Good mental health is built on a foundation of good habits.
These are the top 8 incredibly good habits that will quickly lower your stress and anxiety levels!
We spend the majority of our lives using the habits we form. Whether good or bad habits, our daily routines are full of them! When it comes to mental health, it's especially critical to develop good habits that work toward our goals to be our best.
Our mental wellness requires a great deal of work, and the more we can formulate almost-automatic responses to pressure, the more effortlessly we can handle stressors outside of our control.
These are the top 8 extremely good habits that will lower your anxiety and stress, improving overall mental wellness!
Good Habits for Anxiety + Stress
#1 Good Habit for anxiety
Go to bed on time
We all know that sleep is important, but honestly, it's VITAL when it comes to lowering stress and anxiety!
Here are a few of my tips and tricks for a good night's sleep!
- Create a pre-bedtime routine. Make sure that you set everything up for the next day, so when you lay your head on your pillow, you aren't trying to make mental notes for the following day!
- Stop drinking caffeine at a specific time. It'll be 3 pm for some, and for others, like me, I can drink coffee up until about 5 pm.
- Create an environment in your room that makes sleep more appealing. Use things like dark curtains, essential oils, a fan or white noise, and comfy sheets and pillows!
- Use a journal to release thoughts before you go to bed. This will ensure that you aren't worried about forgetting important details later. Often when your brains are trying to shut down, they start to off-load a ton of information quickly. This can cause a great deal of anxiety before bed or even in the middle of the night!
#2 Good Habit
Wake up early
When I started studying the habits of highly successful people, I discovered that most of them had one good practice in common... waking up early!
Likewise, when I started my journey to overall health - mind, body, and spirit, I discovered that waking up in the early morning helped me tremendously.
Here are some of the benefits I have found:
- I am more productive overall
- There is more time for the things that I value most.
- It sets the tone for my day, often a more successful tone!
- I can get irrational thoughts under control before starting my day and interacting with others.
- I am more organized.
Find a time that works for you and make it happen. Being rushed produces an enormous amount of anxiety and stress. Waking up earlier can help eliminate that.
#3 Good Habit
Turn Notifications off
on Your Phone
Total craziness here, I know. Hear me out, though. Notifications are distractions, and we all know that those cause you to be less productive. Being unproductive causes massive anxiety in most people, leading to long-lasting stress!
It's simple. Notifications or pop-ups on your phone aren't necessary! They are convenient, but if you realize how distracted you become with each ding, they aren't that convenient after all.
Because I know this can sound too far or too much, I want to challenge you to try it for a week or two. You will see how much more you can accomplish at the end of that trial period!
Often, our stress is directly related to our schedules in some way. Turning off notifications will help you with time management, but it will also help you be present in the moments that matter most! This will contribute to your overall mental wellness!
#4 Good Habit
Get Organized
Several years ago, considering a big move, I felt a push to declutter and organize my home. Little did I know that this little unction would lead to one of the best discoveries for the benefit of my mental health!
Getting organized benefited my life by lowering daily anxieties. How could organization do that? The best answer is that clutter often leads to chaos, and chaos is a breeding ground for mental fog, stress, and anxiousness!
If you are new to Goodbye Anxious, you'll notice that I include organization tips and resources in many of my articles! It's because I believe in it! Decluttering your life and organizing in all areas, your home, time-management, to-do lists, your finances, and even your goals can transform your mental health in incredible ways!
Here are a few of the articles where I mention organizing and attach a ton of resources!
#5 Good Habit
Create Healthy Boundaries
Another good habit for lowering anxiousness is the habit of establishing and maintaining healthy boundaries.
It's crucial for your mental health that you get in the habit of saying "no" to the things you need to. By doing so, protecting the things you say "yes" to! Boundaries are key to mental health success!
God created us with free will, not to be manipulated or run over. When we violate our created nature by constantly allowing or inviting others to overstep our boundaries, we are the ones who suffer.
Creating a habit of setting and maintaining boundaries can change your mental health in all the best ways. Boundaries create freedom. It can also give you the inner confidence to pursue the things you've always wanted to say yes to!
other articles on healthy boundaries:
#6 Good Habit
Cultivate Good Communication
in all your Relationships
Much like owning our boundaries, creating a habit of healthy communication with others can take courage. Still, it can relieve anxiety and stress in our everyday lives!
Often we are full of anxiousness because we are stuffing down unmanaged feelings and emotions. This starts from a young age! We often see it in children when they don't know how to express feelings or emotions! (I've written an article on helping children express emotions, you can check that out here!)
Healthy communication is a good habit for everyone but is especially important for those of us who deal with mental health battles. Our inward struggles are already complicated without any help from our unmanaged and undealt-with feelings!
Here are some benefits I've found of healthy communication for anxiety:
- Communicating feelings releases the inward pressure we feel when we hold back.
- When we manage our emotions by sharing them, we decrease our chances of entertaining bitterness in our hearts.
- If you decide not to handle your offenses with the person who hurt you, you will lose hours and possibly days or months with anxiety, pondering the what-ifs and, if only's of the situation!
Anxiety and worry only grow as we stuff down our emotions. Good communication helps us overcome that!
I've written a few articles that can help you with good healthy communication; I'll link them below.
#7 Good Habit
Prioritize your health and
watch what you eat
When I changed my diet back in 2018, I found that a significant amount of anxiety left my life. As I started to learn good health habits for myself. I discovered certain foods that triggered anxiety. If I eat certain foods, I will experience anxiety and sometimes even panic within a half-hour or so. For me, it's sugar mostly. For others I know, it's caffeine. Whatever the case, my experience is that a proper diet can lower anxiety and stress.
Here are a few articles I've written
related to this topic:
Here are a few more articles about nutrition and anxiety:
#8 Good Habit
Build a budget
Did you know that only 30% of Americans have a monthly budget? Crazy huh? We live in a society plagued with financial anxieties, and we see no way out.
One of the habits you can form to help lower some of that stress and anxiety is building a budget. Even if you don't have "enough," at the end of the day, a simple budget will help you better grasp things! Having some idea of where you stand financially is better than living with very little knowledge or understanding. Being oblivious to your financial status and lacking any backup plan can cause a great deal of anxiety that you experience!
Financial stressors may be overwhelming, but there are certainly ways that you can better handle them!
Here are a few resources to help you with that!
Check out our shop page for all the free resources on goodbye anxious!
Using these 8 simple habits to lower your stress and anxiety can significantly impact how you experience life. As I always say, life is meant to be enjoyed! You deserve to be free! Every article I write here is with that in mind! Take some time to enjoy some of our other articles. Hopefully, they can benefit your mental wellness journey as well!
These have been my top 8 good habits for lowering anxiety and stress!
Let me know in the comments below how these have helped you!
I am so proud of you sister!! This is truly beautiful and stoked to see how Papa wants to use it!! Way to step out in obedience. 💕💕