Le stress fait partie intégrante de notre quotidien. Il est partout : au travail comme à la maison. Il est dans toutes les conversations, toutes nos pensées. Mais, à un moment : trop c’est trop. Alors, comment combattre le stress ? Voici 3 habitudes magiques pour être plus calme.

1 – Reading books

Reading is a powerful stress reliever. Because when we read, we practice deep breathing.

In fact, in less than 6 minutes, our breathing becomes calmer and deeper, without us even realizing it.

In other words, you don’t need to read for hours every day to combat stress. You just need to read for ten minutes or so.

After that, it doesn’t matter what kind of books you read. That said, if you tend to be sensitive, perhaps steer clear of the horrific or gory thriller genres.

In fact, prefer gentler, soothing reads.

But there’s no need to read self-help books.

In fact, I’ve noticed that when you’re stressed, it’s not necessarily what you need. Because self-help books make us think and, to combat stress, we need to calm down and get away from it all.

What do you think?

2 – Sport or just walking to combat stress

Sport is also a powerful stress reliever. Because when we engage in physical activity of varying intensity, we secrete happy hormones.

In other words, our bodies relax and so do our thoughts. And it feels really good!

Here again, it’s not a question of doing hours of sport every day. You don’t have to.

In fact, 15 minutes of sport is enough. It could be going for a run, or doing a little stretching or yoga.

But if you don’t feel like doing sport, or you’re not in the physical condition to do it, going for a walk can work.

In fact, some doctors recommend walking briskly for 15 minutes during a stress attack. This exercise calms our thoughts and drastically reduces stress.

So, to combat stress, you can get into the habit of walking around your neighborhood every evening on your way home from work. What do you think?

3 – Meditate or just do nothing to stay calm

Meditation is another powerful stress-reliever. In fact, meditation is all about calming ourselves and our thoughts.

The principle of meditation is quite simple. We sit down and concentrate on our breathing.

The aim is not to stop thinking, but rather not to become attached to our thoughts. This is something we do all day long, and is a source of stress.

In fact, practising meditation to combat stress means learning to take a step aside with your mind. It’s stopping believing everything it tells you, and that feels really good.

And if you’re not comfortable meditating, you can simply take 5 minutes out of the day or evening to do nothing.

Sit on the sofa and do nothing. Or stand in front of the window (my favorite place to do nothing) and look up at the sky.

Doing nothing will allow your body to relax, without you even realizing it. Your shoulders in particular will relax, as will the back of your neck.

Take slower, deeper breaths and you’ll see that, after a few moments, your thoughts will calm down.

Just 5 minutes. You can even set a timer (laughs).

What do you think?

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover How to de-stress? 3 ways to learn to be positive!
Discover How to calm your stress? Live a more peaceful life

In addition, I recommend this inspiring book on the subject:

The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook by Martha Davis
Very good, it describes different relaxation techniques in a very concise and clear way, with a practical approach. I’ve learned several from this book and it’s useful to know different techniques as they have different effects. There’s a useful second section on time managemen as well.

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself.