25 Great Ways to Manage Your Stress

5. Take a cold shower

Physiologically, a certain amount of mild stress — called hormetic stress — can be beneficial. This can help you build resilience so that your cells, and perhaps even your mind, can tolerate more stress and recover from stress more quickly, says Elissa Epel, vice chair of psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of the school’s Aging, Metabolism and Emotion Center. 

A cold shower is an easy way to get a good dose of hormetic stress, according to Epel. “At the end of your usual warm shower, turn the dial to cold — as cold as you can stand it,” she writes in her book The Stress Prescription: Seven Days to More Joy and Ease. “Can you stay under the cold stream for 15 or 30 seconds? A minute? … Match the shock of the stress response with a relaxed mind as much as possible. This is what builds resilience.” (Note: If you have a heart condition, it’s best to skip this one, as sudden cold-water exposure can cause a spike in blood pressure.)

6. Follow your plan, not your mood

A study published in BMC Psychiatry in July 2025 shows that the psychotherapeutic treatment known as behavioral activation can work just as well at treating depression as antidepressant medications. Taitz says the practice can also manage stress. 

It boils down to a simple axiom: How you feel is connected to what you do. So don’t cancel plans or procrastinate if you feel stressed. Instead, forge ahead with plans and activities that make you feel joy or a sense of accomplishment. 

Maintaining daily habits, rituals and routines works for the same reason, suggests neuroscientist Catherine Franssen, an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences & Sustainability at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. 

“This perspective helps explain why routines, clear expectations, transitions and even small daily habits have such a profound effect on stress,” Franssen says.

7. Embrace casual connections

Taitz says social isolation can cause stress and worsen it, adding that loneliness can be so toxic that it elicits a physical response in the body. Although close friendships are an obvious salve, she says even casual connections can be healing. Taitz recalls a study published in 2013 in Social Psychological & Personality Science in which volunteers went to a Starbucks with instructions to either avoid or embrace impromptu conversations and interactions with others. Those who embraced the casual connections reported better moods and increased feelings of connection. 

“A lot of us think in all-or-nothing ways about relationships,” Taitz says. “We’re either really close or total strangers. ... Working on casual connections can be really helpful, because social support is such a powerful stress buffer.” 

8. Sweat it out

Exercise is another reliable source of hormetic stress. In fact, a 2025 analysis in the journal Sports found that in adults experiencing psychological distress, moderate levels of exercise helped reduce cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone.

For the most stress-busting benefits, both Epel and Taitz recommend short bursts of intense exercise — provided your doctor says you’re healthy enough for it. “Try one round of high-intensity interval training [HIIT],” says Epel. HIIT cycles vary and can include jumping jacks, planks, squats, crunches, lunges, weightlifting and running. You do 30 seconds of exercise at maximum effort, then rest for 10 seconds, then exercise for another 30 seconds, and so on.

9. Learn proper deep breaths

“Take a deep breath” is probably the most common advice for people experiencing stress. That’s because it works, according to Taitz. 

Most people take about 18 breaths per minute, she says. Taitz recommends slowing that down to as few as six breaths per minute by inhaling for five seconds, then exhaling for five seconds. 

“Deep breathing has been shown to reduce stress, encourage relaxation and support emotion regulation,” says Robyne Hanley-Dafoe, author of Stress Wisely: How to Be Well in an Unwell World. She recommends what she calls “birthday cake breathing,” which pairs deep breathing with visualization. “In your mind’s eye, try calling up an image of your favorite cake with lots of candles,” says Hanley-Dafoe. “Take a deep breath in and slowly blow out every last candle.” 

10. Sing ludicrous songs

If you’re ruminating on stressful thoughts, try putting them into the form of a song and singing them to yourself as an upbeat tune, suggests Taitz. This can disarm stressful situations by making them feel silly, she says. 

“Most of us have thoughts that are unhelpful and basically are the mental equivalent of spam,” Taitz says. “If you have one of those thoughts — like ‘I’m a loser’ — instead of taking it seriously, sing it to an upbeat tune like ‘Do You Believe in Magic.’ If you do that, it loses its grip.… The sense of humor is so much better than feeling derailed and governed by something that’s so ludicrous.” 

11. Zoom out

You’ve probably heard the phrase “miss the forest for the trees.” It means you’re so mired in the details that you fail to see the bigger picture. That’s exactly what happens when you’re experiencing stress, says Ethan Kross, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and author of Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It and his latest, Shift: Managing Your Emotions — So They Don’t Manage You. When we’re experiencing stress, “we tend to zoom in really narrowly on the problem,” says Kross, who recommends “zooming out” and “taking a step back.” 

One way to do that is to engage in what he calls “mental time travel.” 

“When you’re in the midst of something stressful, you’re focused on that experience,” Kross says. “You’re zoomed in. Instead, think about how you’re going to feel about this event tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. All of our emotions come and eventually go. We lose sight of that in the moment of stress, but simply reminding ourselves of that by engaging in mental time travel gives us hope by highlighting the [transience] of what we’re going through.” 

12. Loosen your expectations

“We are always visualizing and imagining how the rest of our day, week or even life will go or should go,” Epel notes in The Stress Prescription. “When these expectations are violated, it’s easy to feel like a tragedy has occurred.” 

To counter this, she recommends recognizing your expectations and letting them go by accepting uncertainty. “Notice strong attachments to how you think things should go, and see them for what they are: one possible outcome, not a sure thing,” Epel further writes. “Mentally wipe clean the whiteboard of the day or week ahead. Remind yourself that anything can happen, including unexpected positive things. Uncertainty is welcome.”

13. Put away your phone

Smartphones can be a major source of stress, says researcher Melissa Huey, an assistant professor of psychology at the New York Institute of Technology. For many, the issue is addiction. 

“Smartphones have the same chemical reaction in the brain as drugs and alcohol,” she says. “Getting likes, messages and notifications from your phone releases dopamine, which makes us feel good. For other people, having a continuous stream of updates and being at others’ beck and call can generate a sense of urgency, leading to increased anxiety and stress.” 

To curtail phone-related stress, Huey recommends keeping your phone out of the bedroom when you sleep, turning off notifications or using your phone’s “Do not disturb” setting, and taking regular breaks from the device for set periods. 

14. Tune in to your body

Your body talks to you when you’re stressed. Before you respond, make sure you understand what it’s really trying to tell you, says clinical psychologist Elizabeth Lombardo, author of Get Out of the Red Zone: Transform Your Stress. 

“Research shows that when people interpret anxious symptoms, such as heart racing or sweaty palms, as being excited, their performance actually improves and distress decreases,” she says. “Not all stress is bad. It is important to differentiate between distress — the negative aspect of stress — and eustress, the positive aspect of stress. Eustress occurs when the interpretation of a stressful event is characterized by enthusiasm, empowerment, a growth mindset and a determination to address the source of stress.”  

When distress, rather than eustress, dominates, altering your behavior could change your mood, says Katie Goetz, director of education at Resources for Resilience, a North Carolina–based nonprofit that helps individuals, teams and communities manage stress. “Simple body-based exercises like gentle side-to-side tapping, lifting a heavy object, taking a sip of water or humming can be a helpful reset in the middle of a chaotic moment,” she says. 

15. Schedule stress and serenity

“Some people worry all day — it’s like a news ticker of worries is running constantly in their mind,” says Taitz. However, you might be able to short-circuit your inner breaking-news alerts by what is sometimes called timeboxing. Whether you do it for five, 10 or 20 minutes, what’s important is creating a dedicated time and place for worries so you can sit with them mindfully. 

“It turns out that setting a time to worry reduces worry for the rest of the day,” Epel writes in The Stress Prescription. “You may very well end with a sense of having ‘gotten it out of your system’ for the day.” 

It can also be wise to schedule time for serenity, suggests Hanley-Dafoe. “Schedule microbreaks and opportunities for active recovery in your calendar and honor them as you would any other important meeting,” she says. Recovery behaviors might include standing up from your office chair and stretching, listening to a favorite song or doing a small act of service. 

 16. ‘Gamify’ your stress

Licensed clinical psychologist Moriah O’Barr, co-clinical director of Cultivating Courage Psychological Services in Scarsdale, New York, fights stress by mimicking a main character in a video game. She puts stressors into categories — difficult level, mini-boss level and final-boss level — while chasing health points (HP) and experience points (XP). “Let’s say you just completed a mini-boss level stressful task. Following that, you’ve probably lost some HP and also gained XP. Just like with characters in games, it’s important to restore HP before continuing on, and in the real world, this can look like taking a break, having a snack or cuddling your pet. Let’s not forget that you also gained XP and maybe even leveled up in the process. This is typically felt by allowing yourself the moment of relief and happiness when one thing on your list has been completed. This helps you slow down and appreciate the little wins.”

17. Take inventory

Because stress can sneak up on you, it can be helpful to create a stress inventory, says Teri Macduff, owner of the mental-wellness company Chasing Red Flags and coauthor of the Let’s Get Real wellness journal. 

“Instead of asking, Why am I so stressed? write down everything that’s occupying your mind, then sort it into three categories: what you can control, what you can influence and what you need to let go,” Macduff suggests. “The exercise helps people identify where they’re spending emotional energy unnecessarily.” This practice can be especially helpful at bedtime. Another way to journal your way through is by recounting stressful events — twice. “First, journal about a stressful situation as you’re experiencing it. Then rewrite it from the perspective of your future self six months from now,” Macduff says. “Creating distance from the moment often reduces its emotional intensity and helps people see challenges more objectively.”

18. Be grateful

Hodges notes that gratitude has a long history as a valid resilience tool. “Regular gratitude practice — giving and receiving gratitude — has been found to [help us] improve our quality of life, better manage our stress, feel more happy and … better manage the challenges, changes and storms of life,” she says. “Personally, I set reminders to express gratitude on a regular basis — though after a while, I stopped needing reminders.” 

Don’t feel gratitude for just the present, suggests Goetz. Recalling a happy or heartwarming moment in your life and giving thanks for it can help you defuse stress, she says. “This is because your brain and body respond to remembered safety almost the same way they respond to actual safety,” Goetz explains. “When you interrupt a negative thought loop with something positive, that’s a reminder to your system that it’s OK to return to a state of calm.”

19. Be your own bestie

We often treat ourselves differently than we treat our friends, making stressful situations worse through negative self-talk rather than positive affirmations and encouragement. Kross suggests one solution: Silently talk yourself through stressful circumstances using the second person — as if you were talking to a friend instead of to yourself. 

“Most people have had the experience of it being much easier to give advice to someone else than to give advice to themselves,” he says. “When you use your own name and you try to coach yourself through your problem, it’s like you’re talking to someone else. And that makes it easier to generate wise solutions to problems.” 

20. Spend time outside 

A simple walk outside can do a lot to build resilience, says psychologist Emma Seppälä, a lecturer in management at Yale University and author of Sovereign: Reclaim Your Freedom, Energy and Power in a Time of Distraction, Uncertainty and Chaos. “Studies have shown that a simple walk in nature — as opposed to an urban environment — can significantly decrease anxiety, preserve positive mood and even improve our memory,” she says. 

Nature also can produce awe, Seppälä notes. “Research on awe, which is often inspired by beautiful natural sceneries such as a starlit sky or a vast horizon, suggests that it slows our perception of time — which is the opposite of what happens with stress — by bringing us into the present moment and thereby enhances our well-being and decreases our stress.” 

If you can’t get out in nature, bring nature to you, says Epel, who recommends filling your space with plants and flowers, listening to nature sounds or even experimenting with essential oils.

21. Clean away the chaos

When you’re experiencing stress, what you’re often feeling is a lack of control, according to Kross. He says you can compensate for things you can’t control by focusing on things you can, like your environment. 

“Creating order around you by cleaning up and tidying up can be helpful for giving you a sense of control,” Kross says. Indeed, numerous studies have linked clutter and mess to increased anxiety and stress, and cleanliness to increased feelings of calm and well-being. 

A recent one — a survey of more than 500 adults published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 2025 — found that home clutter was associated with lower mental well-being and increased negative emotions.

22. Eat away inflammation

Although stress feels mental, it has a physical impact, too. That’s because of the stress hormone cortisol. According to the Mayo Clinic, overexposure to cortisol through prolonged and chronic stress can cause anxiety, depression, digestive problems, headaches, sleep problems, weight gain and heart disease, among other things. Research suggests that one way to lower your cortisol levels naturally is to eat anti-inflammatory foods like those found in a Mediterranean diet, which includes plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, beans, nuts and seeds and has long been touted for its health benefits. 

23. Turn to trusted friends

Although sharing stress with trusted friends can be helpful, some friends can do more harm than good. “Talking to other people can be helpful … but it has to be the right people,” Kross says. “Simply venting about problems doesn’t tend to help people. Ruminating about something is good for strengthening the bonds between two people, but if all you do is vent about a problem, you often leave that conversation feeling just as upset.” 

Instead of talking with people who will amplify your stress by reinforcing it, turn to friends who will reduce your stress by helping you solve it. “Co-regulation is one of the most powerful tools we have,” Goetz says. “A quick check-in, shared laugh or supportive conversation ... can lower stress hormones.”

24. Preempt your stress

“Wherever and whenever possible, cope ahead of time,” Hanley-Dafoe suggests. “There are always going to be a number of stressors that show up in our days, yet coping ahead of time is all about doing what we can to proactively make ‘later’ easier and more manageable.” 

If mealtimes are stressful, for example, it can be helpful on busy days to decide in the morning what you’ll make for dinner so you don’t have to scramble at 6 p.m. And if you have a stressful meeting or appointment, consider scheduling something relaxing afterward — a massage or pedicure, or even just a walk in the park.

25. Replace multitasking with monotasking

Although American culture tends to revere people who can juggle multiple activities and responsibilities, multitasking can be a major source of anxiety for many. If that’s you, consider switching from multitasking to monotasking. 

“Multitasking can increase stress levels and lead to decreased productivity,” Hanley-Dafoe says. “Rather than taking on multiple tasks at once, monotasking allows you to be present in the moment and immerse yourself in one thing at a time. In our very full lives, tackling one item on our to-do list at a time can help relieve some of the overwhelm we tend to feel from constant multitasking.”