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It’s been a bit of a stressful year: Whether you lean left or right or prefer to dance somewhere in the middle, it’s safe to assume you’ve felt the heat of the political climate at some point in 2017. Add in the personal stuff, relationship stuff, work stuff, technology stuff, and the fact that you’ll have to wait until 2018 for a new episode of This Is Us, and you’ve got yourself a perfect, anxiety-ridden storm.
The good news: People seemed extra motivated all year long to find clever and innovative new ways to prevent, recognize, and combat stress. If adult coloring books alone aren’t quite cutting it for you (even though Kate Middleton is into ’em), here are 10 more methods to help you keep your cool.
Keep calm, and read on for 10 tips to banish your stress
1. Consider a silent sound bath
Literally quieting the background noise can help you tune in to your body, your breath, and your blood flow. (And that’s a good thing.)
2. Adjust the colors in your bedroom
Yes, it can be that easy (and fun, to boot).
“Color has the power to increase your energy, calm and soothe your emotions, stimulate your senses, and elevate your mood,” says Moll Anderson, author of Change Your Home, Change Your Life with Color. “Different colors will produce different emotional, physical, and psychological responses.”
3. Opt for group fitness classes over sweating solo
Group workouts can improve all three quality-of-life measures: mental, physical, and emotional. It’s science. (No, really. It is.)
4. Sign up for a ceramics class
Pottery just may be the new Pilates, according to a rising crop of aspiring recreational artists.
5. Sit in the “quiet chair” at the salon
Skip the small talk with the stylist (no offense!), and enjoy an uninterrupted trim, chop, or blowout.
6. Never leave home without your amethyst
Take your healing crystals on the go, and consider travel stressors a thing of the past. (Now, if only hematite could help with those pesky plane delays…)
7. Watch a scary movie
It sounds counterintuitive—waiting for the bad guy to pop out is, in fact, stressful, right? Well apparently, horror flicks can actually scare the stress right out of you. (Scream marathon, anyone?)
8. Enlist a fail-proof mantra
Come up with a simple sentence you can repeat to yourself when the crazy starts to kick in. The repetition helps you to focus.
9. Breathe better
Stress-busting breathing isn’t as simple as inhale, exhale, repeat. The key is something called “controlled breathing.”
10. Master—or at least practice—this key yoga pose
It’s called “restorative” for a reason.
Which is worse: stress or a bad diet? The answer may not be what you think. And if you’re hitting the road this season, here’s advice from the pros on how to not let crowded planes, trains, and automobiles—and a lack of overhead-compartment space—drive you crazy.
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