The Mindset Mentor - 8 Techniques to Relieve Daily Stress

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. And if you love this podcast, do me a quick favor. Don't just gloss over this. Give us a rating and review however you listen to us. Whether that's Spotify, Apple Podcasts, whatever it might be, it'll take you two seconds to do. Pick out your phone, give us a rating and review. The reason why is because the more positive rating and reviews that we get, the more that those platforms show this podcast to people who have never listened to it before, which allows us to grow and allows us to impact more people's lives. So if you would do that and pay it forward, I would greatly appreciate it. Today, we're going to be talking about eight techniques to relieve your

Starting point is 00:00:45 daily stress. World's crazy, isn't it? Life is crazy. Things are always kind of crazy. And if I'm being honest with you, it seems like they're just getting crazier. And so really what it comes down to is we can't change the world around us. But what we can do is we can change how we react to the world around us. And that's what today's episode is really about. And it goes back to one of the phrases one of my first mentors used to always say, is he used to always say, your stress and anxiety, the level of your stress and anxiety will be in direct proportion to how much you are resisting the way that the world is. So the world is the way that it is. The people around us are the way that they are. And the more that we

Starting point is 00:01:24 resist it, the more stress and anxiety we're actually going to have. And so for you guys that are out there, myself included, we need to have better techniques to remove stress. I don't know about you guys, but for me, launching this book in the next about eight weeks for me is crazy. I'm on so many other people's podcasts. I'm traveling. I'm doing events.

Starting point is 00:01:45 On top of that, I've got other things that are happening with creating this podcast, expanding the podcast to try to make it better. I've also got so many other things that's happened in my personal life. And it's like everything's happening at the exact same time. It's all very exciting. But thinking about all of the things that I have to do over the next eight weeks can be very stressful. And so these are tips and techniques that I actually use in my own life to when I feel stress and anxiety come up to relieve it. Because ultimately, I'm not going to tell you that I don't feel stress and anxiety sometimes. I definitely do. But when I do, I just have tools in my tool belt to help me

Starting point is 00:02:18 relieve myself and get myself back to calm state, feeling much better. Homeostasis, which is what we're trying to get back to, right? So the first one is this. You know this one if you've been listening to the podcast long enough, but the question is, do you use it? Like, are you going to be like, oh damn, he's going to say this one again? But then you can take a step back and say, well, okay, I've heard him say this before, but am I using it? Because sometimes you have to hear something like a thousand times before you do it. The first one, which is my go-to every single time, is my breathing. Six deep breaths.

Starting point is 00:02:53 In through the nose, out through the mouth. When you do a long exhale, like you're breathing out through a straw, it releases extra carbon dioxide from your body, which allows you to relax. But a long exhale actually starts to slow your heart rate down. So when we breathe deeply, we supply more oxygen to the brain and to the body, which actually brings a sense of calm and alertness to you. It counteracts the fight or flight mechanism that is inside of your brain. So physiologically speaking, deep, deep, deep inhales, the exercise can actually calm the body's, turn on the body's parasympathetic nervous system, which the parasympathetic nervous system is calm and helps reduce, you know, the stress-inducing sympathetic nervous system. And so it gets you out of fight

Starting point is 00:03:39 or flight and gets you more into a calm state. And really what it can do is all of this can decrease your heart rate. It can reduce your blood pressure. It can reduce your relaxation or it can induce more relaxation. And just allow you to calm down a little bit more. Because all too often, the very first thing that changes in our body when we get excited, when we get stressed, when we get happy, the first thing to change is our breathing. So it really comes down to if I feel a state change in my body, how can I breathe to get my

Starting point is 00:04:10 body back to the state change, the state that I want it to be in more than anything else? So first thing, very simple. It's just 60 breaths. It'll take you two minutes at most and it will change your body. It'll change your day immediately. The second thing is to start focusing on gratitude. You've probably heard this before. What you focus on grows. And if you focus too much on what you don't want, you will get more of what you don't want. If you focus on what you don't have,

Starting point is 00:04:36 you will get more of the stuff that you don't have. And so if you focus on all the things that you used to have, but you don't have anymore, you're just going to get more of those feelings. And what we need to get better at is we need to change our perspective. If you think about everything that you don't have, if you think about everything that you want, if you think about all of the stuff that's screwed up in your life right now, like just think about this for a second. Think about all the stuff in your life right now that's not what you want it to be. Think about all of the things that are just

Starting point is 00:05:04 not the way that you want. Think about all of the people that are stressful in your life right now that's not what you want it to be. Think about all of the things that are just not the way that you want. Think about all of the people that are stressful in your life. All of the people that are just like, damn it, I wish they were different. Think about all those things for a second. The thought alone of all of that stuff can be extremely stressful. And often what we do is we become consumed with what we don't have. We become consumed with what we've lost. We become consumed with what we desire. And when we desire something, we automatically create a space of, okay, there's me now. I want this thing. And not having that thing is making me stressed out. And so one of the things with the society that we live in, with Instagram and constantly seeing what other people have that we don't have, with seeing ads all over the place and

Starting point is 00:05:48 our ads thinking that, oh, if I get this thing, I'll finally be happy. It takes you out of your current state and make you think, I'm not happy where I currently am. I desire for things to be different. And that desire automatically creates some form of stress and anxiety. And so really what it comes down to is the opposite of desiring something is to be grateful for what you have. And so if I notice, if I can know, okay, desire causes stress.

Starting point is 00:06:14 The opposite of desire is gratitude. If I can look around and see what I have, it'll make me feel better. And when you see what you have and you can feel gratitude for what you have, your brain releases something called serotonin. Serotonin and dopamine are usually put together as this, you know, the same feel good chemicals, but they're completely different. Dopamine is more of like the motivation chemical. Serotonin is this feeling of, okay, everything in life is pretty good. I feel pretty awesome. I feel like this is good. I feel like life is good. And that's ultimately what we're trying to do. So desiring stuff,

Starting point is 00:06:50 it's not bad to desire things. I don't want you to think that. But desiring things too much and thinking, I won't be happy until I get this, thinking I won't be happy until I get this automatically makes you what? Not happy. And so the opposite of desire is gratitude. Can you look around yourself and realize no matter where you are in your life, even if you're at rock bottom, you still have things to be grateful for. You're still alive. You're still breathing. 150,000 people did not wake up today that were here yesterday. Can you, if you have nothing, if you're living on the street and somehow listening to me on your phone, can you feel gratitude for the fact that your heart is still beating, that you have your health? Can you feel good about that? And if you can start there, you can start to feel better about

Starting point is 00:07:39 other things around you and start creating what it is that you want. And that is one way to really reduce your stress and anxiety. The next thing, number three, is to go for a walk. Walking, interestingly enough, has a lot of therapeutic benefits for humans. Forward motion by just walking, forward motion seen through the eyes actually lowers your cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone. So by simply going for a walk for 10 minutes without your phone, without your headphones, can lower your stress hormones immensely. And if possible, I recommend that you actually go for a walk in nature. And being in nature is actually shown to also reduce cortisol levels, which is your stress. And so think about this. Going on a walk lowers your

Starting point is 00:08:22 cortisol. Being in nature lowers your cortisol. Can you figure out a way to this, going on a walk lowers your cortisol, being in nature lowers your cortisol. Can you figure out a way to try to go for a walk in nature? You know, if you, if you live in New York city, can you, and you've been having a stressful week. Okay. You don't have a whole lot of nature, but I do know there's one place that's really amazing.

Starting point is 00:08:39 Central park. Can you say, okay, tonight it's important for me to feel better. I'm going to go on a walk. I'm going to leave my phone. Maybe, maybe you have a backpack with I'm going to go on a walk. I'm going to leave my phone. Maybe you have a backpack with you you took to work, right? Okay, I'm going to take my phone. I'm going to turn it off. I'm going to put in my backpack and I'm just going to go for a walk.

Starting point is 00:08:53 I'm going to have nothing that I need to do, nothing that I feel like I need. I just want to go out and walk in nature. The natural environment that you're in promotes a calming effect that's also often referred to as the biophilia hypothesis, which suggests that humans have an innate desire to connect with nature. And that alone will actually start to lower your cortisol levels. So going for a walk in nature, if you can't go for a walk in nature, going for a walk still helps you out a lot. But going for a walk in nature has many times, study after study after study, decreased levels of cortisol, decreased levels of depression. In natural settings, especially those that have a lot of greenery or have a lot of water,

Starting point is 00:09:33 can have immediate mood boosting effects. There's actually something that's called Shinrin-yoku, which is called forest bathing. And it's a Japanese concept that translates basically to taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing. And it's a Japanese concept that translates basically to taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing. And it involves immersing yourself in a forest environment. And it's been scientifically shown to have both physical and mental health benefits. So sometimes you just got to get out in nature. Sometimes you just got to go for a walk. And so that's tip number three. Try those out. Tip number four is to take everything that's in your head and put it down on a piece of paper. A lot of times the solution to what it is that's going on in your head is a lot simpler than you

Starting point is 00:10:15 make it out to be. It's just your brain is very complex. There's a lot of stuff that's going on. And so writing things down, journaling it out can actually help reduce cortisol levels massively. In 1986, there was a study that was done that was called Confronting a Traumatic Event toward a, I'm going to try to get this title down, Confronting a Traumatic Event toward an Understanding of Inhibition and Disease. It was in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. And what they found was that in the study is they examined the effect of writing about traumatic events.

Starting point is 00:10:49 So this could be used for traumatic events, but it could also be used for your stress as well. You can write about traumatic events, but you can also just write about what you're stressed out about. And they actually found that participants who wrote about a traumatic experience showed a significant improvement in both physiological and psychological well-being compared to those who wrote about anything else besides the actual traumatic event. So they had people who had a lot of stress and anxiety, and they actually said,

Starting point is 00:11:19 hey, just start journaling. And some people started journaling just on random things, superficial topics. Oh, today I went for a walk. Then they had a group of people who went and they actually wrote about their traumatic events. And they actually found out that there was physiological and psychological benefits of writing about the actual traumatic event. It's just expressive writing and essentially journaling about distressing events or how

Starting point is 00:11:41 you feel if you're stressed out was associated with reduced stress and better health outcomes as well. So what can you do? Put it all down on pen and paper. The next one that I recommend is this. This is something that's completely, I don't really, I don't really hear people talking about it. I'm only saying this because it helped me a lot is to get your blood levels checked. Might cost you a few hundred dollars. But for me, a couple of years ago, it was about three years ago, I wasn't feeling like 100%. I was feeling really like off. Like I wasn't feeling as motivated or as excited. I felt kind of like blah a few years ago. And I was like, man, I normally don't feel this way. I usually feel pretty good throughout the day.

Starting point is 00:12:21 And I went and did blood tests and I realized that all of my blood tests, everything looked amazing. But there were two vitamins that I was deficient in. One of them was vitamin B, it was a certain type of vitamin B. And the other one was vitamin D. Both of those were two, both of those two things were down. I told the doctor and I was like, I was like, hey, I don't feel a hundred percent. I feel like I might need to get my blood levels checked. He's like, okay. So we get my blood levels checked. I come back. Okay. You're good. Except for your vitamin D and vitamin B are both low. And so he gave me just these drops that I put into my drink every single morning. I took them and I'm not even kidding you. I felt like a completely new human. It was like within three or four days, I felt completely different. My stress levels were down. My anxiety levels were down.

Starting point is 00:13:05 I had more energy. And it's all because my vitamins were just, I was deficient and we fixed them. What's interesting too is a couple months ago, I was starting to feel like the stress and anxiety come back up again. I was like, man, I'm starting to feel kind of anxious again. And I was like, why do I feel this way? And I was like, oh, I haven't been taking the vitamins. And I was like, I'm going to take those vitamins and I'm just going to see how I feel.

Starting point is 00:13:28 What happens? Literally the first day I started taking them again, I was like, oh my God, I feel amazing. And so do I want to be taking this for the rest of my life? No, there's obviously dietary stuff that I can fix in myself. But sometimes what's going on in your head is important, but sometimes what's going on in your blood is also very important. So it's going on in your head is important, but sometimes what's going on in your blood is also very important. So it's going to cost you a couple hundred bucks, but you'd be surprised how much you can change in just making sure your blood levels are where they should be and seeing if you can get some work to kind of help you get back to status quo, I guess you could

Starting point is 00:13:59 say. So that's number five. Number six is to consider less caffeine. I'm sorry, all of you coffee lovers, try having less caffeine for a little while. You can try to switch to green tea if you want and try to remove caffeine from your life and just see what happens to your stress levels because caffeine can actually massively increase your cortisol. And that can be really good sometimes if you're trying to get something done

Starting point is 00:14:25 a lot of times having cortisol in your blood is actually really good for taking action and to get stuff done but sometimes caffeine can actually make you most times more than anything else it can actually make you really stressed out and so if you don't get rid of it try to massively reduce if you're doing three cups of coffee a day and you're very stressed out and anxious throughout the day see what it would feel like if you only have one. Sometimes when your vitamin levels are corrected, you realize you don't need as much caffeine. So for me, for instance, a few months ago, I was drinking three cups of coffee, whatever it might be throughout the day when my blood levels were not where they were supposed to be. I started taking vitamin B and vitamin D again. Guess what happened? I took

Starting point is 00:15:04 it as soon as I woke up in the morning. As soon as I wake up in the morning, I take electrolytes, 32 ounces of water. I have electrolytes and I put vitamin B, vitamin D in there. Guess what happens? I don't feel like I need caffeine in the morning because my levels are where they should be. And so that's why I wanted to bring in the blood levels before we started talking about the caffeine. Sometimes the caffeine is kind of a crutch for giving you some energy throughout the day when really what the actual problem is, is not your energy levels and caffeine being needed, but it's really your blood levels are not where they should be. And so I would just say, try it out for a little while, try less caffeine and just see if that helps you, your

Starting point is 00:15:43 cortisol levels, see if it helps you, their stress and your anxiety. Also try to stop having it after one o'clock. Don't have any caffeine after one o'clock. If you can, you'll sleep better. Maybe it's interrupting your sleep as well. So that's number six. Number seven, try to watch 10 minutes of comedy. Laughing releases dopamine and dopamine lowers your cortisol. So dopamine is actually seen to buffer your cortisol and so it will lower it. And laughter has been shown to reduce levels of cortisol in the body's primary stress hormone. And when cortisol levels decrease, you generally start to feel more relaxed and less anxious. Another thing that watching comedy does is it releases endorphins. Laughter stimulates the production

Starting point is 00:16:25 of endorphins, which is the body's natural feel-good chemicals. So endorphins themselves also promote an overall sense of well-being and contemporarily relieve pain in the body. And also what it does, comedy promotes physical relaxation. After laughing, muscles can remain relaxed up to 45 minutes. The act of laughing involves many muscles in the body. And after laughter subsides, the muscles tend to relax, leading to a physical relaxation that you have. And so there's a study that was done in 1988. It was in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. And it was called Sense of Humor as a Moderator of the Relation Between Stressful Events and Psychological Distress.

Starting point is 00:17:11 And what they found in the study was they examined humor as a coping mechanism and its effects on psychological distress. And they found that humor acts as a buffer against stress, suggesting that we should engage in more activities that promote laughter. And so sometimes if you're just stressed, find your favorite comedian, find your favorite TV show, give yourself 10 minutes to watch it and watch how it relieves your stress as well. And the last one I'm going to give you, that was number seven. The last one is start paying attention to the music that you're listening to. If you're really stressed out in the day and you're listening to Slipknot, well, Slipknot's not really going to help you calm down. There's a time for it. I listen to Slipknot sometimes when I work out and it's amazing. It's a tool. I can use it at

Starting point is 00:17:56 that moment. But if I'm feeling stressed and I'm listening to hardcore metal, probably not the best thing to listen to. And so there's music that's been designed to relieve stress. There's a song that I listen to every single time I'm driving and I'm like, okay, today's been a crazy day. I'm going to use this 10-minute drive to kind of calm myself down. The song is called Weightless by Marconi Union. And the way I found it is I read an article one day that said it's the most relaxing song that they've ever, you know, that studies have ever found. So that song for me always calms me down. Another song that really always calms you down

Starting point is 00:18:29 is the Out of Africa theme song from the movie. And there's been many studies over and over and over again that show how much music can actually reduce your anxiety and your stress. There was a study in 2001 in the Journal of Music Therapy and found out that relaxing music prevents stress-induced increases in subjective anxiety. It changes your blood pressure and your heart rate in healthy males and females. And so really the study involves subjects who were exposed to stress-inducing tasks. So they gave them a task that was really hard, really stress-inducing. And those people who listened to relaxing music prior to the actual event had less subjective anxiety, reduced blood pressure, and decreased heart rate compared to those who did not listen to relaxing music. And so if you

Starting point is 00:19:18 find yourself stressed, once again, try to listen to some music that's a little bit calming. And so once again, all of these are just tools for your tool belt there's breathing that you can use there's gratitude that you can use you can go for a walk you can go for a walk in nature which you can use you can write all of your things down of what's going on inside of your head you can get your blood levels checked you can drink less caffeine you can watch 10 minutes of comedy and you can just listen to slow music what it comes down to is your external reality is not going to change. We just have to get better of coping with our external reality.

Starting point is 00:19:51 And these are just some tips and tricks to help you relieve your stress and your anxiety throughout the day. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in it, Rob Dial Jr. R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. Also, if you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in it, Rob Dial Jr., R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. Also, if you love this podcast, please go ahead and buy my book. My book is everything that I've ever learned in the past 17 years of coaching people put into a step-by-step process to create the life that you want. It is not a self-help book. It is a deep psychological book so you can start to understand your brain to take the

Starting point is 00:20:22 action that you need to to create the life that you want. It is called Level Up and it is a subtitle is How to Get Focused, Stop Procrastinating, Upgrade Your Life. If you want to go ahead and get that book, go to robdial.com book. There's many places you can buy it. It's been number one already on Amazon before it even launched, but just being able to buy in pre-sales, number one in neurology, number one in psychology, number one in entrepreneurship. And so if you want it, go ahead and buy it. If you buy it before October 3rd, you will get it on pre-sale, which means that it will be delivered to your house the day it comes out, hopefully as long as your provider or whoever delivers it to your house gets it to

Starting point is 00:20:57 you on time. And when you buy it on pre-sale as well, you will also get, number one, a free course, which is how to stop procrastinating. And at the same time, you will also get entered into a prize pool of over $25,000 in cash and prizes that is only available for people who buy it in pre-sale. And you can enter into that at robdial.com book. And with that, I'm going to leave the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission. Make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you.

Starting point is 00:21:21 And I hope that you have an amazing day.

The Mindset Mentor - 8 Techniques to Relieve Daily Stress

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