Let’s face it, life today is stressful. Although occasional stress can help improve our focus and performance, living with chronic stress can backfire by causing anxiety, depression, and serious health problems.

The American Chiropractic Association suggests the following stress relief strategies for easing down our stress levels and their negative impact on our health.

Attitude and discernment: Although a positive attitude is hard to maintain in stressful situations, challenge yourself to look for the opportunities where others see problems. Discern between things you can change or influence and those you have no control over, learning to accept the latter as part of life.

Get Out and enjoy nature: Studies show that interacting with nature can help lessen the effects of stress on the nervous system, reduce attention deficits, decrease aggression, and enhance spiritual well-being. I personally get great relaxation when I pop down the allotment for a few hours!

Smell the roses: Orange and lavender scents, in particular, have been shown to enhance relaxation and reduce anxiety.

Relax with a cup of tea: Research shows that drinking tea for 6 weeks helps lower post stress cortisol and increase relaxation.

Laugh it off:Humour relieves stress and anxiety and prevents depression, helping put our troubles in perspective. Laughter can help boost the immune system, increase pain tolerance, enhance mood and creativity, and lower blood pressure, potentially improving treatment outcomes for many health problems, including cancer and HIV.

Build a support system: Relationships are also key to health and happiness. Loneliness may also contribute to stress in both men and women, also leading to poorer outcomes after a stroke or congestive heart failure. On the other hand, active and socially involved seniors are at lower risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Social support also helps cancer patients to boost the immune system and maintain a higher quality of life.

Employ the relaxing power of music: Music, especially classical, can also serve as a powerful stress-relief tool. Singing and listening to music can also relieve pain and reduce anxiety and depression caused by low back pain.

Calm your mind: In recent decades, many forms of meditation have gained popularity as relaxation and pain relief tools. There are many excellent guides and tutors who can teach you meditation techniques as well as audio records of, for example, guided imagery which encourages you to visual relaxing situations.

Enjoy the warmth of human touch:Just as the mind can affect the body, the body can influence the mind. Massage can help us relieve stress and reduce anxiety and depression. Massage has also been shown to reduce aggression and hostility in violent adolescents, to improve mood and behaviour in students with ADHD, and to lead to better sleep and behaviour in children with autism. Massage has other therapeutic proper- ties, as well. Regular massage may reduce blood pressure in people with hypertension and may lead to less pain, depression, and anxiety and better sleep in patients with chronic low back pain. Compared to relaxation, massage therapy also causes greater reduction in depression and anger, and more significant effects on the immune system in breast cancer patients.

Give exercise a shot: To get the best of both worlds, affecting the mind through the body while getting into good physical shape, try exercise. Exercise can also reduce depression and improve wound healing in the elderly. Tai chi, which works for people of all ages, may enhance heart and lung function, improve balance and posture, and prevent falls, while reducing stress.

No matter what stress relief methods you choose, make it a habit to use them. As someone once said, the time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.