Meditation guides
What can I do to reduce stress? 7 things that help
Stress builds up when too much is asked of you for too long. So there are two things to work on: having less to do and getting more rest. It sounds obvious, but those two do most of the work. If you’ve been under pressure for weeks, see your doctor.
When does stress become a problem?
A bit of stress is normal. It’s what gets you through the night before a deadline, and it fades again afterwards. It only becomes a problem when the pressure lasts for months and you never have time to recover in between. Lægehåndbogen, the Danish handbook for doctors on sundhed.dk, describes long-term stress building up in exactly this slow way.
Many people notice it in their sleep first. Others get short-tempered, forget appointments or can’t face a shopping list. It varies from person to person, and the signs can have other causes too.
7 things you can do yourself
- Write it all down. The things you keep turning over in your mind take up less room on paper. Then mark what can wait and what someone else can handle.
- Say no to some of it. If the pressure comes from work, talk to your manager about priorities. According to the doctors’ handbook, cutting the workload can be a solution. For many people this is the hardest one.
- Go for a walk every day. There’s good evidence that exercise helps mental health, and a brisk walk at lunchtime is plenty to begin with.
- Go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time, weekends included. If you can, put your phone away half an hour before.
- Take breaks where you do nothing. Checking email or the news doesn’t give your mind a break. Stand by the window for five minutes, or fetch a coffee and leave your phone on the desk.
- Tell someone how you’re doing. It doesn’t have to be a psychologist. Just saying it out loud often makes it easier to see what needs to change.
- Find a few calm minutes. The WHO has put out a short illustrated guide to coping with stress, with simple exercises. In one of them you slow down and notice your breathing, your feet on the floor and the sounds around you before you carry on with what you were doing. The WHO says a few minutes a day is enough.
Does meditation help with stress?
A little. In 2014, researchers at Johns Hopkins combined the results of 47 trials with about 3,300 adults in total. Mindfulness programs lasting about eight weeks eased anxiety and depression slightly. For stress itself, the evidence was weak, and meditation helped no more than exercise or therapy did.
So meditation can be part of it, but it won’t fix stress on its own. If you want to try it, start with a few minutes a day. There’s more about that in how long you should meditate.
When should you see a doctor?
See your doctor if the pressure has lasted for weeks and rest doesn’t help. The same goes if you sleep badly most nights, or if you can no longer keep up with work and everyday life. The doctor can check whether something else is behind it, such as an illness, anxiety or depression. According to the doctors’ handbook, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with a psychologist helps.
If you have thoughts of harming yourself, call your doctor, an out-of-hours doctor or your local emergency number straight away.
Ten minutes with Stille
I made Stille for exactly those few calm minutes a day. You tap Meditate, listen to ten minutes of quiet sound, and a soft gong tells you when the time is up. There’s nothing to choose and no account to create. Stille isn’t a treatment for stress, and there’s no guiding voice, so the studies above don’t tell you anything about Stille itself. If you want to try it, start with the ten-minute guide.