HR schedules a surprise meeting on Friday at 4:50 p.m. Your girlfriend sends a \u201cwe need to talk\u201d text. Your dog\u2019s vet bill costs more than next month\u2019s rent.<\/p>\n
When your nervous system<\/a> starts firing on all cylinders, taking the edge off with a quick fix\u2014say, an edible, a stiff drink, or something from the medicine cabinet\u2014might sound appealing. But before you clock out with chemicals, know that there are other ways to bring yourself back down to earth that are completely natural and yield real relief. We\u2019ve rounded up some of the most effective options for how to reduce stress naturally below\u2014none of which lean on substances or require you to become a Zen master<\/a> overnight.<\/p>\n How to Reduce Stress Naturally<\/p>\n 1. Take a breath<\/p>\n Stress can lead to tightness in the chest, shallow breathing, and tension in the neck or shoulders, says Marissa Honjiyo, LMFT<\/a>, a therapist in Santa Ana, California. Sound like familiar territory? If so, she suggests taking a beat and doing a few breathing exercises. Popular options include box breathing (which involves inhaling, holding, exhaling, and holding for four seconds each) and 4-7-8 breathing<\/a> (inhaling for four seconds, holding for seven seconds, and exhaling for eight seconds). Prefer something more casual? Ditch the counting and simply slow your breathing down.<\/p>\n Breathwork can even soften physical tension. \u201cWhen your chest and jaw are holding something, a long exhale is what discharges it,\u201d says Rod Mitchell, MSc, MC<\/a>, a registered psychologist and the clinical director at Emotions Therapy Calgary. This one\u2019s a swift solution when you need to settle down fast\u2014like outside your boss\u2019s office or before giving a speech at your buddy\u2019s wedding. Ditto for rolling your shoulders<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. Move your body<\/p>\n When stress puts you in a chokehold, give all that nervous energy somewhere to go. \u201cExercise<\/a> is one of the most reliable ways to regulate stress because stress prepares the body for action, and we need to dump that cortisol somewhere,\u201d says Matthew Leahy, PhD<\/a>, a clinical psychologist in Dallas, Texas. The next time you\u2019re under pressure, get up and lift heavy, take a HIIT class, or hop on the treadmill<\/a>. \u201cGetting your heart rate up and working up a sweat<\/a> can be a great way to improve mood, release endorphins, and get your mind off of the stress,\u201d says Honjiyo.<\/p>\n But you don\u2019t necessarily have to go balls to the wall to feel better. Even a 10-minute brisk walk<\/a> has been shown to improve mood<\/a>.<\/p>\n 3. Refer to yourself in the third person<\/p>\n Strange and slightly weird, but surprisingly legit: dropping the first person and talking to yourself by your name can help you create some distance between you and your stressor. \u201cIt sounds a little silly, but research<\/a> backs it up,\u201d Mitchell says. \u201cPeople tend to think more clearly about a problem when it is not grammatically theirs.\u201d While you\u2019re at it, distance yourself from your narrative and aim to be more objective. For instance, instead of saying \u201cI\u2019m going to bomb this first date,\u201d say, \u201cJoe\u2019s nervous, but Joe\u2019s survived worse than an awkward Hinge date.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. Meditate<\/p>\n Naturally, meditation<\/a> is on this list. Even if the thought of it makes you squirm or roll your eyes, know that there\u2019s a reason why every therapist and self-help guru recommends it.<\/p>\n A 2026 meta-analysis of 17 randomized trials<\/a> found that mindfulness-based interventions (including meditation) meaningfully reduced perceived stress in otherwise healthy adults. Some research also suggests that mindfulness and meditation may influence cortisol<\/a>, a key hormone involved in the stress response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HR schedules a surprise meeting on Friday at 4:50 p.m. Your girlfriend sends a \u201cwe need to talk\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,63,538,137,64099,514],"class_list":["post-895756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-life-advice","tag-mental-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}