Varsha Kariya

Stress is a significant factor in today’s society. Whether at work or school, you’re always on the go, and sometimes you feel like you’re being pulled in too many directions. This can cause stress, which can endanger your physical health. If you don’t take care of yourself, your body and mind will eventually hurt and feel exhausted.

Try some of these ways to de-stress your body and mind today if this sounds familiar!

1. Exercise regularly

Exercise increases your overall health and sense of well-being. But exercise also has some direct de-stressing benefits. It pumps up your endorphins. It makes you sweat, and sweating is healthy. It also refocuses your mind on your body’s movements, which can distract you from daily worries.

2. Follow a healthy and balanced diet.

Eat a nutritious diet to keep your body functioning well and regulate your blood sugar levels. This will help keep your energy levels up and help you manage stress and depression.

It’s important not to skip meals if you’re feeling stressed, as this can harm your mood. Try to eat as healthily as possible, and try not to overeat or snack on sugary foods.

You may find that it helps to plan meals. This can help you make sure you eat healthily, and it can also save time when you’re busy or feeling stressed.

1. Reduce screen time

The artificial light from mobile phones, laptops, and television disrupts our sleep-wake cycle’s circadian rhythm. This results in poor quality of sleep, which increases your body’s cortisol level, thereby increasing your stress levels.

You can solve this problem by reducing your screen time to at least one hour before bedtime. Try reading an e-book or listening to soothing music instead of watching television or working on your laptop before bed.

2. Practice self-care

Taking time out for yourself and doing something that makes you happy is one of the best ways to relax. But it’s often the first thing people neglect when they’re busy or stressed. Find something that works for you — whether it’s going on a long walk, reading a book, or getting a massage — and make it a priority each week.

3. Spend time with your loved ones.

If you’ve just had a particularly stressful day or feel a little under the weather, you can always ask yourself if there is someone you could offer support to. If you don’t feel like speaking to anyone, try sending them a text message to let them know they’re on your mind.

This way, not only are you helping someone else out and possibly calming them down, but you will feel much better too!

4. Learn to say no.

You don’t have to do everything you’re asked. If someone asks for help or favor you don’t want to give, learn to say no, using phrases such as: “I’m sorry, but I’m too busy at the moment”; or “I’m not able to do that, but I could do….”

Saying no is easier if you know why you’re doing it. You might feel guilty about it at first, but try to remember that by saying no when you want to, you’ll have more time and energy for the things you do want to do.

5. Avoid Procrastination

Procrastination is one of the most significant stress-causing factors in the workplace. It’s not just that you’re putting off something important – it’s that you’re probably doing other things to distract yourself, which can add up to far more time than simply doing the task at hand.

To avoid procrastinating:

● Set deadlines.

● Schedule time for essential tasks.

● Break projects down into manageable steps.

● Ask for help.

6. Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness involves focusing your attention on the present moment and accepting it. Mindfulness meditation is an exercise where you focus on your breathing or a simple mantra such as “I am calm” while sitting quietly. If a distracting thought enters your mind, refocus yourself on the mantra or the peaceful feeling of taking deep breaths.

7. Spend time in nature

Many studies have shown that spending time in nature can reduce stress and anxiety, improve your mood and overall well-being, and boost your self-esteem. In addition, people who spend more time outside tend to be healthier, as outdoor exercise is an integral part of many people’s active lifestyles.

8. Meditate

Meditation is a great way to reduce stress. Research shows that meditation can reduce anxiety, depression, fatigue, pain, and other physical symptoms of stress. It can also help you better manage and cope with the stressors in your life.

Meditation is simple and easy to practice once you learn how. There are different types of meditation, but they all involve sitting quietly and focusing on something like your breathing or a word or phrase that has meaning for you.

If you’re just getting started, try this simple technique: Sit comfortably with your eyes closed and focus on breathing.

9. Take out your stress with a stress ball.

They might sound silly, but they work—squeezing a ball helps release tension in your muscles. They’re also a great, discreet way to relieve stress at work or in public.

10. Write

Writing down what’s bothering you can help you feel less stressed. It may even help you find solutions to problems that seem impossible when they’re swirling around in your head. Start by making a list of everything worrying you, and then plan how you might tackle each one. For example, write down any changes that may help you if work stresses you out.

11. Listen to music and move your body.

There are many ways to de-stress your body and mind. For starters, you can listen to music. Music therapy is an effective treatment for stress, depression, and anxiety.

Get moving. Going for a walk or doing some stretches will release tension in your body and help clear your mind.

As you lie in bed at the end of each day, go over your to-do list tomorrow. Think about any tasks you can cross off right away. Get an earlier start on any complicated tasks. Give yourself the gift of plenty of time each day to have enough breathing room to de-stress. Download the Joyscore app for more tips to reduce stress and anxiety.

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Stress Management helps you change the situation stressing you or change your reaction to them. It is often a combination of these two approaches. The final goal will always be a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun – plus the resilience to hold up under pressure and meet challenges. 

Stress management is not one-size-fits-all. Your stressors and your tolerance level for dealing with stress will be different from mine. What works for one may not work for you. You have to find what works for you, and the only way to do that is to experiment.

What is stress?

Stress is a reaction to a challenge or demand. In a medical or biological context, stress is a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension.

Why stress management is important for your health

1. Boosts immune system

The impact of stress on your immune system may be partly due to the fact that stress increases cortisol levels, which suppresses the immune system’s effectiveness. This is why many doctors recommend meditation and other relaxation techniques for people who have autoimmune disorders or inflammatory conditions.

The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. Working properly helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergencies, stress can save your life – giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.

2. Improves relationships

When stress is a problem, it can be hard to communicate well with your partner or spouse. You might find yourself snapping at each other or feeling disconnected from your partner.

But there are ways to cope with the stress that are healthy for you and your relationship.

Stress management is about choosing healthy ways to handle the stress in your life. It’s important to remember that reducing stress is not the same thing as avoiding stress altogether. In fact, some amount of stress is good for you. It can help motivate you to do a better job and meet deadlines.

In addition to helping you stay focused and productive, managing stress also makes it easier to maintain healthy relationships.

3. Lets you be energetic always

Stress can make you feel as though you have zero energy, but this isn’t the case at all. The secret is finding ways to harness your energies rather than being a slave to them.

When you’re faced with a stressful situation, your body releases adrenaline into the bloodstream. This will cause a number of physiological changes that occur almost instantaneously: increased heart rate, increased blood pressure,, and increased respiration rate. It also diverts blood away from the digestive system and the muscles and brain to help prepare you for action.

4. Improves your mood

Stressful situations cause your body to release hormones like cortisol, leaving you feeling agitated and irritable. By engaging in relaxing activities such as deep breathing, listening to music,, and reading a book, you can lower cortisol levels. These activities also trigger the release of endorphins — chemicals that improve mood and reduce pain.

5. Increases your self-esteem

If you experience chronic stress and anxiety, your self-esteem is likely to suffer. With reduced self-esteem, you begin questioning yourself and your abilities. This can lead to a lack of confidence, which is damaging to you personally and professionally. By learning to manage stress and anxiety, you will boost your self-esteem as you will be able to look back at how far you have come.

6. Encourages productivity

Positive stress, called eustress, can motivate you to take on challenges, meet deadlines and reach goals. Negative stress, called distress, burdens you with anxiety and fear. If left unchecked, distress may lead to depression and other mental health problems.

To help you cope with the effects of negative stress, try to adopt healthy habits such as eating nutritious foods, exercising regularly, and getting plenty of sleep. These activities help your body release hormones that encourage productivity and well-being.

7. Leads to the better lifestyle

Stress is a fact of modern life. However, it can be managed.

Stress management is an important subject, and addressing it head-on is the only way to reduce its negative impact on our lives. Stress is something we all deal with on a daily basis, and how we choose to handle it can have far-reaching effects. With a little effort, you can achieve stress management, ultimately leading to a better lifestyle. It will simply be your choice: stress management or difficult handling of stress.

8. Lets you focus

Engaging in stressful activities can make it difficult to focus on daily tasks at home or work. Stress management techniques help calm the mind and prepare it for more productive tasks. Practicing deep breathing can be especially helpful when you feel overwhelmed by too many demands and distractions throughout the day.

9. Helps to prevent burnout

Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by repeated stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest or motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place. When you learn to manage stress, the burnout will reduce.

10. Improves sleep

Stress and insomnia are linked together, as stress is one of the main causes of sleep problems in adults. If you are experiencing stress, it can prevent you from relaxing enough to fall asleep easily at bedtime or may cause you to wake up frequently during the night. Stress reduction techniques such as meditation or controlled breathing exercises can help improve sleep quality by encouraging relaxation and preventing negative thoughts from racing through your mind just before bed.

The bottom line for stress management is to learn that you cannot control everything in your environment. This is a hard lesson for most of us to learn because we have been taught that we can be successful by controlling all the factors that influence our lives. However, it is only when you accept this truth – that you cannot control everything – that stress management becomes possible.

We hope that you got a better idea of taking control and managing your stress. We want you to know you’re not alone, and we can help! 

You can simply download our Joyscore app for stress management on your smartphones from Google Play or iTunes. You can also reach out to us on social media using the handles given below, and we’ll be more than happy to lend any support and guidance that we can.

Sugar is everywhere, in almost everything we eat. It makes food sweet and delicious, but it’s also the reason why we are collectively so overweight and unhealthy.

The health dangers of sugar are well known – it’s often called “poison” – yet in modern society, we eat more of it than ever before.

Why is that? Why do we know something is bad for us, yet we continue to consume it?

Most of us can’t help but eat sugar because we are addicted to it, and our brains tell us that we need it. This addiction is so strong that removing sugar from our lives can be difficult and often requires a great deal of willpower.

However, what is less well known is that there are ways to reduce sugar intake and become healthier without having to starve ourselves in the process.

Below are some tips you can follow to reduce your sugar intake:

1. Know the difference between natural and added sugar

One of the first steps to take is understanding the difference between added sugar and natural or low-fat sugar. Natural sugar is found in foods containing fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. These include fruits, vegetables, milk, and milk products.

Added sugars are found in processed foods and beverages that have been sweetened with table sugar, corn syrup, or other sweeteners.

Foods with added sugars include sugary drinks: sodas, fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks, candy, cakes, and muffins

2. Avoid drinking sugary beverages

Sugary drinks are everywhere. They’re cheap, tasty, and readily available from vending machines and fast-food restaurants. 

The average 12-ounce can of sugar-sweetened soda contains 8 teaspoons of sugar, exceeding the daily recommended amount of added sugar for both men and women.

Drinking 1 to 2 sugary drinks per day can increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 26%, cardiovascular disease by 30%, and gout by 75%.

Sugar-sweetened beverages have also been linked to weight gain, which increases your risk of several diseases. One of the quick ways to lower blood sugar is to avoid these. 

3. Try and buy unsweetened versions of foods

Try and buy unsweetened versions of foods like yogurt, cereal, dried fruit, and applesauce. Add fresh fruit to plain yogurt rather than buying sweetened varieties.

Unsweetened applesauce, plain yogurt, or full-fat ricotta cheese are better choices than their sweetened counterparts.

4. Eat fresh fruits

There are no added sugars in fresh fruits or vegetables, but they still contain natural sugars, so don’t go overboard on them if you’re trying to lose weight.

5. Eat smaller portions of sugary foods.

Try eliminating sugar from your diet. Instead, try eating sweets with a meal rather than a stand-alone snack.  You can still enjoy a sweet treat, but try to limit portion size.

6. Choose wholegrain foods

Wholegrain foods like brown rice, wholemeal bread, and wholewheat pasta contain more fiber and nutrients than white versions, with high amounts of added sugar. They also tend to keep you feeling full for longer, so you’re less likely to snack between meals.

7. Get rid of sugary cereals

To reduce your sugar intake, switch out your sugary cereal for a healthier option, such as oatmeal with fresh fruit and nuts or whole-grain toast with nut butter and sliced fruit.

8. Avoid sugary desserts.

Just because a dessert is labeled “sugar-free” or “low sugar” doesn’t mean it’s healthy. These desserts may contain artificial sweeteners linked to various health problems. Avoid desserts made with sweet ingredients like cake, candy, cookies, ice cream, frosting, and chocolate. Instead, look for lower sugar options by choosing fruit-based desserts like pies or crisps that use fresh fruit

9. Don’t buy foods with high sugar content

Check nutrition facts labels for grams of sugar. Four grams of sugar is equal to 1 teaspoon (tsp), so divide the number of grams by 4 to determine how many tsp of sugar a product contains. Also, check the ingredients list for added sugars under different names, such as corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, honey, or cane crystals. The closer these ingredients are to the top of the list, the more sugar a product contains.

10. Buy products with the lowest amount of added sugars.

The first step to reducing sugar intake is to check the ingredients list and Nutrition Facts label. If a product contains sugar, compare brands and choose the product with the lowest amount of added sugars.

11. Replace the sugar in coffee.

If you can’t imagine taking your coffee without a spoonful of sugar, then try replacing it with a sprinkle of cinnamon or cocoa powder. These won’t add calories and can often provide a more intense and less sweet flavor. It’s also a good idea to get used to drinking black coffee, as this has no sugar at all.

12. Avoid soda and drink water.

Cut back on sugary sodas and fruit juices. Instead, drink water, seltzer, or unsweetened tea or coffee. When you do drink soda or juice, get a small size. Try to avoid drinking any soda at all — even diet soda — every day.

Avoid sports drinks unless you’ve been exercising vigorously for more than an hour at a time. If you must drink them, get a small size.

13. Sleep more

The hormones that control your appetite and blood sugar levels are also affected by sleep, so you’re more likely to experience cravings and eat more if you’re not getting enough sleep.

We have thirteen tips that you can start implementing today on how to reduce your sugar intake. Some of them are ideal for beginners, and some of them are for those who are advanced at cutting down on sugar in their diets. Either way, these tips can help you reach your sugar reduction goals, so go through the article, pick out the tips you like, and start putting them into action today!

Balance is the key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and it’s essential that you choose foods that contain all of the essential nutrients. In order to get the right balance in your diet, you need to be aware of precisely what your body needs, as this varies from person to person.

The importance of balanced nutrition has increased as more people live longer than ever before, leading to an increase in age-related chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Therefore, it is critical that people maintain good nutritional habits in order to prevent illness and prolong their healthy lifespan.

Importance of balanced nutrition mention in 8 simple ways:

1. Increases your well-being

Maintaining a balanced diet is the most important part of healthy living. Without the right mix of nutrients, your body will simply not function properly, and you could become sick. With a balanced diet, you ensure that your body will receive all the essential nutrients required to perform its best.

A balanced diet has many benefits that contain the proper amounts of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. In order to consume these nutrients in the correct proportions, you need to monitor how much fat, protein, and carbohydrates you eat. Also, make sure you get enough of each vitamin and mineral to avoid deficiencies.

2. Helps to maintain your immune system

The food we eat directly impacts the way our bodies function. It is no surprise. Therefore, that diet can have an important bearing on our physical and mental well-being. Foods that are good and nutritious are essential for keeping your immune system healthy. Your body has the ability to fight infections and disease when you eat a balanced diet with plenty of nutrients and vitamins.

Foods that are high in nutrients and vitamins will help you to maintain your immune system, which will keep you feeling healthy throughout the year.

3. Lets you be energetic

One of the importance of nutritious food is that it lets you be energetic all the time. The right diet can also make a significant difference in how you feel about yourself. Eating foods rich in fatty acids and other essential nutrients helps you stay alert, awake, and active. It improves your mood so that you don’t feel sluggish or depressed during the day. It makes you more productive and it helps you get more done during the day.

4. Positive effect on life expectancy

Having good food is one of the healthy lifestyle habits. It is not only the key to staying alive but also the key to living a long and happy life. When you eat good food, your body doesn’t have to use energy to process it. Instead, your body can use all of its energy for more important things, such as repairing and rebuilding cells, supporting vital functions, and even building new cells.

A nutritious diet is one that provides the healthiest balance of nutrients for your body’s needs. Your doctor can help you figure out which foods are best for your nutritional needs. Being informed about nutrition can give you valuable information about how to choose healthy foods so you can lead a longer life with less sickness and disease.

5. Reduces the risk of various diseases

A balanced diet is a key to overall good health. Without proper nutrition, your body cannot function properly and you are at higher risk for diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.

6. Improves your mental health

Nutrition doesn’t just keep you alive but helps in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.   It also keeps your brain sharp, improves your mental health, and helps you stay active. A study shows that people who eat good, nutritious food have better mental health than those who don’t. This includes people with illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.

7. Helps you control weight.

Good nutrition is one of the cornerstones of a healthy lifestyle and a key component of weight management. The importance of eating nutritious food is that it helps you to maintain body weight. This means a diet with an appropriate amount of calories, nutrients, and vitamins. A healthy diet is not just something that helps you lose weight, it is also what keeps you healthy.

A nutritious diet is also important because it helps keep your weight in check. When you take in fewer calories than you expend, your body burns fat reserves to make up the difference, which can result in weight loss if you have excess fat on your body.

8. Better skin and hair

Eating nutritious food is important for your health. Foods like carrots and apples contain plenty of vitamins and minerals that help keep your skin healthy. They also contain beta-carotene, which helps promote a radiant glow. Your hair will be healthier and stronger when it gets the proper nutrients as well. Eating foods like broccoli or spinach can help you have a full head of hair without worrying about losing any strands along the way.

By eating healthy foods, you’ll find that your skin stays young and supple for longer periods of time and that your hair doesn’t become brittle or fall out as quickly as it would if it wasn’t getting the nutrients.

Finally, it is important to eat balanced meals. This means eating a variety of foods that provide sufficient nutrients. At every meal, choose foods from all the basic food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, meat or meat substitutes, dairy products, and fats.

Nutrient-dense foods are not only good at making you feel full, but they’re also great for health. You should definitely add these to your diet if you want to stay healthy. Although they might not be as fun to eat as junk food, they can help keep you fit and give you more energy during the day to accomplish your goals.