Life is stressful. Most people accept living a hectic lifestyle is a part of being an adult. Responsibilities drain your time and attention and keep you from doing things that you truly enjoy. If you don’t recognize and manage your stress levels, sooner or later it will take a toll on your health. There is a direct relationship between overwhelming stress and chronic health conditions. 

Don’t allow stress to run and eventually ruin your life. Start taking steps to understand what stress is and how you can keep it in check. Stress comes from a lack of control. Allowing yourself to worry about the unknown makes stress levels surge. By taking control of your choices you are shaping your own destiny. The more control you have over daily activities, the less worried you will be about the outcome thereby lowering your stress levels. 

Travel

You’ve heard it before, “travel is good for the soul”, you may be surprised by how accurate that statement is; especially if you consider how travel can decrease the amount of stress you experience. Find somewhere you’d enjoy visiting and allow yourself to be immersed in the local festivities and attractions. Consider, for example, all that Asheville, NC has to offer. Find your home away from home at The Foundry Asheville, and get exploring the vast artistic culture and unique experiences.

Why Asheville? You can take a train and absorb the infinite beauty of the breathtaking scenery surrounding you. This is the perfect opportunity to focus your energy on meditating. Controlled breathing exercises lower your blood pressure almost instantly. Bring a journal with you and capture your thoughts. Evaluate your goals, and write them down then establish a starting point working to achieve them; goals that help to declutter your mind and help you focus on what you need to improve your quality of life. 

After your journey of self-discovery in nature, you can decide if you want to hike in the mountains and continue to clear your head or head into town and have a bit of fun. You’ll find streets with buskers sharing their music, shops offering unique, local crafts and artists proudly sharing their work. 

Take A Break

Exploring a new town helps to lower your stress and improve your mental health because you’re not surrounded by all the demands of your normal daily life. Getting away helps you to refocus on what makes you happy. Taking a break from your normal stressors increases your self-confidence and boosts your mood. 

Even before you actually get out of town, planning and anticipation of an upcoming trip can increase those feel-good hormones in your brain that naturally combat stress. To sustain improved mental health, make taking time off and going on a trip a priority. An added benefit of doing things that foster good mental health is teaching yourself that you, yourself, are a priority. 

Creativity

When you visit other towns, states or even countries, it’s an endless source of creativity. You may discover things you never even knew about and embrace new hobbies or interests. When you continue to grow your new hobby when you return home, you’ll always associate it with where you learned it and flood your mind with the fun you had. 

The journey to better mental health starts with a single step. It is, in fact, a journey and not a sprint. A journey that encourages you to get to know yourself and realize your worth. Once you get a handle on stress, you stop existing and start living.