3 Proven Ways to De-stress

February 01, 2022
Posted by Team Westlab

1. Schedule your ‘me-time’

Just 15 minutes a day of doing something you really love can have a really positive impact on your stress levels. But unless its scheduled, it usually gets bumped and doesn't happen.

Dr Rangan Chaterjee prioritises me-time as he feels it's essential for our health and wellbeing.

His advice is excellent on this subject, with guidance and ideas for howto spend our daily me-time.

Extracts from his book including these ideas can be found here:

https://yj.tips/mental-health/4-pillars-of-health-chatterjee-me-time

I agree with him that daily bitesize pieces are essential, but for my own replenishment I also schedule in a few hours every weekend on a Saturday afternoon. That's my time, it's scheduled every week, and helps me get through the busy week knowing I have some time-out booked to recharge.

2. Forest Bathing

Our lifestyles tend to be mainly indoor and sedentary, with bursts of time outside to partake in active, cardio exercise. But studies in Japan have shown that there is a direct benefit to health and wellbeing in their ancient practice of forest bathing - simply taking out in nature with a slow walk amongst trees.

These benefits include reducing concentrations of cortisol (the stress hormone) in the body, lowered blood pressure and pulse rate, as well as an increased parasympathetic nerve activity (the part of the nervous system responsible for calming the body)*(2).

According to Erin Niimi Longhurst, author of Japonisme, you should think of being in nature in the same way you think about eating your 'five a day' - a type of nourishment to counteract our stressful day to day lives.

Forestry England have some great tips and inspiration on their page dedicated to all things forest bathing:

https://www.forestryengland.uk/blog/forest-bathing

3. Take a Magnesium Bath

A regular warm bath is a great way to help you relax, but if you supercharge it with Magnesium, it has further benefits to help the body de-stress. Magnesium is an important mineral that is responsible for over 300 reactions in the body, including supporting relaxation and sleep. Magnesium plays an essential role in maintaining levels of Serotonin in the body.

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps to regulate mood and calmness. Magnesium supplementation has also been shown to reduce levels of Cortisol (the stress hormone) (1).

Our best product for Magnesium supplementation are our Magnesium flakes, but you can also find magnesium in our Epsom salts and Dead sea salts too. For the ultimate magnesium-rich relaxation bath, we love to mix 1 cup Magnesium Flakes with 1 cup of our Sleep salts. Pure bliss.

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