Feeling stressed? Follow these 9 tips to de-stress by an expert

Before you go on a downward spiral due to stress, try these tips once.

Everyone is stressed at each phase of life with different situations and circumstances. So let's understand how stress affects our body and why is it important to deal with it. "For optimal survival, the human body maintains homeostasis, which means that it wants to remain at a constant. The central nervous system is responsible for overseeing these functions. So when body is under stress, nervous system responds by releasing flood of stress hormones called adrenaline and cortisol which help body for emergency action that increase your strength, stamina, reaction time and enhance your focus also known as fight or flight response a body's way to protect you," says Mr Luke Coutinho, Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine, Holistic Nutrition, Exercise Physiologist and Founder - Pure Nutrition.

Stress can take toll on our body and the crucial organs from respiratory to heart, digestive system, muscular system and most important Immune system. Also in presence of cortisol and adrenaline, liver produces more glucose - energy for "fight or flight" in an emergency. So if you don't use all of that extra energy, glucose gets reabsorbed by the liver but if the stress is chronic it can even lead to type 2 diabetes. This is why you should take care of your stress. Here are few tips from Luke Coutinho:

1) Yoga: Stress is all around so hit the mat and give yoga a try. Yoga is a mind-body practice that may help reduce stress, lower blood pressure and lower your heart rate. Yoga brings physical and mental disciplines that help you achieve peacefulness of body and mind thus making you feel relax and able to manage stress and anxiety.

The health benefits of yoga include:

• Stress reduction. Studies have shown that yoga may help reduce stress and anxiety by enhancing your mood and overall sense of well-being.
• Improves fitness. Practicing yoga helps improve balance, flexibility, range of motion and strength.
• Management of chronic conditions. Yoga helps reduce risk factors for chronic diseases, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, pain, anxiety and insomnia.

2) Breathing: Breathing or pranayama which means "to extend the vital life force". Pranayama when practiced correctly, they support the parasympathetic nervous system and activates "relaxation response," reducing stress and its effects on your body and mind. As a result, you become calm and more focused.

3) Meditation: Meditation can help ease anxiety. It alters the brain's neural pathways, making it more resilient to stress. It's a simple posture where you need to sit up straight with both feet on the floor. Close your eyes and focus your attention on one thing.

4) Getting Vitamin O: Vitamin O is nothing but your Oxygen levels in the body. Under stress, our breathing pattern changes. We take small, shallow breaths, using shoulders rather than their diaphragm to move air in and out of their lungs. This style of breathing disrupts the balance of gases in the body by increasing carbondioxde levels and decreasing oxygen levels, making us more anxious and worsening our stress.

5) Walk it off: Taking a walk can help lower stress hormones by increasing your endorphins thus making you feel good.

6) Think positively: Thinking positively can help calm you down and get you through each challenge. Instead of telling yourself that a task is impossible, try thinking that you will do the best you can.

7) Munch on healthy snack: Stress makes our brain deprived of energy and we feel to eat those chocolates or desserts, so hold on and try taking a few minutes for a small, healthy snack like nuts or a piece of fruit to fill you up.

8) Music: Listening to music you love immediately boosts your dopamine levels, giving you an instant pick-me-up.

9) Get creative: The repetitive motions involved in several crafts, (like knitting) can be soothing and help you get rid of stress by getting your mind away from your stressors.

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