5 tips to manage stress in 10 minutes

5 tips to manage stress in 10 minutes

The accelerating heart rate, cold sweats, jerky breathing, stomach aches, nausea… Does that remind you of anything? Here are some feelings of stress! But if a pressure build-up can be done in a few minutes, rest assured, you are able to bring it down as quickly as it came thanks to our tips for managing stress!

Yes, stress is due to an increase in the production of cortisol  : it is in fact a "survival" reaction to allow you to flee from danger. In this article, we give you all our concrete advice, it will be your little "anti-stress" toolbox that you can use in any situation to get back on top in a crisis situation!

Tip 1 to manage your stress: Get some fresh air and walk 

Our advice number 1: when you feel the stress rising, get out in the fresh air and go for a walk. In a stressful situation, taking a step back (both physically and mentally) will allow you to quickly relieve the pressure. Above all, walking has many anti-stress benefits, especially walking in nature or in a park.

Walking in the fresh air is proven to oxygenate your body . This is when the brain releases the “feel good hormones”, the famous endorphins contained in the pituitary and hypothalamus.

By releasing hormones, walking helps you manage stress and keep your mind and morale healthy. We recommend that you take several walks a week if you want to get the most of these benefits. According to INPES recommendations, you should walk at least 30 minutes per day and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends an effort of 10,000 steps per day, or more than an hour of walking.

Tip 2: Relax with your breathing 🌬️

Breathing is the first indicator of well-being: if the breathing is cut off or jerky, there is often a problem with stress or with managing emotions. While a long, deep breath indicates that all is well inside you. Here is our second anti-stress tip: to regain your calm in any situation, nothing better than to return to your breathing , by helping yourself with a pranayama exercise.

“Prana” means life force and “ayama” means expansion. Thus "pranayama" means: "expansion of the vital force" and is sometimes translated as "the mastery of the breath". Indeed, by providing the body with additional oxygen, pranayamas help the body to relax, reduce tension and relieve and manage stress.

🐝 Here is a very simple and very effective exercise to manage your stress: inhale by counting 2 seconds, exhale by counting 4 seconds (double). You can also inhale on 3 beats and exhale on 6, or on 4/8, or on 5/10, etc. Your heart rate will immediately drop and give you room to think and relax. Also, do not hesitate to do Bhramari pranayama, "the breathing of the bee" . It's a soothing breath with immediate.

Tip 3: Do a visualization exercise 👀

Visualization is a great exercise to manage stress and regain composure. By visualizing positive images or associated with happy memories , you will quickly be able to find a feeling of well-being. Here is a simple anti stress yoga exercise you can do.

• Wherever you are, try to find a comfortable sitting posture,

• Visualize a peaceful scene: an upcoming vacation, your favorite beach, a trip to the mountains, a nap in a hammock, etc. The important thing is that you visualize in detail the scene or the landscape before your eyes,

• Take the time to observe the smallest details of this scene, and try to remember what you felt at that moment, the heat sun on your skin, birdsong, etc.

🏖️ With this anti-stress yoga exercise, you took the time to reconnect to a peaceful scene and the feelings of well-being that you felt at that time. Suddenly, you will notice that you are no longer focused on your feeling of stress at the beginning of the exercise, but on the contrary you are turned towards the positive emotions resulting from this visualization!

Tip 4 to manage your stress: Take a musical break 🎶

In stressful situations, nothing better than soft, instrumental or sung music to induce a feeling of calm throughout your body. Indeed, music and more widely sounds are used clinically as part of music therapy to soothe us . Listening to music also helps improve mood by influencing areas of the brain that control emotions.

🎼 You can create an anti-stress playlist with the music and / or soothing sounds that you like and as soon as a point of stress appears, take a break for 10 minutes to listen to it.

Tip 5: Coloring to manage stress 🎨

Coloring allows you to feel a feeling of relaxation and well-being. By mobilizing the two hemispheres of the brain at the same time , the activity of coloring indeed makes it possible to reconnect with oneself and one's emotions. It is a well-being activity within everyone's reach that deserves a detour!