3 easy ways to destress.

If you’re feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, here are some tips to help you cope and strengthen your overall mental health:

Practice mindfulness.

Our lives are always go, go, go, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when your work or home responsibilities start piling up. Practicing mindfulness – focusing on your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings in the present moment without judgment – can help you control your emotions and reactions to environmental triggers. And according to the Mayo Clinic, mindfulness exercises have been shown to improve your attention, decrease your risk of burning out, and help improve your sleep.

Nutrition matters more than you think.

When we think about eating well, it’s usually related to your physical health, like losing weight or lowering your blood pressure, but what you eat can also help your mental health and reduce your stress and anxiety levels.

Many people’s diets are made up of processed foods and refined sugars, which lack the proper nutrition you need to keep your mind and body healthy. By eating more fruits and vegetables, you can get more essential vitamins and amino acids like vitamin B, iron, omega-3s, and zinc into your body – all nutrients that are shown to improve your body function, mood, and cognitive health. If you need help getting started, you can improve your diet with tips from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

See an online therapist.

Everyone needs some support sometimes. Even if you already do a great job of managing your self-care, talking to an expert and getting their advice can be hugely beneficial. Now, seeing an online therapist is becoming more common – it’s estimated that 20% of Americans have seen a therapist in their lifetime.2 And with online therapy, you can work one-on-one with the licensed therapist of your choice, all from the privacy and safety of home.

Benefits of using MDLIVE online therapy include:

• 2Vahratian, Anjel, et al. “Mental Health in the United States: New Estimates from the National Center for Health Statistics.” CDC, 23 Sept. 2020, www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/events/nhis-mental-health-webinar-2020-508.pdf.