Ongoing stress and anxiety can seriously undermine your health. Persistent stress has been associated with a host of medical issues and shown to weaken immune function — and that’s the last thing anyone needs.
Below are 13 strategies you can use to cope. None require spending money, and you can practice them at home (or at least somewhere in your neighborhood).
13 Ways to Manage Your Stress and Find Calm on Your Own
The next time you feel caught up in counterproductive thoughts, try one of these approaches.
1. Take Several Deep Breaths
When people experience emotional distress, they often breathe more shallowly and rapidly. That reduces oxygen intake, which can impair clear thinking and functioning — often making emotions feel even more tangled.
Taking slow, deep breaths restores your body’s oxygen and gives you a brief pause, which can help you relax.
When stress mounts, inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, then exhale through slightly pursed lips. Repeat this a few times until you notice a calming effect.
There are several variations of this technique, so experiment until you discover the method that suits you best.
2. Use a Grounding Exercise
If anxiety feels like it’s taking over, try grounding yourself. These methods pull you away from anxious thoughts — which typically fixate on the past or future — and bring you into the present moment.
An easy-to-remember approach is the “five senses” exercise. Pause and identify what each of your five senses is experiencing right now. What can you hear? What scents are present? What sensations touch your skin? What do you see? What tastes are detectable?
3. Cut Back on Screen Time
Numerous studies link heavy screen use with greater odds of anxiety and depression.
This isn’t a call to completely abandon social media, smartphones or the web — these can be valuable tools.
But even beneficial things can become harmful if overused, so if being online is stressing you out, set boundaries.
Options include limiting your checks to once in the morning and once in the evening, instituting no-phone hours after a certain time, or disabling alerts and notifications.
Those options not working for you? Here are seven other suggestions.
4. Spend Time Outdoors
Sometimes the remedy you need is right beyond your doorstep.
Research shows spending time in natural settings can lower anxiety, stress and depression. Being in nature appears to reduce cortisol — the stress hormone — and is linked to reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, the brain area involved when we get stuck in repetitive negative thoughts.
If you live in a city, there’s good news: simply listening to peaceful outdoor sounds or viewing trees and greenery can produce similar benefits.
So play some ambient ocean or forest sounds, look at images of green spaces, and notice your stress begin to subside. If you’re aiming to be more stress free, even small nature breaks help.
5. Put Your Feelings on Paper
Journaling is a widely used tactic for managing mental health, and for good reason. Research indicates that writing about your emotions helps you make sense of them. Instead of being swept up in a confusing swirl, emotions become clearer and easier to handle.
Not sure where to begin? Try these seven helpful prompts.
6. Practice Meditation
Meditation has been widely touted as a remedy for everything from distractibility to anxiety to improving productivity.
Its power lies in cultivating awareness of your thoughts, which is the first step toward managing them better. If you can recognize when anxiety-driven thoughts are taking over, you can redirect them into more constructive paths.
Not sure how to start? Try one of several inexpensive or free meditation apps, and aim to meditate once daily for a few days to begin building the habit.
7. Drink Water
Feeling anxious? Pause and drink a glass of water.
Studies have found that staying hydrated can reduce stress and anxiety. Our bodies are largely water, and when dehydrated we don’t operate optimally.
8. Pick Up a New Hobby
Learning something new can absorb your attention so fully that there’s little room left for the rumination that fuels anxiety.
Studies show acquiring a new skill can buffer against job-related stress, and these benefits translate to everyday life as well.
Whether you learn an instrument, take up woodworking or try knitting, dedicating time to a new craft can boost your mental well-being — a clear win.
9. Connect with Friends and Family
Close social ties — and the sharing and cooperation that come with them — are fundamental to our survival.
The harms of loneliness are well established: social isolation can dampen immune responses, increase internal inflammation and leave you more vulnerable during a crisis.
Thanks to technology, we have many ways to stay in touch. Create a group chat to swap funny memes, schedule video calls with loved ones, or simply pick up the phone for a conversation.
10. Exercise
Physical activity releases endorphins, the feel-good hormones.
You don’t need a gym membership to work out. With a small space you can do a bodyweight routine, practice yoga, or take a walk — often the most underrated exercise.
Choose an activity you enjoy and aim to do it three to four times each week. Consistency matters more than the specific exercise.
11. Declutter Your Space
Whether you follow the KonMari method or prefer a more minimalist purge, the mental perks of decluttering are clear. It’s tough to relax in an environment cluttered with stuff.
Spend a bit of time each day tackling clutter. That might mean reorganizing, creating storage systems, or temporarily stashing items out of sight until you can sort them properly.
As clutter fades, your home will feel more peaceful and restorative.
12. Make a Routine
Having a daily plan helps ensure you prioritize self-care and removes the need to make decisions constantly (decision fatigue is real).
Design a schedule for yourself and your household, then do your best to follow it.
13. Get Sufficient Sleep
Sleep and stress are tightly linked. When you’re stressed, sleep can be elusive. When you can’t sleep, your ability to cope wanes — creating a vicious cycle that’s hard to break.
If sleep is a struggle, try these tips:
- Avoid screens for an hour before bedtime.
- Reduce caffeine earlier in the day.
- Don’t drink alcohol right before bed.
- Get exercise during the day.
- Write down what’s worrying you.
Still awake? Try one of the many inexpensive or free apps designed to help with sleep.
Jenna Morales is a former editor for Savinly.
