In today’s world, there are all sorts of different potential sources of stress out there that can directly undermine our sense of calm, balance, and well-being on an everyday basis.
Although it’s hardly a revelation to say that something like a high-paced workplace environment, or lack of proper nutrition, can contribute to elevated stress levels, and the disruption of your baseline sense of calm, it’s important to realise that there are many striking benefits to remaining calm and balanced to the greatest possible extent, and there are all sorts of highly negative consequences associated with being overwhelmed by stress.
Researchers have found, for example, that when people are calm they are significantly better able to enter into a state of deep focus, and to pay attention to what’s happening in front of them.
Among other things, this is thought to contribute significantly to productivity in the workplace, while also giving individuals a significantly enhanced ability to get things done across the various different dimensions of their personal lives, as well.
Being in a state of calm also enables your body to maintain balance, and allows for proper energy and resources to be sent to your immune system, your digestive system, and to the processes involved in rest and recovery.
Of course, being calm can also have dramatic benefits when it comes to your social life and your interpersonal dealings with others, as being in a calm state of mind is likely to make you more empathic, approachable, and balanced.
If you are highly stressed out, on the other hand, there is a significantly increased chance that you will be short tempered and belligerent with those you interact with – in addition to being less attentive to social cues.
So, what can you do to begin reclaiming your sense of calm if it has been diminished, or if you feel like you would like to be significantly calmer than you are at the moment?
Here are a few things you can do that are likely to be helpful.
Switch your coffee with tea
Coffee is one of the most beloved beverages around the world, and huge numbers of people rely on it to get the day started, year round.
At the same time, though, coffee is going to lead to elevated levels of stress hormones within the body, and the subjective experience of many coffee users confirms that coffee can cause feelings of restlessness, agitation, anxiety, and frustration.
In addition to elevated stress hormone levels during the day making people more likely to snap, coffee also seems to be particularly detrimental for sleep, and the causes of this might not be purely down to the caffeine content – as even decaf coffee has been suggested by some researchers to have the ability to interrupt sleep, and to reduce sleep quality.
Tea, on the other hand, is still a stimulant beverage containing caffeine – but research seems to show that it doesn’t have the same negative impact on sleep as coffee does. It also seems to be a more balanced energy-providing beverage, and doesn’t increase agitation and anxiety to the same degree as coffee.
There may be many different potential reasons for this, and the fact that tea contains certain relaxing compounds such as L-Theanine is likely at least part of the story.
Switching your coffee for tea – or at least reducing your coffee intake and replacing some of your coffee with tea – may be quite effective when it comes to helping to reduce the level of stress you experience on an everyday basis.
It might also have the added benefit of improving the quality of your sleep – which has a huge range of benefits as well, including with regards to providing good stress management.
Take up mindfulness practices like Yoga and Tai Chi
Stress tends to be exacerbated to a great degree by rumination – in other words, negative mind wandering and obsessive thinking, that tends to focus on doom and gloom future scenarios, past mistakes, and so on.
Mindfulness, by contrast, is a state of relaxed awareness of the present moment, where you are not caught up in your thoughts, but are present here and now.
Mindfulness has many advocates in the world today, and there are many stress-busting benefits associated with regular mindfulness practice.
While there are many different ways of cultivating mindfulness, some of the practises which are potentially the most beneficial include physical practises and pastimes, such as yoga and tai chi.
When you engage in something like yoga practice, you are cultivating mindfulness on the one hand, but you are also expending physical energy and are working and relaxing different parts of your body throughout the exercise, with the end result being an enhanced sense of calm, both physically and mentally.
If you take up a regular yoga or tai chi practice, you’ll almost certainly feel more calm after a relatively short period of time, while enjoying additional benefits as well.
Spend time in nature on a regular basis
By equipping yourself for time spent in the great outdoors, such as by getting some rugged outdoor-friendly attire from Over Under Clothing, and then getting outside for a prolonged period of time, you may experience some quite incredible benefits when it comes to your ability to remain calm and centred.
The natural world seems to have something of a rejuvenating and stress-busting effect in and of itself. Some experts have pointed out that trees release aerosols into the atmosphere around them made up of health and well-being-promoting compounds. But some psychiatrists, such as Iain McGilchrist, have also observed that the patterns found in the natural world seem to have an innately more soothing and calming effect than the straight lines and sharp angles found in cities and other human-created environments.
Whatever the reason, venturing out into nature on a regular basis can help you to feel much more balanced, much calmer, and much better overall.
Stop trying to multitask
A lot of people out there pride themselves on their ability to multitask – but research seems to clearly indicate that multitasking generates stress, and makes us less efficient and effective, too.
By bringing your attention to the present moment, and focusing on doing one thing at a time instead of trying to juggle multiple different tasks, you’ll gain a lot more inner “space,” and will likely feel significantly calmer as a result.
