10 tips for dealing with stress

Stress management is about finding ways to handle life’s inevitable challenges and demands without becoming regularly overwhelmed. Stress is not always a bad thing. Short-term stress is a normal physical and psychological response to perceived threats, and it often goes away once the threat has been dealt with.

However, stress that builds up over time and does not go away can negatively impact your physical and mental well-being. Sometimes, you might not even realise you’re experiencing chronic stress until you feel exhausted, irritable, or unable to cope.

Why am I stressed?

There are lots of reasons why stress might become hard to manage. These reasons are different for everyone, but some common ones include:

• Taking on more than you can, especially if you are juggling a lot of responsibilities or struggling with time management
• Living in an unbalanced way, like working long hours with little time for rest, neglecting friendships, or not making space for things that bring you joy, connection or a sense of calm
• Getting stuck in unhelpful thought patterns, such as only focusing on what went wrong or what you didn’t achieve, rather than recognising your efforts or strengths. This can be linked to perfectionism or certain mental health conditions

How positive coping mechanisms can help

Helpful coping mechanisms do not eliminate stress. However, they can help to reduce overwhelm and build your confidence in being able to manage life’s inevitable difficulties.

Sometimes, our coping mechanisms, or the ways we try to cope with stress or difficult emotions, can make things worse in the long run. It is not unusual to fall back on familiar patterns of thinking or behaviour that seem to help in the moment, like avoiding the problem, withdrawing from other people, or being overly self-critical. Coping mechanisms like these are unhelpful because while they might bring short-term relief, they tend to increase stress over time.

Effective stress management involves recognising these patterns and gradually shifting toward more helpful coping mechanisms. These are strategies that support your well-being both in the moment and over the longer term. They can help you feel more in control, or at least more able to choose how you respond to stressful situations.

10 helpful strategies for dealing with stress

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to managing stress. What works well for one person might not be right for someone else, and that’s completely okay. The key is to find tools and techniques that feel manageable and supportive for you. Below are ten stress-relieving exercises that you might find helpful.

1. Bring more movement into your routine

Regular movement can help reduce stress, improve mood, and increase your energy levels. However, that does not mean you need to follow a strict or intense workout plan to feel the benefits. Even gentle movement a few times a week, like walking, stretching, or swimming, can make a meaningful difference.

The key is to choose activities you enjoy and that feel manageable. Moving your body should not feel like a punishment or a chore. You might try:

• Walking the dog or going for a stroll while listening to a podcast
• Dancing to your favourite playlist
• Doing yoga or stretching in your room
• Playing a sport or game you enjoy
• Hiking or going to the gym with a friend

2. Keep a journal

Tracking your stress over time can help you understand what triggers it and what helps. Knowing this can reduce feelings of helplessness and give you more clarity and control in stressful situations.

Try setting aside a few minutes each day or week to jot down:

• What triggered your stress, such as a specific situation, social interaction, or something you’re worried about
• How you experienced the stress, including your thoughts, emotions, and any physical sensations
• How you responded in the moment
• What helped or anything that made you feel calmer or more able to cope
• What made things harder or any habits or responses that left you feeling more overwhelmed

You don’t need to write much. Just a few bullet points can be enough to start spotting patterns and slowly adjusting your responses to stressful situations over time.

3. Manage your time effectively

Struggling with time management can be a major source of stress. When your schedule feels chaotic or overloaded, it is easy to feel like you’re constantly behind, and that pressure can take a toll on your emotional well-being.

Learning to manage your time more effectively can help you feel more in control of your day, which in turn can make things feel less overwhelming.

Here are a few ways to manage your time in a more balanced way:

• Avoid overcommitting: It is okay to say no or to set limits, especially when your plate is already full
• Prioritise what matters most: Focus your energy on high-priority tasks, and postpone or let go of the things that can wait
• Break tasks into smaller steps: Tackling big tasks in stages over several days can make them feel more manageable
• Ask for help when you need it: Whether you’re juggling school, work, or responsibilities at home, knowing when to ask for support can ease the load and reduce your overall stress levels

If you experience difficulties keeping track of time due to ADHD or neurodivergence, you might find the tips in this article on time management helpful.

4. Spend time with friends

When life gets busy, it’s easy to let friendships slip down the priority list, especially when work or study feels overwhelming. But staying connected to others is one of the most effective ways to manage stress. Feeling supported, understood, and emotionally connected can help you feel more grounded and less alone in what you’re dealing with.

You do not need to plan anything elaborate to feel the emotional benefits of friendship. Ways of reaching out that can help to relieve stress and build a sense of connection include:

• Meeting a friend for coffee or lunch
• Going for a walk together
• Texting regularly
• Chatting on a video call or playing a game together online

Whenever possible, try to connect in real time, whether face-to-face, over the phone, or through instant messaging. Synchronous communication (where you are interacting live) tends to be more emotionally rewarding than messaging back and forth with long gaps.

It is also worth remembering that you don’t always need to make new friends. Reconnecting with someone you already know and like can be just as valuable. For tips on building new connections and strengthening existing friendships, visit our article on making friends as an adult.

5. Make sleep a priority

Getting enough sleep is an important part of managing your stress levels in the long term. When you are sleep-deprived, it becomes harder to respond to stressful situations in a calm, constructive way. Lack of sleep can also magnify your perception of everyday stressors and reduce your ability to cope with everyday responsibilities.

If you are trying to get more rest or improve your sleep quality, it can help to focus on building healthy sleep habits. This might look like:

• Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day
• Creating a wind-down routine where you avoid screens for at least an hour before bed
• Using your bed only for sleep, so your body learns to associate it with rest
• Keeping your sleep environment quiet, cool, and comfortable

6. Make time for hobbies and fun

Just as relationships can support your mental health, so too can making space for hobbies and activities you enjoy. In a culture that often glorifies busyness and constant productivity, it can be easy to de-prioritise things that do not seem to have a clear result. However, doing something purely for the fun of it is essential for living a balanced life and improving your overall well-being.

Spending time on hobbies can help you:

• Recharge your energy
• Experience joy or a state of flow
• Reduce stress
• Protect against burnout
• Maintain your ability to focus and work productively over the long term

Even if you only have a short amount of free time, regularly carving out space for something that feels fun, absorbing or meaningful can make a big difference to your overall stress levels and sense of fulfillment.

7. Introduce mindfulness into your daily life

Mindfulness, or the practice of paying attention to the present moment, can be an effective way to reduce stress in the moment. For some people, this might involve short daily meditation sessions. But if you find it hard to sit still or become overwhelmed by racing thoughts, more structured meditation might feel frustrating or even stressful.

Fortunately, mindfulness does not have to mean sitting down to meditate. Practising mindfulness simply involves shifting your attention to what is happening right now, both internally and within your surrounding environment.

You can practise mindfulness in simple, everyday moments, like:

• Focusing on your breath while waiting for the kettle to boil
• Noticing the sensation of water on your skin while you shower
• Paying attention to the sights and sounds around you on a walk
• Bringing awareness to how your body feels as you brush your teeth

Tuning into the present moment can help create a pause between a stress trigger and your response to it. This pause gives you the chance to respond in a way that feels more intentional, rather than reacting on autopilot. Over time, this can increase your sense of calm and control, and make it easier to step out of patterns of worrying about the future or dwelling on the past.

8. Practise sensory calming techniques

Sensory calming techniques can help relieve stress by creating a sensory environment that feels soothing or regulating for you. Everyone’s preferences will be different when it comes to the senses.

You might find stress relief by stimulating your senses in enjoyable ways, such as:

• Listening to music
• Engaging in rhythmic or vigorous movement, like dancing or jumping
• Using scented lotions or essential oils
• Savouring the experience of eating a favourite food or drinking a hot drink

Alternatively, you might feel most calm when you reduce sensory input or take a sensory break. This might look like:

• Sitting under a weighted blanket
• Hugging a pet
• Closing your eyes and focusing on slow breathing

The goal is to experiment and find sensory experiences that help you feel more grounded, comforted, or safe, especially in moments of high stress or overwhelm.

9. Practise gratitude

When you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, it is easy to lose sight of what is going well in your life. However, building a habit of regularly noticing and naming the things you feel grateful for can help shift your perspective and increase your resilience over time.

Research suggests that practising gratitude can help reduce stress and support your overall well-being. One simple way to do this is by keeping a gratitude journal. You might try noting down three things you are grateful for each evening. These could be people, specific moments or experiences, events that happened during the day, or even character strengths.

Over time, this practice can help you tune in to the small positives and meaningful actions that often go unnoticed during times of elevated stress or anxiety.

If stress has been affecting your daily life for a prolonged period, it might be time to take a closer look at the possible causes of your stress and what actions you could take to reduce or even eliminate it. You can find more information and helpful tips in this article on how to identify the causes of your stress and what to do about it.

10. Avoid reliance on alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs

When you are feeling stressed, it can be tempting to turn to alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs to help you cope with difficult or intense emotions. While self-medicating with drugs or alcohol might bring short-term relief, they can also mask the underlying issues. This can make it more difficult to understand what your stress might be telling you, whether that’s a need for rest, boundaries, support, or change.

Relying on substances can also get in the way of using more sustainable, helpful coping strategies like the ones described in this article. Over time, relying on drugs or alcohol can increase your stress levels rather than reduce them.

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