We are riding the pandemic of a lifetime. Once in a century human healthcare crisis that defied all modern medical science and technology claiming over 2 million lives worldwide. Lot of us lost our loved ones. Friends, family members, co-workers, neighbors we had before the pandemic started, not all are with us after a year today. Family is not what it used to be, our day to day life is not what it was before, and our financial situation is most certainly not looking bright.
Lot of us are having to deal with a lot of stress due to all these ordeals and none of us know when this will be all over. Even with social distancing and lockdowns, we are not being able to control the spread of the virus. We are doing our job; medical professionals are doing their job. But one thing lot of us are having trouble dealing with is the amount of stress we are having to deal with.
Not only lot of us have no work right now, people who are self-employed like clipping path service provides or other gig economy worker are also finding less and less work these days. This is stressful for all of us.
Stress is a silent killer. It will kill us from inside slowly but surely. Lot of health-related issues like diabetes, blood pressure are known to associate with stress. We need to manage our stress to live a healthy life.
Below are some of the time tested and easy ways to manage stress.
- Exercise: routine exercise is like prevention of many diseases. They say prevention is better than cure. Best way to prevent lot of health related issues is by exercising. People who don’t exercise, they find them having to deal with blood pressure, diabetes, bone and joint related issues, etc. Not to mention they will have lot less energy and strength compared to ones that do exercise. If you cannot go to gym for working out, at least go out for a run. There are plenty of places around us where we can go for a 15 minutes jogging. If your health condition doesn’t allow you to run, then wake a 20 minutes walk. 20 minutes walk five times a day will get your decent workout and will keep you not only healthy but will reduce your stress a lot.
- Socialize: lot of us live on our own in our home or apartments with no family member. It is stressful to come home from work and having to be by ourselves. If there is no family member, then a roommate can be better than living on our own. At least you have someone to talk to from time to time. Roommates are pain to deal with and will not work for everyone, but that’s an idea. Go out often and meet with people. Or go out to places where there are lot of people where you can feel the life. Being around people and socializing will keep your stress level down.
- Own a Pet: whether cat or a dog, a pet can be your best friend sometimes. You have someone to come home to. Taking the dog out for a walk not only gets you some workout done, you are out in the nature berating fresh air. You are spending time with your dog. This is a tested way to manage stress.
- Gardening: gardening has many benefits. You can grow flowers which brightens up your mind and soul. Gardening puts food on your table, flowers for your vase, lettuce for your fresh salad, and what not. Since you actively work to produce fruits, flowers, vegetables, salads and herbs, you get good amount of exercise from it. Gardening therefore helps you reduce your stress in many ways.
- Fishing: if you are an amateur angler, then you can take some time off from your daily routine to go fishing. Depending on where you live, you will find some small ponds and lakes or rivers. Some live close to ocean where they can do saltwater fishing. Since fishing is an activity, you truly enjoy, you stay so focused with the activity on the entire trip that you don’t remember anything else. You will feel stress free the entire time fishing. You will find lot of energy the next day as well. If you are not a fishing enthusiast, then venture on a sporting activity of your choice which will work equally.