How to Achieve Calm in 2021

July 11, 2021 Jacob Maslow

The past few years have been a one-in-a-lifetime kind of nightmare. The whole world came to a grinding halt, we suffered the losses of people dear to us, we lost financial stability, and we had to adapt to what felt like a strange new world with the distance apart from those we love.

That’s why, as the world is healing and we return to normal, it is important for us to take care of our mental health. Staying calm amidst the chaos isn’t an easy task. Instead of letting the goal of getting rid of stress become a source of stress itself, let’s take some time to see what we can work on and fit into our lives to achieve peace and mindfulness.

Exercise

Exercise is a powerful tool in achieving wellness, but it does more than burn fat and encourages muscle growth. Exercise helps improve our heart health and strengthen the whole cardiovascular system to improve circulation, effectively reducing your risk for heart attack and heart disease.

It also has a significant impact on our mental health, too. Vigorous exercise shows remarkable improvement in cognitive function and reducing the influence of depression and anxiety through the release of endorphins. These endorphins also reduce pain and cause a positive feeling to spread all throughout your body. This is where the phrase “runner’s high” comes from. It can also help tire you out over the course of the day and help you sleep better at night.

But vigorous exercise isn’t for everyone. It can be very taxing on your body and leave you feeling sore which might interfere with some lifestyles or health conditions. Or, maybe you just don’t want to get that sweaty and gross in front of a bunch of strangers.

Online Yoga

Yoga is a great way to find zen while taking care of your body. Yoga strengthens your core muscles, increases your flexibility, and reduces your stress. This works because your body begins to release its own cortisol as a response. This is a naturally occurring steroid, which helps to reduce inflammation and pain within the body.

Studies also show that yoga has a significant impact on reducing anxiety and stress. Because it has a low impact on your body and doesn’t require expensive gear and has countless unique posts for all levels of ability, it can easily fit into nearly every lifestyle.

Using online yoga, you can achieve detailed, HD videos to help you stay in correct form and also construct individualized classes to suit your needs. That makes sure you perform your poses correctly and get the most out of your effort.

Cutting Back on Caffeine

This is, without a doubt, the most painful and tragic way to cut back on stress and anxiety. Okay, maybe not really, but caffeine doesn’t do us any favors when it comes to seeking our calm. Caffeine – no matter what source we get it from – can elevate our heart rate and make us feel extremely alert. It can also make you more irritable before you drink it than you would be without. This is because caffeine has significant addictive properties and can make you feel quite dependent and stressed out without it.

Slowly dial back caffeine to reduce withdrawals and headaches. It can certainly take some time for your body to adjust, but once it’s done, you’ll find a decreased reliance on it as part of your wake-up routine.

Put Your Best Face Forward

Stress can wreck your skin, and we have definitely all had our own shares of it. Now, with the masks coming off, we want to make sure we are coming back to show our best selves.

Stress can release hormones that increase the oil production in skin, leaving us blotchy and broken out. Over time, stress will also age you, and exacerbate other skin issues you might have.

If you want to prepare to finally reveal yourself to the world, undo that stress damage, or just straight up nourish and care for your one and only face, check out figure 1 beauty. They’re formulated with science and fighting to demystify skincare, giving you the tools to take charge over skin issues and aging. You can even get a consultation from a licensed esthetician on their site and receive a personalized skin-care plan.

Focus on Your Breathing

A surprisingly powerful secret weapon for calming down in even the most heated situations is slowing down your breathing. This can be practiced through a guided video, mentally counting, or a helpful app on your smart watch.

While it doesn’t help too much in long-term stressful situations, but for those times in which you feel very anxious, breathing exercises can halt an attack in its tracks. This is a nifty trick that is achieved by tricking your brain, making your respiratory system behave as if your body were calm. Use it while trying to sleep at night or during a stressful situation, and you’ll find that anxiety melting away. You can also link this exercise with your online yoga class to amplify the calming effects for maximum chill.

Meditate to a Better State

Just like breathing exercises, meditation is a deceptively powerful little trick for your wellness arsenal as you reclaim your calm and can be done with other practices. Frequent breaks to meditate and sweep away the mental clutter is an invaluable tool for preventing anxiety’s lingering cobwebs from building it.

There are several types of meditation that one can undertake, ranging from mantras and affirmations to rhythmic counting or finding stillness. This can actually make a helpful group exercise for those who work in stressful environments, giving your coworkers an opportunity to quietly bond and uplift each other’s mental wellness.

Clear the Air with Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy has been soaring in popularity as an all-natural non-medication way to help people gracefully tackle stressful situations. There are several delightful scents that can inspire calm and melt anxiety, such as lavender and vanilla, or spearmint and rose. There are several ways that you can incorporate soothing scents into your life:

Candles
Lotions
Essential Oil Diffuser
Pure Essential Oils

There are even guides online for making your own custom blends! Just make sure you follow the instructions and stay safe with quality ingredients and proper dilutions.

Clearing Your Calendar

Now that we’re returning to normal, people are eagerly making hundreds of plans, returning to their offices, meeting up with friends we haven’t seen in a year, or trying to find a cozy evening with a cutie. After being quiet for a year, it can be extremely overwhelming to rush right back into it!

Don’t be afraid to say no, or schedule catch-ups apart and spend time on taking care of yourself. You are the most important person in your life, and no one can take care of you better than you. Take a spa day, visit the mountains or the beach and enjoy some time in nature. It’s great for your mental and physical health.

As you can see, there are a lot of powerful tools in your hand to make some simple changes that won’t only clear your head of stress and anxiety, but will help to boost your mental and physical health. You deserve the best that you can provide for yourself, sometimes that can mean a little extra work to get started – but once you do you’ll wish you started sooner.