
Since we all have lives, there’s comes a time where we feel really stressed out. This may be once in a while or it may be often, but stress can have negative effects on our body. It is a sign that we are feeling overwhelmed and that we need to have a break.
But, how can you possibly have a break when you have so much to do, and you have no time?
Well, breaks don’t have to mean a half hour lunch break or an hour watching TV. We can treat ourselves to 5-minute mini-breaks that will take our stress levels down and leave us feeling refreshed.
Here’s a list you can do if you’re feeling stressed and need to relax.
- Listen to Music
- Sing or Dance
- Meditate
- Breathe
- Stretch
- Take a Walk
- Take in Nature
- Take a Bath
- Write
- Create
- Laugh
Listen to Your Favorite Song (or Two)
Sometimes blasting your favorite song does the trick. Have it be the only thing you can hear. Sit back, close your eyes and don’t do anything else but listen to the song.
Another stress relieving thing you can do with music is sing or dance along if you’re feeling a little energetic.
Sing or Dance
Stress can sometimes come in a form of frustration. You can get all that bad energy out by belting out your favorite song. Sing along, scream on the top of your lungs.
Get the frustration out of you.
Dancing can be another stress reliever. Dance your heart out for 5 minutes. By the end of the song, all the frustration can turn into fun energy!
Meditate
Meditation is a proven way to clear your mind. You can do it for how long you want or for how long you need. And you don’t need anything other than yourself.
If you’re a beginner, DoYogaWithMe is a great website with free meditation guides. There are also apps that have free guides as well.
Breathe
Like meditation breathing exercises can calm you down when you’re stressed
Some Fitbits now come with a new feature called Relax. Relax is a guided breathing feature that takes you on a 2 to 5-minute breathing experience. This can help you lower your stress and lessen anxiety.
If you don’t have a Fitbit all you really need to do is just use your mother’s old wisdom that she’s been telling you since you were a kid. “Calm down and take deep DEEP breathes.”
Take the time to breathe for 5 minutes to get some stress relief.
Stretch
Get up and stretch! Your body is sore from running around. Take a few minutes to stretch out your muscles, so they can keep working for you.
Like singing and dancing stretching can take your mind off of whatever is stressing you out by having you focus on something else.
Stretching out your muscles can be very relaxing and is almost like you’re getting a massage.
Take it one step further and combined breathing exercises with the stretching and you can have a relaxing yoga session.
Take a Walk
Taking a walk can get you away from stressful situations. You can just leave and get some headspace and take time to get relief.
If you make it a power walk, you can get some blood flowing and get some endorphins rushing through your body to make you feel even better.
Spend five minutes walking up and down stairs, walking around your building and bonus points if you can get outside and breathe in the fresh air.
Take in Nature
It is a very busy and rushed world. Sometimes what’s right in front of you can be ignored. You can walk down the street and not even notice of flowers or the blue sky or the trees.
Nature is beautiful. The scenery is beautiful and calm and relaxing. Your days can go by so fast that you forget what a beautiful thing our planet is.
So to have five minutes of stress relief, take in nature. Go outside, take in a sunset, look at a garden, a body of water, look for wild animals and even look at man-made art and architecture.
Take a Bath
What’s a stress relief post without suggesting taking a nice warm bubble bath?
To some people taking a nice long bath is just what you need for some stress relief. You can squeeze a bath in 5 minutes but most likely you might want a little more time to soak up the water.
Go all out! Dim the lights, light some candles, bring a book and make it a spa day in your own home.
Write
Another idea to make your life less stressful is to write about whatever is stressing you out. Just sit down and write your thoughts and feelings and frustrations out for 5 minutes.
Writing is big stress relief. You can get your frustrations off your chest by writing it out. You can experience a big weight going off your shoulders just as if you were talking to someone.
If your stressful situation is super bad maybe you want to destroy the piece of paper to get your anger out. Burn it, rip it, cut it, DESTROY IT! The act of doing so can be stress relief in itself because that way you can’t dwell on your past bad experiences and past frustrations because you wrote out all your bad feelings and you destroyed them.
Create
When you’re stressed you might want to take 5 minutes to just be creative. Whether that’s combining some of the past tips such as writing creatively or writing a song or going out in nature and taking pictures. Taking 5 minutes to create something that you enjoy, to work on a hobby that you enjoy can be major stress relief.
Other ideas involve knitting, painting, sketching, woodworking, gardening and even cooking.
If you’ve been working on a creative project there’s definitely a five-minute task that you can tackle when you are totally stressed. Not only do you get to do something that you enjoy but you can also have a feeling of accomplishment that you got a task done as well.
Laugh
Laugh. Laughter is the best medicine after all. Nothing beats stress relief than having uncontrollable laughter and endorphins running through you.
Everyone’s humor is different so if you’re ever stressed, try to find what makes you laugh whether that’s your kid or a funny TV show, a comic, a funny YouTuber or silly pictures of cats.
Have laughing material on hand for the next stress out session.
Our days are stressful, but it doesn’t have to be if we regularly give our bodies a break during the day. Try out some of these tips and see the calming results afterward.
How do you get 5 minutes of stress relief?