16 New Ways To Reduce Stress And Relax: How Do I Calm Myself As An Entrepreneur

Stress anyone?!

No, I figured

No one in their right mind will choose stress but yet we choose it

by our own thoughts and reactions almost every day

Stress so sneaky and can come from any direction if you’re not paying attention 

Stress can come from feeling pressured,

wanting things to happen fast(talking to you entrepreneurs),

wanting to prove yourself.

From procrastination, from indecision, from overcomplicating, overthinking

Stress originate from your thoughts and feelings that you’re not managing

Yes, it can happen from environmental things(toxins) but not what I am talking about in this article

In this article, I share my experience and everything I did to help me and to help you if you’re going through a very stressful time in your life.

Stress caused irregularities to my period and I had to do something before it got worse

What I did to reduce and manage my stress

I have been experiencing stress and anxiety because of my own thoughts and

I know many of you are considering what’s going on in the world

And the uncertainty that you have felt

I advise you to get into a routine for a short while and stick to it

Then keep some of these activities as habits once you reset your body and mind

so, I want to share a few things that helped me

some are basics but don’t underestimate them (The question is, do you do them not do you know them? see the difference)

I divided them into 3 categories to make it easy

A- Mind/Mindset

1-Becoming aware that you’re stressed (I wasn’t really for a long period)

2-Looked into what you’re thinking

In my situation, I was feeling pressured because I wanted things to happen fast in my business and things weren’t moving fast as I wanted to.

I was comparing myself to others successes.

At the same time, I was afraid of my business taking off and having clients

because of my lack of self-belief and trust. making things more complicated than they are

These thoughts didn’t serve me but only caused me to feel stressed, to procrastinate and to loath myself

All in all, sabotaging myself while feeling sad and anxious about it

(BTW I have a blog post on self-sabotage here)

3- Practice new thoughts, remind yourself of what you know consistently

(mind need repetition to get it deeply)

The thoughts, reminders and mental skills that helped me

(remember that you’re mind is like a child who throws tantrums, get scared,

it needs someone who cares and direct it and not listens to every yell or remark it says and believes it)

-things will happen in the right time for them

-realizing that people’s journeys aren’t mine even if they appear on the same journey as me because we’re not the same

-realizing that things don’t need to be difficult to be worthy of them, of success so, I choose to make it easy

4-Practice making decisions fast. Start with smaller things.

Make a list of things you need to decide but haven’t yet then choose the easiest one and go from there

General thoughts that going to help reduce stress

-I choose what I think( then say what you want to think)

-calm and relaxation are my natural state

-I am becoming more relaxed and calm

-I choose to make things easy

Tip: ask yourself what would(x) look like if it were easy. (when you find yourself overcomplicating)

Eg. What would creating content look like if it were easy?

B- Physical/ Food & Drinks

I noticed how stressed my body was, agitated, so nervous, on edge.

which lead me to start looking into herbs, mushrooms and others to help reduce it..etc

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or a doctor these only suggestions and what I used. it’s only for information purposes not to be used as a replacement or substitute of specialist opinion and consult.

5- Movement of any kind do wonder to your stress levels just stretching every day is so much better

Exercising release endorphins that help heal and sooth the body

6- Herbs: lavender, chamomile(a general soothing herb), Anise(for calming your gut)

7- Adaptogens: like ashwagandha, rishi is a mushroom

8- Magnesium ( this mineral help you relax and calm during your period & else)

9-Cutting or reducing junk food. I eat junk here and there. I don’t 100% eat healthy. the 80/20 rule

But when I get too stressed and I start to excuse eating them more so, reducing them helped a lot.

Notice if you fall into eating junk food mainly or a little if didn’t before

10- Eating greens, nuts and seeds(healthy fats,fibers&minerals)

to bring balance & nurture my body when we’re stressed we lose a lot of nutrients

low levels of zinc , B vitamins, C vitamins can cause stress

If you fall from eating specific healthy food get back to it and add more

11- Stop food and drinks that stress the body and the mind like coffee, and sugary foods that spike glucose level thus raising the stress hormone cortisol,

high sodium foods that increase your blood pressure which adds stress to your body

12- last but not least, Sleep at a specific time daily. sleep can easily slip and be dismissed but the benefits are tremendous

Check healthline.com for more information

C- Spiritual/Techniques

13-Breathing

The basic form that’s infused in many other techniques to help you relax.

because breathing in a shallow way(from the upper chest) put your body in stress.

It increases cortisol because your body thinks you’re in danger

( that’s what’s your body do when you’re about to be chased by a lion)

Taking the time to take deep breaths from your stomach slowly then exhale will calm your body

( breathing does so many wonders if you give yourself the time to take few breaths)

The best way to do it is to set a timer for 5-10minutes and take deep breaths or use guided meditation or self-hypnosis

to help you do it daily or whenever you feel stress

Remember, knowing this isn’t actually doing it; be open and give it a full-on try before you judge it

14-Meditations

A great way to relax by refocusing on breathing & specific affirmations.

I used guided meditation. there’s some in youtube and you can use apps for that

Ii Focuses on specific thing like your breathing or mantra or both

I Suggest using meditation to help relax and reprogram your mind by using specific affirmations on a topic you want

to change your thoughts about like self-love, self-worth, business…etc.

15-Hypnosis

I started getting into it. it’s a way to access your subconscious mind and make changes there while you relax

You’re wondering how that help me relax?, I ‘ll tell you

It helps you relax because it put your mind a trance state

where you’re not fully awake or asleep it feels like you’re dozing off; a state of deep relaxation

You can do it for relaxation or better do it like I did which to reprogram your subconscious about specific something and

Anyway you’re going to get into relaxation

because that’s how hypnosis works (kill two birds with one stone, right? ;))

The subconscious control 95% or more of your life, action and the result you get

That’s why changes that happen on the subconscious help get what you want and faster

That’s goes for anything

Get in a trance state, a state of deep relaxation while having suggestions laid upon you (you can see how that going to help you)

There’s free self-hypnosis on YouTube

16- Journaling

A great outlet to examine what’s going on inside your mind, to redirect your thinking, to reprogram your mind, to calm, to discover yourself and more

Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and write everything that comes to mind whatever negative or positive don’t try to make it positive

If you find it difficult to come up of something to write

Ask yourself this: what am I thinking? what am I feeling?

Many times this simple act of writing what’s on your mind take the edge of stress, anxiety and quit the wild chatter in your mind

And you can at the same time direct your mind to what you want it to think

let’s have freedom

Wafaa