Sometimes stress management can feel like a daunting or overwhelming challenge, but the truth is that it really doesn’t have to be! This month, we are focusing on all the simple ways there are to stress less and to kick us off I brought on founder of Vibrant You Coaching, Nancy Smith, to give us a few pointers on how we can start stressing less by using our senses!
As a mental health counselor and life long goal achiever, Nancy started her career working hard in a job where she was not feeling truly valued. After experiencing a lot of self-doubt, she finally shifted out of the “good girl” mindset of being afraid to rock the boat and she left to forge a new path with Vibrant You Coaching, where she can help others live their own vibrant lives.
Now she has come on the show to share some simple tips that help us shift our mindset out of stress and fear so that we can feel calm and move forward because beginning to reduce our stress doesn’t need to be time-consuming or expensive.
“[Reducing stress] doesn't always mean that you have to go for the massage and spend the one hundred dollars for that. We have all we need right with us.”
Tip #1: Use Sight to Stress Less
To start using our senses to stress less, we can begin by first tapping into our sense of sight and creating a visual environment around us that inspires peace. There are a lot of ways you can change your scenery around your home or office to bring more calm into your day! Nancy suggests putting photos of loved ones around or looking out a nearby window. If you have a pet, spend time working where you can see them so you can have a reminder to smile every once in a while! Think about things that instill peace or joy in you when you see them and find creative ways to incorporate these things into your environment.
Tip #2: Use Smell to Stress Less
Smell has a very powerful effect on our memory and mindset, and Nancy suggests incorporating aromatherapy into our routine when we want to shift into a new perspective and mood. One thing she recommends is using an essential oil diffuser to tap into the soothing benefits of all the different essential oils out there.
“Lavender is usually calming, [while] eucalyptus or spearmint is usually more revitalizing and energizing.”
Whether you just use one or mix a few oils together in your diffuser for your own custom scents, these aromas have been used time and time again to help create a sense of calm and reduce stress.
Tip #3: Use Sounds to Stress Less
To use your sense of sound to reduce your stress, Nancy recommends listening to soothing music or binaural beats.
“Binaural beats are [songs] where the frequency of the sounds are heard differently in each ear... You can go to YouTube and put in binaural beats. They have different ones that focus on happiness, concentration, focus.”
By utilizing all of these simple tips, you can create a completely new mindset within yourself so that you can make decisions and take action in your life from a place of calm and clarity.