Ways to Relieve Stress and Anxiety

Everyone has experienced stressful situations and dealt with anxiety at some point in their lives. According to a 2017/2018 ABS NHS study, around 13% or 2.4 million Australians over 18 reported high and very high levels of stress. Unfortunately, although they are most of the time temporary, these conditions can affect the physical and mental wellbeing of people. Fear, anger, elevated heart rate and blood pressure are just some of the things we experience in a stressful situation.

Being under stress for a prolonged period of time can lead to mental health difficulties, increased physical health problems, physical illnesses, etc. Now, while you can’t write your own destiny and eliminate stressful situations altogether, you can work on the way you handle them when they arise. By taking the time to practice the following habits, you will not only reduce the initial stress, but you will also learn to handle it in healthy ways that will help you recover fast.

Eat Healthy and Drink Plenty of Fluids

One of the biggest mistakes you can do is trying to reduce stress by drinking alcohol and eating too much. Although this might be comforting in that moment, it can only add to the stress in the long run. Sticking to healthy habits by eating healthy food and drinking plenty of water is the key to combatting stress. By doing this, you will not only help your body and skin be in their best possible condition, but you will also feel more energised, calmed and prepared to fight that stress and move on.

Practice Aromatherapy with Essential Oils

The benefits of aromatherapy can go way beyond just filling your home with a nice and pleasant smell. With the use of the right essential oils, aromatherapy may help you heal your mind, body and soul.

And when it comes to combating stress, one of the most pleasant and highly effective essential oil for this purpose is the sweet orange essential oil. This essential oil is extracted from the rind of the sweet orange by a cold-pressing method which uses pressure to squeeze the oils from the rind. Depending on the brand, sometimes, manufacturers can also use the leaves and flowers from the orange plant.

The thing that stays the same for all-natural and pure sweet orange essential oil brands is that they can reduce the symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. A lot of studies have shown that particularly this essential oil can reduce the heart rate and stress hormone levels. Besides this, this essential oil can also be used as a pain reliever, especially if combined with ginger essential oil and applied topically. Being high in limonene, this essential oil is also great for inhibiting growth and promoting the death of colon cancer cells. Besides colon cancer, orange essential oils may also inhibit the growth of lung and prostate cancer cell lines, so yeah, it’s really worth the try.

How to Use Sweet Orange Essential Oil?

As we already mentioned, you can use it in many ways. For instance, you can use orange sweet essential oil in a diffuser and in the form of a spray (mixed with water). And in case you’re wondering can you use sweet orange essential oil on skin, the truth is that you can apply it as a massage oil but only if mixed with a carrier oil like coconut, almond and jojoba oil. You can add 20 drops of sweet orange oil in a 30ml of carrier oil and use it topically.

Practice Yoga

Exercise is one of the most important things you can do to fight stress and most importantly, to stay healthy. This might sound strange to you because when we are under stress, we are not in the mood for doing anything, but it is said that putting physical stress on your body through exercise can certainly reduce your mental stress. And of the ideal ways to reduce stress and train your mind and body to react calmly in many situations is through yoga.

With the help of the right yoga supplies, you’ll be able to improve your balance, flexibility and range of motion. But most importantly, with the right yoga supplies and poses, you will be able to reduce your stress levels. Thanks to the numerous poses, yoga will help you improve your breathing and enhance your mood and well-being. It can also reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression, and will teach you how to train your mind and body to react calmly in any situation of your life.

Being the perfect physical activity, yoga can also help you to reduce some of the risk factors for chronic diseases like high blood pressure and heart diseases. Neck pain, shoulder stiffness, low back pain and menopause symptoms in women can also become a thing of the past when practising yoga. It is also said that practising yoga on a regular basis can also help you fight insomnia while also relieving some of the symptoms of asthma, arthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The most important thing to know about yoga is that every person has a different body, so you might need to modify the yoga postures based on your abilities. For this purpose, you should choose an experienced yoga instructor who will understand your needs and help you throughout the process.