It’s no surprise that the pandemic has brought a massive increase in stress and anxiety in the general population, as many people are feeling overwhelmed with the frequent changes occurring at work.
Working from home, by itself, can cause a lot of stress for people who have larger or noisy households, and the anxiety of when you will be able to go back to work, hang out with friends, and enjoy your hobbies again may eventually take its toll on your overall well being.
Like computers or machines, a human’s happiness is built of certain things, like socialization, sleep, and exercise. If these become limited and negatively affected, it’s no surprise that our machines begin to break down.
Cars, for example, use head gaskets to prevent the leakage of oil and coolant into the engine, in other words, from breaking down. Our bodies use the same filters to keep us stable, which you can understand if you have ever gotten so emotionally and physically exhausted after an anxiety attack.
It’s time to screw your duramax head studs in, so there is no more leakage of your valuable energy taking you to the point of exhaustion. How do you combat this undeniable sense of being overwhelmed?
Meditation
Whether you were stressing out before the pandemic or even now this far into it, one thing that has been proven to help with stress and anxiety is meditation. There are more ways than one to meditate, contrary to the popular belief that it requires sitting still for long periods of time, although this seems to be one of the most effective methods.
Meditation is the act of intentional focus, whether that’s through paying attention to the breath or a paintbrush is up to you.
Exercise
Running, lifting weights, yoga, dancing, biking, whatever gets you motivated to move your body, do it! Exercise is a great way to relieve stress and produce serotonin for happiness when you are feeling overwhelmed, as the stress and all its correlated hormones build up in your system, making you feel sometimes fidgety and sometimes lethargic.
Getting yourself to exercise is often the most difficult about it, but the more time and energy you invest in it, the better you will feel after each session, and the more you will want to do it in the future.
Sleep
The most crucial element to wellbeing is sleep, and not too much sleep! On average, humans should sleep eight hours a night. This is variable depending on your age, the amount of energy expenditure you do, and other biological reactions going on in your body.
Things like stress and drinking too much caffeine can lead to insomnia, while oversleeping can lead to depression and feelings of being unmotivated. It’s really important to determine precisely how much sleep you should be getting and setting aside ample amounts of time for that.
You have the ability to ease your stress and anxiety, it will ultimately come down to how bad you want it!
