. And yet, the moment I’m overwhelmed by intense stress myself, I forget every last thing. I turn into a cookie-eating, non-exercising, non-meditating,…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html","og_site_name":"Fresh Living","article_published_time":"2010-06-10T14:59:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Ocean_Spokojny-thumb-300x225-14921.jpg"}],"author":"vreiss","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html","name":"The Great (and Small) Stress Erasers - Fresh Living","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Ocean_Spokojny-thumb-300x225-14921.jpg","datePublished":"2010-06-10T14:59:24+00:00","dateModified":"2010-06-10T14:59:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/df896dd70b2001a7a331d7c0264dbd4d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Ocean_Spokojny-thumb-300x225-14921.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Ocean_Spokojny-thumb-300x225-14921.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/06\/the-great-stress-eraser.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Great (and Small) Stress Erasers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/","name":"Fresh Living","description":"Holistic, Health and Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/df896dd70b2001a7a331d7c0264dbd4d","name":"vreiss","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/7e2\/7e2e836248d6127446bfae5802ee2a83x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/7e2\/7e2e836248d6127446bfae5802ee2a83x96.jpg","caption":"vreiss"},"description":"Valerie Reiss is Holistic Living Editor at Beliefnet. She was a founding editor at Breathe magazine, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Women's Health, Natural Health, Yoga Journal, Lime.com, Vegetarian Times, and ABCNEWS.com. A native New Yorker, Valerie holds an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Beloit College in Creative Writing with a minor in Women's Studies. She also lived in Maui for a while where she drank green papaya juice and taught some creative writing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/vreiss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}