Stress is your body's reaction to adverse or demanding situations and circumstances. While limited amounts of stress can be motivating and lead to creativity and problem solving, most often, stress leads to anxiety, high blood pressure and frustration. It's important, then, to learn how to properly manage stress after weight loss surgery, especially if you had trouble dealing with the stresses of everyday life before your surgery.
Tips for Reducing and Managing Stress
- When you're feeling stressed out, try listening to music that you find relaxing.
- Practice deep breathing exercising. Inhale through your nose, and then slowly exhale through your mouth. Imagine that you’re exhaling all of the negative energy in your life.
- Try to find opportunities to laugh every day. There’s a reason they say laughter’s the best medicine.
- Get organized. Disorganization can both cause and magnify stress.
- Learn proper time management techniques, especially if you often feel like “there’s not enough time in the day.”
- Try finding ways to escape from the pressures of your life by finding a hobby you enjoy, particularly a relaxing one, such as chess, knitting or learning an instrument.
- Learn healthy ways to express yourself when you’re feeling stressed. It can be very beneficial to talk to friends, family or a therapist about stress that you’re dealing with.
- Start getting enough sleep every night. Adults need about eight hours to function optimally. Getting less than that can cause irritability and make certain situations feel much more stressful than they might feel otherwise.
Making these types of adjustments can go a long way in helping you deal with and manage stress after weight loss surgery. Remember that you’ve already started the process of creating your healthy lifestyle. It’s up to you to keep working toward your goals.