I noticed an ugly feedback relationship between stress and exercise. When I was stressed, I exercised less. When I exercised less, I was more prone to stress. Ways I broke the cycle: taking an exercise class, scheduling workouts with friends, booking a race so I was forced to train, and picking exercise options that were too awesome to not do. (An example of that last one: my favorite bike ride is across the Golden Gate Bridge and along the coast to a restaurant with good brunch and strong margaritas, followed by a ferry ride home.)
I also discovered that some of where I "store" stress is in muscle tension. Yoga, massages, saunas, steam rooms, hot baths: all reduce my stress level. As a confirmed nerd, I had to learn to ignore the associated woo and the flashbacks to middle school gym class, but it was totally worth it.
My doctor also recommended B vitamins; in particular B100 and sublingual B12 tablets. It definitely seems to help, although I haven't done a blind trial.
Meditation has also been useful to me, but I'm still struggling to find a sustainable way to do it regularly.
More broadly, I'd encourage HN readers to treat it as an experimental problem: Subject Y's stress level is too high, leading to [bad outcomes]. What interventions are most effective at fixing the problem? Every month I pick some things, try them for the whole month, and then see. The ones I'm sure I like, I keep.
I noticed an ugly feedback relationship between stress and exercise. When I was stressed, I exercised less. When I exercised less, I was more prone to stress. Ways I broke the cycle: taking an exercise class, scheduling workouts with friends, booking a race so I was forced to train, and picking exercise options that were too awesome to not do. (An example of that last one: my favorite bike ride is across the Golden Gate Bridge and along the coast to a restaurant with good brunch and strong margaritas, followed by a ferry ride home.)
I also discovered that some of where I "store" stress is in muscle tension. Yoga, massages, saunas, steam rooms, hot baths: all reduce my stress level. As a confirmed nerd, I had to learn to ignore the associated woo and the flashbacks to middle school gym class, but it was totally worth it.
My doctor also recommended B vitamins; in particular B100 and sublingual B12 tablets. It definitely seems to help, although I haven't done a blind trial.
Meditation has also been useful to me, but I'm still struggling to find a sustainable way to do it regularly.
More broadly, I'd encourage HN readers to treat it as an experimental problem: Subject Y's stress level is too high, leading to [bad outcomes]. What interventions are most effective at fixing the problem? Every month I pick some things, try them for the whole month, and then see. The ones I'm sure I like, I keep.