Stress-busters: How to get an extra half hour out of every day

Make stress management part of your daily routine with our hints and tips running all of this week.

How can you get your hands on an extra half hour every day? Make time for Exercise!

Oh we can hear you groaning from here. How on earth are you going to fit exercise into your already packed-to-the-rafters schedule? It’s easy - get up half an hour earlier and use the time for exercise. The positive effects from exercising have been proven, and the feel-good factor afterwards alone is WORTH getting up for. You’ll get way more benefit from a half hour run round the block at 6am than you will from an extra half hour in bed hitting the snooze button again and again. We challenge you to try getting up half an hour earlier for exercise every morning this week– you’ll be feeling all the better for it and we’d love to hear how you go.

Take Five

Make stress-management part of your daily routine with our five-minute stress busting tips

TIP OF THE DAY - Stay positive. Easier said than done, right? Wrong. You can actually teach yourself to be more positive. When negative thoughts rear their ugly heads, take time out to think of three things you are grateful for; that gorgeous sunrise when you were out walking this morning; your healthy and happy kids; that fantastic welcome home you got from the dog yesterday. Thinking of things you feel positive about clears negative thoughts from your mind. Make a commitment to stop negative self talk in it’s tracks today and every day this week, and see how much better you feel by the weekend.

Who you gonna call? Stress-busters!

Modern life gets busy. Infact it can often seem like it gets busier day by day, with more and more to cram into one 24 hour period. Pressures of work, running a home, looking after kids, household chores, commuting to work – the list goes on. All of these things can lead to stress.

Stress can be detrimental to your health because negative feelings create physiological changes in your body, which often you don’t even know about. Stress plays a big part in things like blood pressure, heart rate, immune system, blood sugar levels and hormonal balance.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Try making stress management part of your daily routine, and see the benefits. Follow our 5 minute stress-busting tips all of this week, and you’ll be reaping  the benefits by the weekend.

Stress-busters Tip 1 : Get outdoors. Research shows that spending even as little as five minutes in nature can help reduce stress and boost your mind. So get outdoors at lunchtime and eat that sandwich in the park, or spend some time in the garden with a cuppa when you get in from work. It only takes 5 minutes, your stress will be redcuded and your mood boosted.

Stress-busters Tip 2 : Breathe. Teaching yourself to breathe mindfully can have great restorative effects. Concentrate on inhaling through your nose and out through your mouth, and you’ll be oxygenating your body properly as well as correcting your energetic balance.

Stress-busters Tip 3: Do something you enjoy. Take time to play! Doing a hobby or something you enjoy can take your mind off stress and add some much needed fun to your day.