6 Easy Ways to Get Rid of Stress for Busy Women

Everyone deals with stress. The question is, what do you do with stress when you feel it? Do you spiral down into it, or do you move through it?

Here’s 6 of my favorite ways to get rid of stress without paying a penny…

Go for a walk outside.

Stress throws you into fight-or-flight mode. One way to get out of that mode is to literally change your environment. If you’ve been indoors for any period of time, your body could use some sunlight too. Studies show that spending more time in nature increases your overall mood and wellbeing.

If there’s a grassy space that’s not filled with dog poop or cigarette butts, try taking off your shoes and walking barefoot. This will help you get out of your head and into your body. After all, you are a human being, not just a human mind.

Practice deep breathing exercises.

This sounds super simple (because it is), but it’s absolutely life-changing.

Breathe IN for 4 seconds through the nose. HOLD it for 7 seconds. Audibly breathe OUT through the mouth for 8 seconds.

I do this 3-5 times and suddenly, I can think clearly again.

Listen to a podcast.

When you get stressed, your mind often gets fixated on whatever is causing you stress. This is keeping you stuck in fight-or-flight mode. To get rid of stress, you need to get out of fight-or-flight mode. One method of doing this is literally changing what your brain thinks about. Personally, I find that changing work-related tasks doesn’t always help, because my mind still wants to focus on and engage with whatever is causing me stress. To break this problem, I engage with something that requires all of my focus to really follow along – usually a podcast.

Some of my favorites to listen to? Almost 30, SuperSoul Conversations with Oprah, and The Goop Podcast.

Turn off your phone.

Ding. Your notifications buzz yet again. Another email to deal with. Another social media post of someone who is more “successful” than you. Our phones, as much as we love them and need them, can be huge sources of distraction and stress. Try turning off your phone for just an hour and putting it in another room where you can’t reach for it.

Dance like nobody is watching.

Stress doesn’t just manifest itself in the deep recesses of our mind. Our emotions physically affect us – especially stress. Have you ever had the feeling on your way home from work that you did a major neck and shoulders workout that day? They ache like nobody’s business and you don’t have a “logical” reason why. After all, it’s been a couple days since you’ve hit the gym.

That’s all the stress stored up in our bodies.

To help get rid of the stress, we do some reverse engineering by shaking the tension out of our bodies. Take a song or two to literally dance the tension out of your body.

You’ll thank me later. 😉

Take a nap.

Do you know the best way to fix something? Unplug it and then plug it back in. Trust me, I’ve tried it with pretty much every appliance in my home and it’s worked! The same applies to humans. Taking a nap is like the equivalent of temporarily unplugging yourself to reset.