When it comes to managing stress, the techniques that are widely accepted as being effective in reducing stress can also make so many other parts of your life better.

 

Not only help make you mentally and physically healthier but also help make you happier and more fulfilled. And even more successful. For example:

The DAM system for managing stress, forcing yourself to list every single thing in and around you that might be causing your stress, can also give you a very powerful bird’s eye view of your life, what’s really important to you, and the good stuff you need to focus on.

Metacognition, thinking about how you think, is a great way to help calm stressful thinking. But it’s also an essential and life-changing tool that can help you process your thoughts in a healthier way.

To help identify negative views, perspectives, assumptions, and biases, tame negative and unhealthy thinking patterns like cynicism and rumination, make better decisions, and filter out negative thoughts that serve no useful purpose.

Breathing and mindfulness have been identified as great stress management tools that have even been used to reduce crime and recidivism in prisons. But they’re also central to healthy living, to emotional regulation, heart and gut health, managing anxiety and depression, and even making you happier.

Gratitude and kindness can help significantly with stress largely by changing the way you think about what’s happening in and to your life. But studies have shown that both gratitude and kindness can also trigger more than a dozen other benefits.

For example, studies by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley have shown that gratitude can unlock more than a dozen mental, emotional, and physical health benefits, and can make you happier and more fulfilled.

Kindness, and especially thinking and acting in a kinder way, has been shown to be a key ingredient in happiness, and happiness in turn has been linked to greater success in life. Acts of kindness trigger shots of dopamine, the helper’s high, and can be so addictive you’ll want to keep doing it. Literally addicted to being kinder.

Exercise and nature are great for managing stress. Exercise can help take you away from the things and environment that are causing stress, help you to focus on more positive things. But it can also trigger essential hormones like dopamine and endorphins.

Exercise is also believed to be the key trigger for neurogenesis and the hugely important ability of the brain to grow more brain cells. Something that’s essential as we lose brain cells thought aging.

Getting out in nature can also provide relief from stress but is also fantastic for brain health. Sunshine can create more vitamin D and nitric oxide, which is great for brain health. As are fresh air and more oxygen. All have been shown to protect brain cells, support healthy memory, and maintain healthy blood flow and circulation.

Studies have also shown that the colors of nature, the sounds of birds, trickling water, and rustling leaves are also very calming for the brain. And if your walk in nature includes people or pets, that can release lots of the essential hormone oxytocin.

I could go on. Volunteering, spirituality, purpose, even diet can all help to reduce stress and also have a ripple effect through every part of your brain and life. Just one more reason to take stress seriously, manage it smartly, and turn that management into a healthy living plan.