10 Surprising Ways to Deal With Stress

Your neck begins to tighten and your palms turn moist. The pressure in your head continues to build and anxiety takes control over you. What do you do when you feel your stress level going up?

I once paid a doctor hundreds of dollars to help me deal with stress symptoms and he spent three weeks teaching me how to breath.  I'm still not sure how I managed with the whole breathing thing until I met the good doctor.

But the breathing exercise worked!  Stress successfully relieved...to a certain extent anyway.

Courtesy of Nutritionist Charlotte Watts on dailymail.com, here are 10 surprising ways to deal with your stress. Take it from me and remember to keep breathing!

Wash Your Hands in Warm Water- Immersing any part of our bodies in warm water engages the calming part of our nervous system.

Hum a Tune- Studies suggest that the combination of vocalization and vibration have a positive effect on our blood pressure, which is raised as part of the stress response.

Make an Ugly Face- Stress creates a lock-down effect on the body with tense jaw, headaches and teeth grinding. Making ugly faces gives tense muscles an inner massage, and makes us feel carefree.

Chew on Celery- Research has shown that chewing helps to reduce cortisol levels, associated with stress. Chewing works probably partly because eating engages the calming side of the nervous system.

Doodle- Stress has us in conflict between our logical left brain and our emotional brain, leaving little room for creative thought. Choosing to switch the mode calms us down and helps us find a fresh perspective.

Pinch Your Eyebrows- The stress response involves a clenching of the jaw, so pinching eyebrows releases the energy from tension.

Put on Lip Balm- You might want to eat or touch your mouth when you’re stressed because touching our lips provokes that calming nervous system tone and helps us self-soothe. Applying lip balm can address the dry lips often caused by the mouth-breathing associated with stress.

Eat a Salad-  The stress response can send us in the impulsive direction of piling in the sugar, refined carbs and junk fats.  Lettuce can help provide mild sedative qualities. Add protein and chew thoroughly  for a soothing experience.

Take Your Shoes Off- When we get lost up in our heads, it can help to feel into our feet and ground down into the earth. Stuffing our feet into shoes constricts circulation and adds body tension.

Hug Yourself- If you’re single or feel you need more comfort than you receive from a partner, giving yourself a massaging hug, rubbing and kneading any part of your body that feels right to release oxytocin, the hormone that makes us feel that everything is OK.