Best Natural Remedies for Stress

Did you know that at any given time, roughly 57% of Americans feel stressed out about mental health? In the past year, up to 76% of adults said they experienced negative health impacts due to stress. 

With numbers like those, it's no mystery why people are increasingly searching for remedies for stress outside of conventional means.

Yes, some people may choose to go the route of prescription medications, but let's face it, those often cause more problems than they solve, with addiction and financial issues being two of the biggest ones. It might be best for you to try some natural remedies for stress, ones that are low cost and have no drawbacks like those dangerous medications do.

Whatever method you choose to help relieve stress, the reality is that doing so is extremely important because stress can have serious health consequences in the short and long run. Being able to relieve your stress effectively is directly related to your overall health and longevity.

To help you be as happy as possible, today we want to look at some of the best natural remedies for stress. It's all about being able to relax and wind down for the day, so you aren't constantly moving at 100 mph.

From aromatherapy and meditation to special breathing techniques and relaxation supplements, we're going to talk about all the best ways to relax using natural remedies.

Key Takeaways

• There are many natural remedies for stress, including yoga, meditation, exercise, and many more!
• Various types of reflection, meditation, and breathing exercises can help calm the mind.
• Supplements like reishi, ginger, ashwagandha, and others may also help reduce both stress and anxiety levels.

Natural Remedies for Stress

There are plenty of natural remedies for stress out there, methods that can help you relax, calm down, and put your mind at ease, all without having to leave your home, spend big bucks, or take dangerous medications.

Lavender Aromatherapy

If you like things that smell nice and need some stress relief at the same time, try some lavender aromatherapy, a famous method of relieving stress.

Various studies suggest that using lavender essential oil in a diffuser, and therefore using it as an aromatherapy agent, helps relieve stress and anxiety. Here is a study that shows that lavender may effectively reduce anxiety symptoms just as well as 0.5 milligrams of lorazepam taken daily, a prescription anxiety medication.

Although we aren't going to get into the science of it, this has to do with how lavender affects the neurotransmitters in your brain, such as serotonin. All you have to do is put some lavender essential oil into a diffuser, sit down, relax, and enjoy the beautiful scent.

Reflection & Body Scanning

Although this may sound a little odd, a great way to help relieve stress is by doing something known as body scanning. 

This is a mindfulness practice used in yoga that involves thoroughly and systematically scanning your whole body from top to bottom, with the aim being to pay attention to various emotions, physical sensations, and any areas of discomfort and tension.

This may help you relax mentally because it forces you to focus solely on your body, whether your toes, fingers or anything in between. It takes the focus away from your mental stress.

Another good idea is to do something known as reflection, another concept in yoga that involves you looking inwards. This is all about focusing on yourself and your own mind while ignoring all external factors. 

External factors often cause stress, so blocking out the outside world for a given amount of time should be beneficial in terms of stress relief.

Exercise – (Yoga, Boxing, Dancing)

Hands down, one of the very best ways to relieve stress is through exercise. It is a proven fact that exercise can relieve symptoms associated with stress, anxiety, and depression. This is due to those neurotransmitters in your brain, mainly serotonin and dopamine.

When you exercise, it forces your brain to release a variety of neurochemicals, mainly the serotonin and dopamine that we just mentioned above. These are feel-good hormones, ones that make you feel happy and relaxed, and they make you feel a sense of reward.

This is why people often refer to what is known as runner’s high, the feeling that runners get after a vigorous jog or run. Exercise induces brain chemicals to be released, and those make you feel good. Both serotonin and dopamine are linked with reduced levels of anxiety and depression.

Furthermore, the human body also produces various stress hormones, mainly cortisol and adrenaline. Many studies suggest that regular exercise helps reduce the levels of both adrenaline and cortisol, allowing you to relax much better after a heavy bout of exercise. 

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Another natural way to release stress and anxiety is to engage in a process known as progressive muscle relaxation. This special two-step process teaches you how to relax your muscles. 

First, you systematically tense up certain muscle groups in your body, such as your shoulders and neck.

You then release that tension while actively noticing and examining how you feel once you relax your muscles. 

Here is a great guide that will teach you exactly how to engage in this two-step progressive muscle relaxation technique. It really comes down to examining and reflecting on just how good you feel once you release the tension in your muscles.

Types of Meditation for Stress

There are many different types of meditation out there, and they all make for great natural stress remedies, many of which are parts of regular yoga routines. 

For the record, yoga isn't just something that people do because it looks cool, but rather because it has real-life and scientifically proven benefits.

Many studies show that yoga can indeed help relieve stress. Meditation is a regular staple of yoga, with the reason being that it helps to relieve stress, something which also happens to be scientifically proven. 

Meditation relieves stress. However, there are different types of meditation out there, each of which can help relieve stress in its own ways, so let's take a quick look at the main ones.

Reflection

A type of meditation known as reflection is a great way to help relieve stress. Reflective meditation is all about shutting out the outside world and forgetting that it even exists while looking inside.

The main point of reflection is to help increase your self-awareness, be present and mindful, and regulate your own experiences and emotions.

Plenty of scientifically-backed studies prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that self-reflection is one of the most effective methods for reducing stress at this time. If you aren’t quite sure how to do this, here’s a great video guide on self-reflection.

Body Scan

The body scan meditation technique is another great one to help relieve stress. It's all about examining your body from head to toe, including all of the smallest details, from the hairs on your head to the color of your toenails.

The main point here is for you to take all of the focus off of your mind and any stressful or mental aspects. You should focus solely on your body and nothing else and completely block out everything else in your mind.

Body scan meditation helps to increase your own mindfulness. It makes you more aware of bodily sensations, which is set to help you stay more in the moment and the present while detaching yourself from stressful and anxious thoughts. 

If you're unsure how to do body scan meditation, check out this awesome guide.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is another type of meditation often employed in yoga, where the point is for you to focus on the present moment. Here, you are supposed to look inward while acknowledging and accepting your feelings, thoughts, surroundings, and bodily sensations, all without thoughts.

Mindfulness is very interesting because it is designed to reflect inwards on yourself while not responding to stressful factors. It may sound like it couldn't possibly be true, but there are scientifically-backed studies that show that mindfulness helps reduce stress.

Visualization

The other type of meditation that can help you relieve stress is known as visualization, which involves creating mental images that help reduce stress and promote relaxation.

The whole point of visualization is for you to daydream, or in other words, for you to enter a happy place in your mind that allows you to completely block out the outside world and focus on things that make you happy.

It's all about thinking about various real or fake events that evoke positive feelings and emotions.

Strategic Breathing Techniques for Stress

Another aspect often involved in yoga and meditation is strategic breathing. 

This is where you follow very specific breathing techniques to reduce stress and anxiety. For those of you who are skeptical, here's another study that shows that breathing techniques do indeed help stress.

Ujjayi Breathing

Ujjayi breathing is a special technique that involves breathing very deeply and slowly through the nose while keeping the back of the throat slightly constricted. 

That constriction creates a sound often compared to a gentle whisper or even like ocean waves breaking on rocks. This is designed to help slow your breathing and control the nervous system, which should help enhance overall oxygenation and promote relaxation.

Belly Breathing

Belly breathing may also be known as diaphragmatic breathing. This special breathing technique is designed to help reduce stress and anxiety levels by using the diaphragm to breathe extremely deeply. 

As you might be able to tell by the name of it, your belly should fall and rise drastically with every breath. This is a classic inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth breathing technique, and it's shown to help reduce both stress and anxiety.

4-7-8 Breathing

This special breathing technique involves inhaling for four seconds, holding it in for seven seconds, and exhaling for eight seconds. 

This breathing technique is designed to take the focus away from everything else in your life, whether mental or physical while having you focused solely on breathing. Taking your mind off everything but your breathing should help to relieve some stress and anxiety.

Sleep Habits for Stress

One of the oldest facts known to mankind is that we all need to sleep. There are scientifically-backed studies that show that sleep deprivation negatively impacts mental health. Lack of sleep mainly results in increased negative emotional responses to stressful factors. 

In other words, if you don't sleep enough, life will stress you out a lot more than if you are regularly well-rested.

Interestingly enough, this goes in both directions, and the opposite is the case as well. Very stressful situations or general stress can result in trouble sleeping and even conditions like insomnia that are characterized by an extreme inability to sleep regularly. 

As you can see, it's quite a vicious cycle because stress leads to a lack of sleep, a lack of sleep leads to more stress, and so on and so forth.

Creating a Daily Sleep Schedule

Humans are beings of routine, and once we get into a routine, it's really hard to break away from it. 

Therefore, if you expect yourself to be calm and relaxed instead of stressed out, you need to find a way to create a sleep routine that works for you. A good method to follow is to relax before trying to sleep.

If you're super anxious and stressed when you lay down, chances are that your mind is going to keep racing, and you won't be able to sleep. Therefore, try one of the relaxation techniques that we have discussed or will discuss here today. 

Activities for Stress

We know that yoga and meditation aren't for everyone, but luckily, there are plenty of other activities for stress besides those. Let's take a quick look at some of the best daily activities you can do at home to relieve some of that stress and anxiety.

Creating Art

Art is one of the best ways to relieve stress and anxiety at home. The good thing is that art can involve many different things, and it doesn't mean that you have to be a professional or any good at it whatsoever. 

This could involve drawing, painting, sculpting, playing music, or anything in between.

Art therapy allows you to block out the outside world and any negative emotions while simultaneously allowing you to express yourself in any way you see fit. Being able to express emotions is important for stress relief. It's a proven fact that creating art relieves stress.

Journaling

Journaling can help you relieve stress by allowing you to put down everything on paper. When you journal, you write down all of your deepest fears, emotions, and thoughts.

This allows you to organize your thoughts and fears rationally so you can face and overcome them. 

Journaling and facing your own innermost thoughts is about empowering yourself, and when you feel empowered, you should feel less stressed out.

Walking and Playing with Pets

Although walking isn't quite as good as vigorous exercise, it may still cause a slight release of those feel-good neurochemicals in your brain that should help relieve stress and anxiety. 

However, if heavy exercise isn't right for you, you could try playing with your pets.

Playing with your pets releases the same neurochemicals as exercise. It makes you feel happy, takes your focus off your anxiety, and involves a bit of exercise. Once again, animals, especially playing with them, are proven to help support mental health.

Exploring the Outdoors

If nothing else works for you, you can always explore the great outdoors. Try finding some kind of nature path on which you can go on a relaxing walk.

Maybe you need some exercise, maybe you need a change of scenery, or maybe you need a quiet place where you can reflect inward. 

Adding Music to Your Daily Routine

Finally, another great way to relieve stress is by listening to music. Of course, this should be relatively calming music. There is plenty of research that shows that music has plenty of power as far as reducing anxiety and stress is concerned, and even for relieving pain.

An interesting note is that research shows that music that is roughly 60 beats per minute may cause the brain to synchronize with the beat, therefore causing the brain to release alpha brain waves. These are the same types of brain waves that are produced when we are relaxed.

Best Natural Supplements for Stress

If all else fails you, there are plenty of natural supplements for stress that you can take daily to help you feel better.

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha is a word that you've probably heard floating around, and for good reason. This special herb has many different benefits, one being that it can reduce stress. 

There are studies out there that show that the regular ingestion of ashwagandha helps to reduce cortisol levels, as well as other stress-related hormones. 

Here are some more great herbs to keep cortisol levels low.

Tulsi 

Tulsi, also known as Holy Basil, is not only a fantastic ingredient used in Southeast Asian cooking, but also a great herb as far as stress and anxiety are concerned. 

There are some studies out there that suggest that holy basil features both anxiolytic and antidepressant properties. This herb has the ability to affect your brain chemistry in such a way that it helps you relax.

Turmeric

Here we have another super tasty spice that is popular in Asian cooking. Now, it's not the turmeric itself we're interested in, but rather the curcumin, the main component in turmeric. 

There are studies that show that curcumin has the ability to increase the availability of both serotonin and dopamine. As we've discussed above, both serotonin and dopamine are feel-good hormones that help reduce anxiety and stress while making you feel more relaxed.

Reishi

Reishi, a mushroom, also known as an adaptogen, is another natural substance that can help reduce your stress. 

This type of mushroom is often referred to as a medical mushroom. This mushroom is known to contain many different types as well as high concentrations of compounds that are naturally sedating in nature, mainly triterpenes, which induce drowsiness and relaxation.

Ginger

Finally, we have ginger, a super tasty root that makes for a fantastic addition to many dishes and can be brewed into tea as well. 

Ginger is known for containing an antioxidant known as gingerol, which helps reduce both physical and psychological stress.

Natural Stress Supplements

If the above isn't enough, we have even more natural supplements that can help you reduce your stress levels.

Galphimia Glauca

Galphimia Glauca is a small shrub that grows in subtropical and tropical areas of the Americas. This is a plant that is well known for having a variety of beneficial properties, including anxiolytic and sedative properties.

St. John’s Wort

Although there is further research needed to prove this, it is thought that St. John's Wort may also be able to help reduce anxious and stressful thoughts and promote a more stable mental health.

Cannabidiol/CBD

If you're looking for one of the best natural stress remedies out there, cannabidiol or CBD, which comes from either the hemp or cannabis plants, is yet another great option. What many people love about CBD is that it's non-psychoactive.

This means that it has the ability to provide you with therapeutic potential, all without intoxicating you. 

One thing that CBD is known for is being able to reduce cortisol levels. At the same time, CBD may also affect serotonin and dopamine levels, therefore helping to reduce stress and anxiety.

Why Choose Supplements for Stress?

There are many stressful factors out there that can lead to you feeling far more stressed out than you should. Although meditation, yoga, exercise, art, and everything in between may all help to reduce stress and anxiety, they might not be enough.

If this is the case, some supplements might be the answer. The question is, of course, which supplements you should go for.

At this time, one of the best natural supplements for stress out there is our TUNE IN powdered drink. 

TUNE IN is made from various ingredients designed to enhance cognitive function and mental health while reducing stress and anxiety. It contains a wide variety of beneficial ingredients, such as reishi mushrooms, cordyceps, lion’s mane, ashwagandha, alpha GPC, and others, all of which can help your mental state in their own way.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are plenty of natural stress remedies out there, everything from art and yoga to exercise and many different supplements. 

Everybody is different, so it's up to you to find out which methods work best for stress reduction. 

Best Natural Remedies for Stress: FAQs

What is the Best Natural Remedy for Stress?

The best natural remedy for stress is subjective because everybody is different, and what works for you might not work for someone else. 

Which Vitamin is Best for Stress?

Both B complex vitamins and vitamin D can help relieve stress.