Top 5 ways to Reduce Stress to Have a Happy Home.

Stress. I know you know what stress is! It is ever present and runs our lives. It often overwhelms us and can even affect your health. Managing stress is crucial for a busy mom. But we don’t have to just live with it! I’m going to share with your our top tips on how to reduce stress so you can have a happier home and healthier life!

These tips are tried and true. Trust me. I was treated for ulcers as a child. I know far too much about stress. These are the tricks of the trade that I had to learn early on in life so I could over come the pain of ulcers and heart palpitations. Trust me; you do NOT want to deal with those! So when you feel your stress level start to rise; put these into place.

Top 5 methods on How to reduce stress.

1. Deep Breathing  & Relaxing. Take a 5-minute break and focus on your breathing. Sit up straight, eyes closed, with a hand on your belly. Slowly inhale through your nose, feeling the breath start in your abdomen and work its way to the top of your head. Reverse the process as you exhale through your mouth. According to psychologist Judith Tutin, PhD, ” Deep breathing counters the effects of stress by slowing the heart rate and lowering blood pressure”.

Just by deep breathing you will notice a difference in your stress level. But that isn’t all I wanted to incorporate in this tip. You need to use the deep breathing as a means to relax. Get in touch with your body. Use the top 10 relaxation techniques from WebMD. You will feel a difference.

• Deep Breath
• Meditate
• Be present
• Reach out
• Tune into your body
• Decompress
• laugh out loud
• crank up the tunes
• Get moving
• Be grateful.

2. Essential Oils. You know I spend a lot of time researching, using and benefiting from Essential Oils. We’ve already shared the top ways to use Lavender Oil and Garlic oil. We have had many successes with E.O in our home from treating colds, whooping cough, pneumonia, ear infections, croup and lots more. But Essential Oils are also quite beneficial for treating matters of the mind and emotional level as well.

Different blends are know to work exceptionally well for emotional balance and well being. And specifically to help with stress. Essential oils can be diffused in the air, applied to the skin with a quality carrier oil, or worn as a purfume.

Single oils that are beneficial to Stress include:

• all spice
• benzoin
• sandalwood
• bergamot
• chamomile Roman
• frankincense
• geranium
• jasmine
• lavender
• lime
• peppermint
• melissa
• palo santo
• patchouli
• rose
• spruce
• tangerine
• ylang ylang

There are many more, but those are the most effective. But for me personally I prefer using Essential Oil blends. As it combines various oils and I seem to have a better response with blends. I use Butterfly Express oils because they are the high quality therapeutic grade oils but since the company doesn’t do any MLM marketing; they are able to keep prices quite affordable. My favorite blends for stress and anxiety for me personally include

• Angel
• Acknowledge
• Letting Go
• Tranquility
• Crystal Clear
• Inner Peace
• Heart Song
• Weightless

You can use just one or a combination. Wear as a perfume or diffuse in the air. They are all designed to calm nerves and improve circulation and aimed to help you feel calmer and more at peace. When I get stressed and depressed, Acknowledge is the first one I diffuse with a little peppermint and within 20 minutes I can feel a literal difference. It is quite amazing.

3. Gaba  & Vitamin B6&12. Sometimes to manage stress; you need a little help. Often it could be because your body doesn’t have the nutrients you need. Eating a Balanced diet and getting enough water is always crucial for ANY ailment be it stress, or migraines, weight loss or just about anything. So I didn’t include those in the top 5 ways to reduce stress. But they should be a given.

If after that you are still overwhelmed with stress, adding in some supplements can truly help. Vitamin B6 and B12 are very common when it comes to stress. It helps give you energy and balance. Basically it helps you to better manage stress and not feel overwhelmed by it. If you have a lack of Vitamin B; a little stress will feel as though it is overpowering.

GABA is another very powerful natural supplement to use when it comes to stress. GABA is actually a chemical that is made in the brain. So not a foreign substance your body doesn’t need. It is quite natural.

I discovered GABA a few years ago. My Father-in-law was very over worked at his job. And he was experiencing heart palpitations and difficulty with breath. We were worried it was his heart. The Doctor said it was literally just too much stress from work. My Mother-in-law is brilliant with natural remedies and did her research well. And started him on GABA.

Within 2 weeks all his symptoms were gone.

Well; back then the husband was going to school full time, I was working at home, we discovered Jade had some serious developmental and intellectual delays, and we had the starving student income. Life was stressful. And I started experiencing the same Heart palpitations and shortness of breath my Father-in-law was dealing with. So My Mother-in-law suggested GABA to me. I started using it. And I was amazed! Within a day I felt a dramatic difference.

What I love about GABA is that it is quite fast acting. Within an hour you can literally feel a difference.

According to WebMD GABA  is taken by mouth for relieving anxiety, improving mood, reducing symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and treating attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is also used for promoting lean muscle growth, burning fat, stabilizingblood pressure, and relieving pain.

4. Fitness/Yoga. One of the most common things you will hear a doctor say when you are stressed is to go exercise. Many of my friends love to run. I hate running. Many like to lift weights. I’m not a big weight lifter. For me; you will often find me deep cleaning. But the idea is the same. Physical activity is a great way to burn off stress. Plus it is productive, increases endorphins to help you feel better. And if you are cleaning like me; it helps create a more peaceful environment to better manage the stress as well! Another great activity is Yoga. Yeah, it seems pretty self explanatory to me to. But you should try it some time. It helps to calm the body and the mind so the stress doesn’t seem to overbearing.

5. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. Nothing makes stress worse than procrastinating. Never put off til tomorrow what can be done today. All it does is make tomorrow’s workload and stress level that much more. It doesn’t remove the stress from today. Just delays it. And you still have the nagging on your mind as you know the task you are putting off still needs to be accomplished. The best way to reduce stress is to face your challenges straight on. Get it done.

Eliminate what can be eliminated from your life that is causing too much stress. If all the family activities, sports for kids, commitments have you stretched too far; then cut back.

But sometimes there are things you can’t cut out. Like the kids needing clean clothes, food on the table, and bills need to be paid. For the things you can’t cut out, you need to prioritize what needs to be done first and like Larry the Cable Guy says “Get er done!” Once the task is completed you will notice a definite decrease in stress and it will be as though a weight has been lifted from your shoulders.

Not one of these 5 ways on how to reduce stress is more important than the other. They are all equally important and helpful.

When you combine all 5 ways on how to reduce stress; you will find yourself quite adept at keeping the panicking stress at a minimum. It won’t mean that you won’t ever feel stress again. Stress can be quite a positive motivator if used right. But when we leave it unchecked it can be quite destructive to our minds and physical well being. Using our top 5 methods to reduce stress won’t remove the stress. But rather it will increase your ability to manage it better.

What are your best tips on how to reduce stress?

Have you experienced any of our tips? How have they helped you?