What you can do to feel better

There is no quick fix that you can use if you're feeling stressed, worried or anxious and no single technique is guaranteed to work for everyone. However, making positive changes in your life can help you reduce your stress. This can include:

• talking to someone
• exercising
• breathing and relaxation exercises.

Some common ways to relieve stress

Connecting with people

A good support network of friends, family and colleagues can ease stress and help you see life in a different and positive way. It's hard to feel anxious and stressed when you're laughing. Spending time with good friends and family can improve stress and relieve tension.

Isolation, loneliness and social connections has more information on what other options may be availableto you.

Exercise

Exercise is a great way to relieve mental stress, it reduces emotional intensity and helps you clear your thoughts. Regular exercise helps reduce stress and carries other benefits such as:

• improving sleep quality
• promoting mental wellbeing and confidence
• releasing endorphins which improve mood.

This video about exercise is helpful:

Focus on breathing

Focusing on your breathing can help relieve your stress. Breathing exercises help to calm your body and brain. One breathing exercise you can do is to simply breath in through your nose and breath out after counting to 3.

Simple exercises like this can help divert your attention and help you relax.

This video explains this simple breathing exercise to help calm your stress and nerves:

Take a walk

Going for a walk allows you to enjoy a change of scenery as well as breathing in fresh air. Whether you are stressed because of work, or anything else; a simple walk can change the mood and help you take a break from a frustrating task.