10 Best Ways To Be Stress Free and Decrease Anxiety

Some days are filled with more stress than others! It can even be hard to tell if the stress is coming from outside of you - who you are around, situations you are dealing with OR if it is coming from within you - your health, your pain, your fatigue, your concentration level. The stress is kicking off burnout and then the situations you have to deal with seem impossible! I understand anxiety and how much it can take away your joy.

As a mom, Family Therapist and Certified Health Coach, I want to share with you what I have tried and found to be my Stress Free Tool kit! I want you to feel inner peace and be able to connect more deeply with love. This will improve all of the family relationships and draw your family closer to God - the true source of peace.

Every day, I create, seek and appreciate "Tranquility Moments" ~ a state with no distress, calmness, joy, peace and love.

I want to share the 10 best ways to be stress free and to decrease the anxiety that you are experiencing.

Looking for the best 2 ways to reduce ALL of your anxiety symptoms, check out my blog post:  Best 2 Ways to Decrease ALL of Your Anxiety Symptoms

#1 Good Sleep

When you are well rested, you can mentally respond much better to the worries and stress. When you are tired, everything feels more overwhelming. I feel more irritable and reactive when I am tired! You will need a good bedtime routine, an ideal sleeping space and a way to turn off your thoughts. Check out my YouTube video with great sleep tips ~ How to Fall Back to Sleep at 2am - Sleep Well and Feel Well Rested

#2 Journaling

Anxiety comes with racing thoughts and ruminating. Most of them are completely irrational! Seeing them down in my journal notebook helps me to recognize that. Journaling will help free you from the grip of anxiety and the terror of being out of control.

You may  journal in the morning to set your mindset for the day. Or perhaps you journal before bed to clear your head from the day's intensity. This mental dump of thoughts and feelings is so freeing. It will give you anxiety relief and decreases all of your symptoms.

Have you seen the fun Palm Tree Journal Notebook my daughter and I made? It is 100 lined pages on Amazon Prime for $5.33. Here is the info!

#3 Friendship

I have a bad habit of holding in my unpleasant feelings (probably a result of being the helper  to others). That results in my physical painful symptoms. Anxiety shows up in my muscle aches, my headaches and stomach issues. Does that happen to you too? I need to release all of that. That is why I have found it invaluable to have a great group of friends.

Friendships do not bloom over night. When we moved to Florida, I feared leaving my dear friends and siblings. It meant starting over. It has taken time and God's blessing to bring some amazing women into my new life. I appreciate the laughter and good company of a tribe of other moms. I pray that you can find one friend that you can vent to openly and honestly. This is therapeutic to say your worries and concerns aloud. This is a wonderful release of the tension. It is comforting when you are validated, "Oh, that sounds so stressful." It helps to know you are not alone, "Oh, I get it, that happens in our house too." It helps to get ideas and ways to problem solve the situation you are up against. Your dear friends can help you sort out what you can control and what you cannot control.



#4 Spirituality

I'm not sure how old I was when I first heard the phrase, Let Go and Let God. It is a key mantra of mine now!

I wanted to control and know exactly what was going to happen. Anxious people do NOT like surprises! We want to plan ahead and be prepared. This leads to anticipatory anxiety - you are anxious about emotional dangers or physical dangers that have not even occurred yet. You feel exhausted BEFORE you have even gone into battle!

This is where God's wisdom comes in. He always has a plan. He is always with you. He knows the good that will come out of whatever difficult situation you are in.

When I pray and read scripture, I can feel the calm wash over me. I am not the first human to struggle and God is never overwhelmed. Wow! That is so reassuring to me. Look within your spirituality to be stress free. This is an anxiety tool that will help you the longest and on the deepest level.

#5 Nature

When I developed my GLOW model for Tranquility Moms, I was on the lookout for the best formula to find tranquility. It is in our move to Tampa, FL, that I recognize my calmness when I am in nature. The year round sunshine and constant song of birds has relaxed me and helped me to find joy and peace.

Where can you go for a walk and experience the peace of nature?

I love sitting on a park bench and just observe. Notice the growing plants, the cycle of nature that is ever changing. It gives us all hope that our needs too will be met and things will work to God's plans. He gives us strength and wisdom to be stress free today.

#6 Movement

If you read my blog post on the Best 2 Ways to Decrease ALL of your Anxiety Symptoms, you know there is a best time to relax and the best time to exert yourself. You will learn what works best for you. You may need a brisk walk in the neighborhood. You may need to stomp and grunt out your frustrations. You may spring into jumping jacks, like I do, when the tension is getting high!

Moving your body allows the Adrenaline that has put you into fight, flight or freeze to breakdown and bring you back to a state of peace.

#7 Positive Attitude

Dr. Wayne Dyer wrote a book, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. Amazon link He explored how powerful our thoughts are and how important it is to focus on positives.

This is not to dismiss the struggles, sugarcoat the hardships or have toxic positivity that "everything is great" when it isn't. This is to say that your attitude will direct your anxious thoughts to tag on to MORE anxious worries or to focus on all that is going well. I want more positive, so that is where I want to focus myself.

Anxiety directs our thoughts towards all of the dangers - physical or emotional dangers. Some of those are irrational.

Gratitude can shift your energy and help you to see you do have uncomfortable things to cope with and you have many blessings to be thankful for. This is how you will create an entire stress free lifestyle.

#8 Wellness Choices

The W in my GLOW model is for Wellness Choices. These decisions, made every day, will impact how strong you feel vs how weak and vulnerable you feel.

Think about it ~ if anxiety is based on the brain's perception of danger, then the stronger your well-being is, the more confident you feel you can handle it! If the caveman was fighting off a tiger and he was malnourished and weak, his panic level was higher. "How can I do this? Will I survive? The tiger is so strong and I feel so weak." However, if the caveman had eaten and slept well, he felt brave and courageous. This is true of your everyday battles - in motherhood, at work or in relationships. You will experience upsetting situations that cause you sense emotional danger, however the healthier you are, the better equipped you are.

Wellness choices include the good nutrients you take in at each meal and snack, the amount of water you consume to stay hydrated, the vitamins and supplements that keep your body and mind balanced. This also includes what to avoid ~ high sugars, junk food, processed carbs, alcohol.  Dr. Sears T5 Wellness Plan book has great tips and suggestions for improving your well-being in 5 weeks!

#9 Rest

One of the my favorite topics to blog about lately has been Wellness Travel. It is the combo of getting away to rest and relax, while nourishing your body, mind and spirit. Vacation is what we all need. It is that escape from our everyday stress. It is the reset for ourselves and our relationships. It is the time when I feel closest to God and enjoy the beauty of the nature around me.

Giving yourself permission to "turn off" your brain and rest is key to being stress free and to decrease your anxiety.

blog post: Mom Can Rest On Vacation

#10 Deep Exhale

There are many breathing techniques suggested for anxiety. My favorite is the big, deep exhale. The simple act of pushing all the air out of your lungs helps to clear my head and relax my shoulders.

When we are anxious and uptight, our muscles are ready for fight or flight. But when we exhale, we push that tension out and release it! Our brain gets tricked into feeling relaxed muscles, so it stops pumping out more Adrenaline - "I must be safe now, my muscles are relaxed." Try it today!

Today, give yourself a moment to find tranquility and try one of the ten ways you can reduce your stress and decrease your anxiety.

~ Upcoming book in 2023 by Kathryn Gardner ~ Totally Refreshed: How Your Family Vacation Can Include Love, Faith & Wellness. Plus 100 Christian Family Travel Activities

So glad you are on this journey with me to go from stressed to refreshed! Find your tranquility today! 

Be well and God bless,

Kathryn

Kathryn Gardner is a mom of 2, police wife and Christian Catholic. She is a Therapist specializing in the wellness of moms & Certified Health Coach for over 22 years. In 2022, she moved with her family to Tampa, FL to be near the ocean and explore the health benefits of nature. Her passion is helping stressed moms find tranquility! Check out TranquilityMoms.com for the latest blog post and YouTube video. She posts encouraging messages on Instagram and Facebook.

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