5 ways to manage your stress to help to manage your blood pressure.
Research shows that stress is a key contributor to high blood pressure and therefore managing it is key to maintaining a normal blood pressure.
Unfortunately, our modern lifestyles are filled with a significant amount of stress. Too much stress. And too much stress (also known as chronic stress) can be a major contributor to high blood pressure, something that STROKE UK has highlighted as being the leading cause of lifestyle related brain haemorrhages.
Therefore, managing your stress can be a great place to start to help manage your blood pressure and as such help to prevent brain haemorrhages.
So, here are 5 ways to help to manage your stress.
Try to determine what is causing the stress: It might sound obvious, but too many of us are so busy with our lives that we don’t take a step back to understand how different aspects of our lives may be affecting us. Check in on all areas of your life; your relationships, your career, your home life, your social life etc, and consider how each one makes you feel. Rate each area out of 10 in terms of how stressed they make you, then focus first on the area with the highest rating, don’t try and tackle to much all in one go, that will just make you more stressed!
Recognise micro stress triggers: We often think about the major stressors in our lives, but forget about all the micro stresses we experience on a daily basis. This could be sitting in traffic, watching the news, looking at your emails first thing in the morning, forgetting something.
The more conscious you are about these triggers, the more you can proactively manage them. That could be by setting boundaries around them or avoiding certain situations that don’t make you feel good.
Be proactive with your day to day and try not to do too much: It is easy to feel stressed when you have 1,000,001 things to do, most likely because you are trying to keep up with the expectations of the modern world.
But the reality is you don’t have to do them all. Set your priorities and focus on less Learn to say no and create more space for you and your wellbeing.
Schedule in time to relax: We all need time to unwind and calm down, but it is often difficult to find the time to do so….unless you schedule it in. So make time for what you enjoy that brings you calm, whether that’s going for a walk, reading, yoga and most importantly getting a good night’s sleep (read more on how to get a good nights sleep here). This is just as, if not more, important than that busy to do list of yours!
Practice gratitude: You no doubt regularly hear people talking about practicing gratitude, but the reason is because it has a positive impact on your health and can help to reduce stress. Start simply each morning by reminding yourself of 5 things you are grateful for that day.
However, we know that managing your stress is just the start to managing your blood pressure and as such helping to prevent brain haemorrhages.
Remember to continue to monitor your blood pressure and ensure you are looking after your overall wellbeing. Read more of this in our article: 6 ways to keep your blood pressure down.
If you are struggling to manage your blood pressure make sure you speak to your Dr at your earliest convenience.
Have you watched our health series? Check out this episode with Yoga teacher Allie, who guide you through a gentle yoga sequence which not only helps to regulate stress, but engages you in physical activity all benefiting your health.