5 Practical Habits to Relieve Anxiety and Stress

Unclench your jaw. Sit up straight; your neck must be killing you. Are you being productive right now? Do you feel exhausted no matter how much you sleep? Are you being productive right now? 

It comes as no surprise that everybody is more stressed and anxious than ever, and while no miracle treatment is going to solve your problems and do your dishes, there are still plenty of ways to help manage those negative feelings. 

With proactivity and consistency, you can build routines that will ground you, help clear your mind, and make life feel a little lighter. Most people don’t need complete life overhauls to help combat stress and anxiety; they need simple, repeatable rituals that holistically address the impact and reactions they have on the body and brain. 

The practical habits below are small, actionable, and may even surprise you. (Hint: you’re probably not drinking enough water.) 

 

Habit 1: Breathe to break the stress loop

If you’ve ever had to speak in public or handle an important presentation, you’ll be familiar with how the cardiovascular system reacts to stress. You speed up, you stumble over your words, and you run out of breath mid-sentence because your heartbeat is racing and everything just feels so hot, inside and out. 

Stress and anxiety can cause this feeling for no apparent reason, or at least, no one definable reason. It’s often one minor incident that causes your brain to spiral into several worst-case scenarios, which it then convinces you will definitely happen. A practical, always accessible way to interrupt this loop is to change the way you breathe. 

Mindful, slow, intentional breaths activate the parasympathetic “rest and reset” response, letting your nervous system know that you’re not in danger. You can do this on the bus, in your office, or even in your kitchen while making a snack; all it takes is a spare two minutes and a willingness to slow down. 

Breathing won’t fix the issue that triggered the reaction, but it will keep you calm and better able to respond. 

 

Habit 2: Go outside

A simple change of scenery can make a world of difference for your mood. Ten minutes of daylight and fresh air can help regulate your circadian rhythm, boost serotonin, and help break the brain fog that often develops from the indoor bubble of sedentary stimulation. 

Movement gets your body to actually start metabolising stress hormones, even if that’s just a walk around the block, and you can relax by an open window or on your front porch to bask in the sunshine while you wind down. 

Nature has a grounding effect on the mind. Look up at the sky or over at a distant group of trees swaying in the breeze, and you’ll remember the world is more than whatever is kicking around inside your head at that moment. Make this active time outside a daily chance to pause and unwind, rather than a task that needs to be done, and you’ll soon realise just how powerful a wide-open space can be. 

 

Habit 3: Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate

Around half of all adults in the US consume far less water than they should. A lack of water causes and exacerbates a lot of serious physical health issues, but its impact on mental performance and emotional well-being is also significant. 

Even mild dehydration can make symptoms of anxiety and stress much sharper and harder to ignore. Headaches feel more intense, and you become more irritable and less able to concentrate, which only makes the stress spiral further out of control. 

A simple way to remind yourself to drink more water is to incorporate it into your environment. Keep a glass of water next to your bed, take a bottle to work to keep on your desk, and leave a few spares in your car; make it easy to drink water wherever you spend the most time.

You can make hydration feel more intentional and personal by choosing water that you actually enjoy drinking. Look for natural flavored water that satisfies your brain and leaves you excited for the next sip. 

 

Habit 4: Build a grounding ritual

Rituals are unique ways of adding order to chaotic days. They can act like a punctuation mark or a page turn, stopping the momentum of stress and anxiety before they have a chance to run wild. 

The ritual you build will depend on you. You might find that stretching for a minute before bed helps you relax and get into the right mindset for sleep, or that a morning cup of coffee in the quiet, fresh air sets you up for the day on the right foot. You likely already have a daily activity like this, and shifting how you think about it can transform it from a step in your routine into a moment of peace and tranquility.  

The important thing is to center yourself. Don’t worry about what comes next, use this as an opportunity to meditate and reconnect with your body and mind. This emotional anchoring will help steady you and give you a chance to zoom out as you decompress. 

 

Habit 5: Stop doomscrolling 

The constant stimulation of doomscrolling is corrosive; it numbs us, enrages us, isolates us, and keeps us fixated on things we have no power or control over. Suddenly, 20 minutes turn into 2 hours of lost time, and you’re somehow even more stressed and disconnected than you were before. 

Staying informed is good, and phones do connect us to friends and family, so going cold turkey isn’t realistic. Instead, try to limit your screentime with app timers and swap your late-night scroll for something more relaxing, like reading a book.

Start small, create space for your brain to unwind away from screens and distractions, and try to build from there. 

 

Small habits, true relief

A huge reason for this exponential burst of anxiety and stress is the increasing complexity of our environments, and a sad loss of compassion for ourselves. It’s okay not to be OK, and small daily acts of self-love like drinking water, breathing with intent, connecting with somebody you trust, or resting when you need to, remind us that we’re all still human beings. We mess up, we panic, we cry, and we’re still deserving of love and empathy, even from within.