3 Tips for Reducing Stress This Summer

HealthyPlace Mental Health Newsletter

Here's what's happening on the HealthyPlace site this week:

• 3 Tips for Reducing Stress This Summer
• What's So Stressful About Summer?What's So Stressful About Summer?
• Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
• From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
• Stand Up for Mental Health
• Latest Mental Health News

3 Tips for Reducing Stress This Summer

Isn't summer supposed to be stress-free? The idea of summer typically conjures images of idyllic days, do-nothing days that are relaxing and recharging. Sadly, that's the stuff of dreams. Nonetheless, you can reduce anxiety and stress and make this a mentally healthy summer.

What's So Stressful About Summer?

In addition to warm weather, summer can bring stress. Summer can mean a change in schedules, and adjusting to this change can be challenging. Then, there's pressure we often place on ourselves: the weather is nice so we should be out enjoying it; our kids are home (Helping Teenagers with Stress) so we shouldn't be spending so much time away from them. These are just two examples of stresses summer can bring.

These three tips can reduce stress this summer:

1. Drop the shoulds. Let go of pressuring yourself with summer activities you think you should/shouldn't be doing. Instead, allow each day to be what it is.
2. Make joy in each day. Create small moments of relaxation and fun throughout the day, no matter what else it brings.
3. Quality is better than quantity. Lots of short strolls through a local park collectively reduce stress more powerfully than a single, lengthy hiking trip.

Here are some other ways of dealing with stress and anxiety.

Keeping things simple will go a long way in reducing stress this summer.

Related Articles Dealing with Reducing Stress

• Relaxation Techniques for Relief of Anxiety and Stress
• Breathing Exercises to Reduce Stress
• Ways to Lower Your Cortisol Levels and Your Anxiety
• A Breathing Exercise to Reduce Stress (video)

Your Thoughts

Today's Question: What are your favorite ways to reduce stress and enjoy the summer season? We invite you to participate by commenting and sharing your feelings, experiences and knowledge on the HealthyPlace Facebook page and on the HealthyPlace Google+ page.

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Share our Stories

At the top and bottom of all our stories, you'll find social share buttons for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and other social sites. If you find a particular story, video, psychological test or other HealthyPlace feature helpful, there's a good chance others in need will too. Please share.

We also get many inquiries about our linking policy. If you have a website or blog, you can link to any page on the HealthyPlace website without asking us beforehand.

Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans

Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:

1. What To Do When You Are Lonely
2. Coping With Adversity and Depression
3. Mental Illness and Self-Acceptance

If you're not already, I hope you'll join us/like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.

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From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.

• Moms with Mental Illness: Prioritize Naptime This Summer
• Tips for Handling Grief in a Healthy Way
• 3 Things Doctors Won’t Tell You About Psychiatric Medications
• Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, and Binge Spending
• What’s Your Anxiety Tolerance Level?
• When Our Eating Patterns and Eating Disorder Are Exposed
• How Can We Reduce the Stigma of PTSD?
• Do People Have the Right to Untreated Mental Illness?
• When Good Things Happen and you Still Want To Binge
• Quiet Your Inner Critic and Find Peace
• Crack Cocaine Versus Powder Cocaine: What Is the Difference?
• Raise Your Self-Esteem: Five Ways to Feel Better Fast
• Mental Illness Stigma and Handling a Job
• How To Cope With Your New Borderline Diagnosis
• What Alters in Dissociative Identity Disorder Feel Like
• Treasure the Moments and Memories in Your Life

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

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Stand Up for Mental Health

Thousands Have Joined the Stand Up for Mental Health Campaign

But we still need you. Let others know there's no shame in having depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, trichotillomania, OCD, ADHD, schizophrenia or any other mental illness.

Join the Stand Up for Mental Health campaign. Put a button on your website or blog (buttons for family members, parents, mental health professionals and organizations too). We also have covers for Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

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Latest Mental Health News

These stories and more are featured on our mental health news page:

• Moving Houses In Childhood Increases Suicide, Death Risk
• Anxiety Disorders 'Most Common Among Women And Young Adults'
• Anxiety And Depression Linked To Recurrence Of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Brain Structure That Tracks Negative Events Backfires In Depression
• Birth Defect Risk May Increase With Use Of Pain, Anxiety Drug In Pregnancy
• People With Significant Heart Disease Less Able To Cope With Mental Stress
• Among Active Duty Military, Army Personnel Most At Risk For Violent Suicide
• Cognitive Decline Hastened With Greater Fluctuations In Blood Pressure

That's it for now. If you know of anyone who can benefit from this newsletter or the HealthyPlace.com site, I hope you'll pass this onto them. You can also share the newsletter on any social network (like facebook, stumbleupon, or digg) you belong to by clicking the links below. For updates throughout the week:

• circle HealthyPlace on Google+,
• follow HealthyPlace on Twitter
• follow HealthyPlace on Pinterest
• or become a fan of HealthyPlace on Facebook.

back to: HealthyPlace.com Mental-Health Newsletter Index