Ways to Deal With Stress by Walking, Meditation & Exercising

Stress can compromise your mental and physical health in a variety of insidious ways. You can deal with stress by walking, meditating and exercising. All of these activities will help calm and center you so you'll be able to approach your stressors or challenges with a clearer head.

  1. Walking

    • Stress will rev up your cardiovascular and respiratory systems, but in all the wrong ways. Stress can give you heart palpitations and force you to breathe shallowly from your upper chest. Thirty minutes of walking can also rev up your cardiovascular and respiratory systems, but in all the right ways. It temporarily removes you from stresses at home or the office, which helps you look at things from a better perspective. It also helps replace the energy reserves that stress depletes.

    Meditation

    • Regular meditation can help you feel more calm and centered even when you are not meditating. Count silently to four as you take an inhalation and then count to six as you exhale. This will direct your focus away from stressful thoughts. You may also count each inhalation until you reach 100. Candle gazing or silently chanting a positive affirmation will also help you deal with stress.

    Exercise

    • Whether you enjoy slamming a tennis ball over the net, hiking through nature, running in your neighborhood or flowing through a 60-minute Ashtanga yoga class, stress has no option but to flee when your body is being flooded by endorphins. The natural high you get from these neurotransmitters during exercise is reason enough to lace up your running shoes or roll out your yoga mat. Exercise also lets your mind engage in something other than the causes of your stress and that alone gives you the mental break you need.

    How Often?

    • Stress can be constant or reoccurring. So to deal with it successfully, you have to engage in the healthy practices of walking, meditation and exercise on a regular basis. Meditation is most effective when practiced daily. Whether you spend 10 minutes in the morning or a full 30 minutes before bed, it doesn't matter as long as you make it a daily habit. And spend at least 150 minutes a week walking or doing some other type of exercise to increase your physical and mental strength and mitigate stress.