Top 3 Stress Management Strategies For Modern Day Women

Regardless of where you live, stress enters in to your life at one time or another.  While good stress comes from major life achievements such as marriage, the birth of a new baby or landing your dream job, bad stress is a culprit we all need to be on the lookout for.  I found these stress relief tips to be really helpful for developing and practicing stress management strategies to keep bad stress under control.

Where does bad stress come from and why is it so dangerous? For most women, major sources of harmful stress include job stress caused by work overload, marital or relationship stress, money stress and financial woes, parenting stress, and severe emotional stress cause by conflict with colleagues, friends, family, the in-laws!  With all these sources of harmful stress, it is any wonder that many women feel overwhelmed?   

Here are 3 stress management strategies to help you cope.

#1. Build A strong Support Network

No man (or woman) is an island.  Stress attacks all of us at one time or another, some more than others.  So we all need to build a strong network of friends and family that we can tap into for stress relief.  The network can be as small as two people are as large as twenty.  It’s not the quantity of persons in your stress relief network that counts, it’s the quality.    

Choose your close associates wisely, because “iron sharpens iron”.  Select people who you trust and respect, people who share your goals, people who share your moral principles.  Those are the kinds of people who can help you cope successfully with stress and support you in your endeavors to become your best “you”

#2. Engage in Regular Physical Activity That Is Convenient and Pleasurable

To beat stress you need a healthy body.  To have a healthy body you need to engage in regular physical activity.  It’s as simple as that.   The good news is that there is a wide variety of physical activity to choose from.  The secret is to choose an activity that is convenient and pleasurable for you.  If it’s something you enjoy doing, it will be easier to work it into your lifestyle and dally routine and stick with it.    

“Exercise” can come in many forms, you don’t; need to drag yourself to the gym for one hour each day, or walk o your treadmill for 30 minutes each day of that’s not pleasurable for you.  How about bicycle riding with your kids, or a a mini-trampoline.  Other outdoor activities such a playing Frisbee, roller skating, or playing ball will work too.  Think about convenient and enjoyable things you can do each day by yourself, with your kids or with some friends.  Then work that into your daily routine.  That’s all it would take to keep stress at bay while at the same time bring joy into your life.

#3.Maintain A Reasonable Diet

You really are what you eat, and when it comes to stress relief what you eat is very important.  Eating healthy does not mean eating only lettuce and carrots each day.  It means finding ways to work stress relief vitamins into your daily diet.   Vitamins A, B, and C are very effective in helping to build a strong healthy body and a healthy immune system that can ward off the harmful effects of stress.  Select foods that are high in these vitamins and you will be well on your way to a healthier, more stress-resilient you.

Make Exercise Your #1 Stress Management Strategy

      Exercise and physical activity are  ranked among the top stress management strategies. Why?  Because being physically active has two major benefits: first, it helps to alleviate stres, and second,   It helps with your physical health overall. 

Exercise As  A Stress Management Strategy

Your body uses blood and oxygen to nourish and repair all its cells.  But blood performs another vital function.  It cleanses the systems as well which means that dead cells and other toxins and impurities are carried away as the blood makes its way through the body.

How does any of this relate to exercise as a stress management strategy?  As the blood circulates through your system when you exercise,  it carries those healing and cleansing properties with it.  But there is more.  Increased blood circulation also means that muscles relax more easily.  When you are physically active your muscles become loose and move easier. That means they are less cramped on a regular basis as a result of stress and tension. 

But you already knew that exercising is good for you. The problem is : how do you work physical activity and exercise into your daily routine in a way that is convenient and enjoyable for you.

Start by realizing that exercise and physical activity can mean a lot more than spending hours at the  gym or on a treadmill.   It’s hard to find “extra time” in your busy do to schedule an hour at the gym after working all day in the office.  And if you have any energy left at the end of a hectic day, who wants to spend it on a treadmill?  That’s not only boring and monotonous, but it also gets very old very quick.

Where to Start?

If you  need help coming  up with convenient ways you can be active or some physical activities that you'll enjoy and can engage in regularly, here are some ideas to get your going:

•  Go bike riding with a friend, with your kids, or by  yourself
•  Join a sport group or start one for  -  bowling, basketball, softball, etc.
•   Play badminton with some friends.
•  Take your dog for a walk every day
•   Explore swimming as an option
•   Try hiking and explore your area
•   Go dancing with your significant other or just with some friends.
•   Play a sport with others - volleyball, racquetball, tennis, badminton, or handball.
•  Toss a Frisbee around with your  kids or friends or even the dog.
•   Bounce on a trampoline

This is just to get your thoughts going.  Feel free to come up with some of your own ideas for being physically active.  You don’t need any expensive equipment and it also doesn't need to take more than twenty to thirty minutes of your time.  A little physical activity done on a consistent and regular basis can go a long way.

  

Time For Action

Ask yourself: “How can I include physical activity in my daily routine as an effective stress management strategy”.   You don’t have to do it alone.  Why not involve your family, the kids, your pet, or your best friend?

If you give it some serious thought you may come up with more ways  to be active than you can imagine!  Work them into your lifestyle and daily routine and put exercise to work for you as your top stress management strategy.

Aromatherapy: One Of the Best Stress Management Strategies for Women

Aromatherapy is a form of “natural medicine” that has healing properties for your mind, body and spirit.  It’s one of the best stress management strategies for women because you can easily work aromatherapy into your daily routine.  It’s convenient, enjoyable, and flexible.  You can use it at home, at work, and even in your car!

What Makes Aromatherapy So Special?

The main difference between aromatherapy and other medicinal stress relief strategies is that aromatherapy is actually enjoyable.  Can you say that about any other form of “traditional stress relief medicine?”  There are no pills to take with aromatherapy and no overly expensive stress therapy session with someone asking you invasive questions which you may or may not feel comfortable answering.

Another key reason why aromatherapy is one of the best stress management strategies for women is that it has both preventative stress relief properties as well as healing properties for when you are overcome by stress and need help handling the situation.  And when it comes to stress, one ounce of prevention is always worth a pound of cure.
 

You Already Use Aromatherapy Every Day!

 

You may not have realized it, but you are already experiencing aromatherapy every day.  Think about it.  Scents envelope you from morning to night. The smell of freshly brewing coffee in the morning, the scent of your child’s baby shampoo when you kiss the top of her head, the scent of your favorite perfume that you dab on before rushing through the door for work, and even the smell of oregano livening up your kitchen as you cook a batch of homemade spaghetti sauce for dinner one night.  All these scents can all affect your mood.
 

But it’s not always positive, is it? Scents can have a stressful effect, too. The smell of something burning on the stove-top, the smell of oil or tires in the car, and sometimes a perfume or cologne someone’s wearing that isn’t a positive fragrance to you can cause you to become irritable.
 

You are so used to scents being all around you everywhere you turn that you don’t consciously pay much attention to them. And therefore, you haven’t taken the effort (until now) to learn how to wield the power they possess to your advantage. But once you learn how to use scents effectively, aromatherapy can be used in just about every part of your life, especially as an effective stress management strategy.
 

How Do Aromatherapy Scents Work For Stress Relief?

Scents can provide you with clarity, stress relief, and confidence. Scientifically, you can’t see these aromas as they waft through the air and get breathed into your nose. But if you can smell a scent, you can bet that there are thousands of molecules making their way into your olfactory system.
 

Scientifically, the aromas can have an impact on your mental state. If you want to be focused and sharp, maybe for a presentation at work, then you’d do well using a peppermint aroma.  Lavender would help you calm down and relax after a stress-filled day. You can enjoy the soothing, stress-busting, therapeutic benefits of lavender in a wide variety of products from bubble baths, to body lotions, to scented candles.  

Better yet, invest in pure lavender essential oil and an essential oil diffuser, then fill your environment with the stress-relieving lavender aromas for instant stress relief the next time you feel tense and overwhelmed.  Aromatherapy is one of the best stress management strategies for women.   But the proof is in the tasting.