What we do We can’t eliminate stress from our lives entirely, but we can manage it by engaging in a little bit of self-care.
During this uncertain time we find ourselves in, it’s important to manage your stress, not just for your overall health but for your brain as well! Stress can impair memory, reduce our immunity and lead to anxiety and depression. We can’t eliminate stress from our lives entirely, but we can manage it by engaging in a little bit of self-care.
Check out our list of great self-care tips below that could help you calm your mind, recentre yourself and have you breathing a little easier as you destress.
Read a book
Reading has been proven to help reduce stress and increase lifespan[1]. Books improve vocabulary, reasoning, concentration and critical thinking skills, as well as promoting empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence.
See our great list of books to read when you’re stressed!
Exercise
As we know from our article about how exercise is good in keeping our brains healthy, it can also be good to relieve stress and tension. A 30-minute walk a day can have drastic improvements on your mood and improve your overall health. It can also help with sleeping better and more consistently, which as we know, is another way in keeping your brain healthy!
Social connection
Our third brain health tip was to stay socially connected. Maintaining friendships and social networks are important in helping keep our brains healthy and responding well to stress.
Listen to music
A study published in 2016 looked at how music can help reduce stress[2]. It found that listening to music during a stressful situation significantly cortisol response, concluding that listening to music improved the mood of the participants and impacted their stress response in a positive way.
Yoga
Yoga and light stretching have been known to assist in reduce tension in the muscles and reducing stress. Like meditation, yoga can also help you develop deep breathing exercises to assist in relieving the tension you might be feeling from everyday stressors. A recent study done in 2019 suggests that yoga not only reduces stress, but it has positive effects on certain areas of your brain affected by stress such as the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala.[3]
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5105607/pdf/nihms805826.pdf
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4810374/pdf/srep23008.pdf
[3] https://content.iospress.com/articles/brain-plasticity/bpl190084
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