Keep your mind and your body feeling its best. These home remedy secrets will help bust your anxiety and stress without ever filling a prescription.
Appeal to Your Senses
1. An Orange a Day
Oranges offer vitamin C, which can lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. But before you eat that orange, make sure to take a good whiff as well. The citrus scent has been shown to help people feel less anxiety, improve mood, and promote calmness. It’s easy to take an orange on the go into potentially stressful situations. At home, you can add a few drops of citrus-scented oil to a room diffuser.
2. Rub Your Ears
They’re covered in trigger points that can help release tension! Rub them gently to ease stress throughout your body. Start with the crease between the back of your ears and your skull.
3. Put On His Sweater
Ladies, if you have a special man in your life, reach for his laundry on the floor when you’re feeling stressed. Women had lower stress levels—even after being put through research activities designed to make them more anxious—when they had smelled a shirt their male partners had worn for 24 hours without deodorant. The jury’s still out whether this trick works for men, whose sense of smell isn’t as strong.
4. Enjoy the View
Just like we tend to hold tension in our necks, we can also lock tension around our eyes. Go to a place where you can gaze off to a distant, pleasant view. It doesn’t need to be a tropical island; even green trees or children playing can work. It will help you relax your eyes, focus away from a tense moment or situation, and take in a fresh perspective.
5. Sip Some Tea
Slowing down to drink any kind of tea can help you deal with stress. But the amino acid L-theanine in green tea has special calming effects. Take several green tea breaks instead of coffee breaks throughout your day. Worried about the caffeine jitters? Green tea is lower in caffeine than coffee and black tea. Or just go decaf—you’ll still get the L-theanine!
6. Let it Go
Don’t worry if you look silly! Let your tongue go limp in your mouth, then open your mouth slightly. The result: You instantly relax your jaw, which sends a message to your brain that all is well and it can halt the stress hormones.
Slow Down
7. Go to Your Camera Roll
Whether it’s a beach vacation or a favorite baby or fur baby, choose a soothing photo to focus on. Just like that, you can change your brain wave activity.
8. Go Belly Down
Suddenly feel out of control? You can put your hand on your belly and try to slow and deepen your breathing. But often that seems impossible in the moment. Another trick: Lie down on your stomach, which will naturally slow your breathing.
9. Back-and-Forth Breathing
It may sound wacky, but it’s a proven way to slow your heart rate and lower blood pressure. Block your right nostril and breathe only through your left, or alternate breathing through each nostril.
10. Fake a Smile
Even if you’re just going through the motions, forming your face into a smile can lower your heart rate. Experts aren’t sure why it works, but it does.
11. Hot Way to Chill Out
When we get anxious, our bodies automatically pull blood flow to our large muscles, preparing for what’s called the fight-or-flight response. But when the stressful situation doesn’t actually require a fight or flight (as is usually the case in our modern world), all that redirected flow does is amp up your stress levels. Here’s an amazing little trick: You can help bring your mind and body back into balance by warming your hands or even just imagining they’re warm. It’s a simple little tip you can use anywhere!
12. Sit on a Sponge
Before you head to the kitchen to look for a sponge, we should tell you that all this tip requires is your imagination! Simply imagine you’re sitting on a giant sponge and breathe in. As you breathe out, imagine all your stress leaving you and getting absorbed into the sponge.
13. Calm Head to Toe
Tense each muscle group for 5 seconds and then relax as you move down. Start with your eyes and work down through your neck, shoulders, back, belly, butt, thighs, calves, and feet.
14. Pull Those Shoulders Back
Maybe Mom had it right all along—good posture can be powerful! Researchers have found that pulling back your shoulders and standing or sitting up straight can reduce stress hormone levels by 25 percent.
Climb On In!
15. Soak Away Stress
We all know how good time in the tub can feel. And science backs it up: One study even found that soaking in warm water daily for 8 weeks is more effective at easing anxiety than a prescription drug.
Feel Better with Fun
16. Break Out the Crayons
Colored pencils will do, too! You’re never too old to color. In fact, adults who color patterns see a big drop in anxiety compared to adults who don’t color or draw on blank sheets of paper. Treat your racing mind to a coloring book today.
17. Dig in the Dirt
Did you know 30 minutes of gardening can reduce stress levels more than 30 minutes of reading? The benefit could come from the physical activity, fresh air, certain good bacteria in the soil, or a combo of all.
18. Create an Ice Cream Menu
When you feel stress and anxiety rising, start mentally composing a list of your favorite ice cream flavors. Part of the power lies in the distraction—you’re taking your mind off your worries. But ice cream works better than, say, state capitals because of associated happy memories. We all dream of ice cream . . . for stress relief!
19. Reach for Sweet Stress Relief
Craving chocolate? Your body knows what it needs! A bit of dark chocolate (an ounce or two) can help reduce stress levels. Some research has even found that it can lower blood pressure nearly as well as drugs.
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