Stress is something that everybody feels for many reasons. It is normal. But stress is not good for your physical and mental health. Diseases like obesity, depression, headaches, depression, chest pain, restlessness, etc. are caused by stress.  

You can learn to control your stress response by practicing the techniques listed below.  

1. Deep Breathing (for stress control): Steps You Should Follow for deep breathing exercises: 

• First, wear comfortable clothes and sit in a place where you feel comfortable (like your favorite chair or at your favorite spot in the park). 
• Second, close your eyes and start inhaling slowly. Focus on how your nose takes the air in. While inhaling, think about how the air you breathe makes you calm and peaceful.  
• Feel the air fill up your lungs as you breathe in. Breathe out the air from your mouth and visualize it, taking away all the tension and worries from your life.  
• While performing this exercise, you can also say something like, “I am breathing out all my tension and stress.”   
• You can do this for 10 to 15 minutes, or till you feel calm. 

Initially, while doing this exercise, you should choose a place where you feel most comfortable sitting. And later, you can do it anywhere if you feel stressed. Do it until you feel stress-free. 

2. Meditation: Meditation is one of the oldest techniques to reduce stress and soothe your nerves. It has been around for more than 5,000 years. It helps to reduce stress and is also useful for relief from anxiety, chronic pain, sleep disorders, low energy levels, mood disorders, and depression. To perform meditation, you need: 

• A quiet place to sit. 
• Make yourself comfortable.  
• Close your eyes and focus on a thing, a happy thought, place, or event that comes to your mind. 
• Let all other thoughts come and go. Do not worry about them at this moment, instead focus on your happy thoughts.  
• Let your body and mind relax at this moment. Take deep breaths. Do it until you feel relaxed and free of your worries and stress.  

Meditation needs a quiet place to perform because it takes a lot of focus to concentrate on one thought. You can perform it anywhere, only after lots of practice.  

3. Mindfulness technique: This technique is a combination of mindfulness and meditation. While meditation focuses on any one thought (whether it is from the past or present), mindfulness focuses on the present thoughts, events, places, and things. Here’s what a mindful meditation technique looks like:  

• Find a comfortable place to sit.  
• Although you don’t need a timer for meditation, you can set it for 5 to 10 minutes initially to develop the habit. 
• Now for the important part: breathing. Breathe in through your nose. Feel the air going inside you. You focus not only on the air you breathe in but also on your body and mind too. And then, breathe out of your mouth.  
• If you find it hard, you can get guidance from a yoga or meditation teacher or download a meditation app on your phone.  

With practice, you can become an expert in mindfulness meditation, and do it anywhere, anytime to reduce your stress.  

4. Progressive muscle relaxation: This technique is amazingly effective for dealing with stress, anxiety, and insomnia, and it also reduces symptoms of chronic pain. This technique is based on tensing or tightening one muscle group at a time. The steps are: 

• Take a deep breath in, and contract one muscle of your body, like the arms or thighs, for 5 to 10 seconds, and then exhale and release the contracted muscle at that time.  
• Take a break of 10 to 20 seconds to relax, then perform the same exercise on another muscle. 
• While performing this exercise, focus on your feelings at the time of contraction and release. Think that stressful feeling goes out when you release your muscles.  
• One straightforward way to do it is to start with your toes and work your way up so that you can relax.  

You can perform this exercise anywhere. It takes 10-20 minutes to ease your stress and make you feel better. 

5. Visualization technique: This technique uses your imagination to create a picture/ scene in your mind to relax. It is also called visualization or guided meditation. It helps to reduce stress and anxiety, improves sleep, decreases pain, and reduces depression symptoms. The steps are: 

• Sit in a quiet and comfortable place. 
• Close your eyes and take several deep breaths. 
• Imagine a place- your ‘happy place’ where you want to go and enjoy the scenery. Visualize all the details of the scene. Picture yourself walking down the place. Visualize every big or small detail of this scene.  
• Relax in your happy place for several minutes. Take deep breaths. 
• After a few minutes count to three and open your eyes.  

You can perform it only in quiet places because it needs lots of focus.  

6. Relaxation to music: This can be an extremely easy technique if you love listening to music. You could do it anywhere. Music is remarkably effective in releasing stress and making you feel relaxed. Usually, you can listen to upbeat music to feel optimistic and positive, or you can listen to low-tempo music, to relax your muscles and release the stress of the day. Choose a volume that you are comfortable with, usually, a mid-level or low volume is advised as it helps calm you down. Use headphones and earphones to avoid any outside disturbances. 

7. Biofeedback: This technique helps you to see how your body reacts when you try to relax. It helps you to learn about stress reduction skills by providing you with information about muscle tension, heart rate, and other vitals. It helps you to gain control of those functions that can cause tension and physical pain. Sensors are placed on your body by a bio therapist, to note your brain wave patterns and your muscle tone to see how your body reacts when you are trying to relax.  

8. Counseling: You can visit a counselor who listens to all your worries and tensions and can guide you on how to manage the problems and tensions you have. They teach you how to understand yourself better and how to handle your current situation. They teach you techniques you can use when you feel stressed and how to lead a peaceful life.  

Are you feeling stressed and feel like you need professional help? If you need help with any type of mental health condition, come visit Doral Health & Wellness’s Mental health clinic in Brooklyn. Call us on +1-347-384-5690 to get a consultation. If you need help learning coping methods, register your information and make direct contact with our doctors and psychiatrists to learn those methods, log on to www.doralhw.org. Doral Health and Wellness has the best Doctors and Psychiatrists who specialize in Behavioral Health, make accurate diagnoses, and craft tailored treatment programs. Visit us at 1797 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11212.