Healthy food for a good mood. How to calm your nerves without pills?

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Plan:

— General recommendations for restoring the nervous system — Folk remedies and herbs for restoring nerves — Restoration at home — 9 simple ways to restore the nervous system

How to relieve nervous tension? For many years there was an opinion that “nerve cells do not recover,” but now scientists have proven that this is not true. All nerve cells are prone to regeneration (restoration), but it happens very slowly. In order to stimulate this process, you do not need to make any exorbitant efforts. First of all, you need to reconsider your attitude towards life, reassess your values, and set priorities.

How to calm your nerves? By following simple recommendations, you can help your nervous system cope with stressful situations even under conditions of increased stress.

1) Normalization of sleep. During sleep, the body, exhausted during the working day, is restored. For healthy, full sleep it is very important: a) try not to be overtired during the day; b) do not overeat at night (try to have dinner with light food and at least 3-4 hours before bedtime); c) comfortable bed; d) a constant flow of fresh air during sleep (in the summer, sleep with the window open, in the winter, ventilate the bedroom before going to bed).

1) Proper regular nutrition, providing the body with all the necessary substances.

2) Regular walks in the fresh air (at least 1 hour a day).

3) If you feel that your nervous system is failing, take a vacation (a few days is enough), forget about everything, turn off your phone.

4) Change of activity: alternation of physical, mental work and rest.

5) An activity “for the soul” that brings positive emotions.

6) Positive attitude: try to find positive aspects in any situation, even an unpleasant one.

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To reduce your cortisol levels by 20%, meditate

Thai scientists conducted an experiment in which all participants were required to meditate every day for six weeks. The results of the study exceeded all expectations - analyzes showed that in absolutely all subjects, cortisol and blood pressure levels decreased significantly.

And according to Maharishi University, in people who meditated daily for four months, the level of stress hormone decreased by an average of 20%, while in those who did not practice this method of relaxation, on the contrary, it continued to increase.

Listen to music to reduce cortisol levels by 66%

Calm music will help you calm down if you are worried or feel that your patience is running out. For example, patients at a medical center in Osaka whose doctors played pleasant background music during a gastroscopy experienced less stress than people who underwent a similar procedure in complete silence.

This principle works not only in relation to unpleasant medical studies, but also in principle in any situation when you are nervous and cannot relax: after a hard day, turn on something jazz or blues at dinner, for five minutes - and you will forget about all the troubles At work.

And it’s better to get ready for bed to the accompaniment of soothing piano music rather than militant TV.

To reduce cortisol levels by 50%, sleep more than six hours

It is only at first glance that there is not much difference between six and eight hours of sleep. Just think - 120 minutes, how can they change anything? Meanwhile, two hours of sleep reduces the production of stress hormone by half.

German scientists from the Institute of Aerospace Medicine found that pilots who sleep six hours or less during the week have cortisol levels that increase significantly while on duty and remain elevated for several more days.

The required eight hours of sleep allows the body to recover from stress, but chronic lack of sleep, on the contrary, only increases it. But if you once again fail to go to bed early, then a couple of hours of daytime sleep will help save the situation and curb the production of the “nervous” hormone.

However, while not all offices have comfortable sofas on which you can take a nap after a lunch break, you should only count on a full night’s sleep.

Black chocolate

Many people know that chocolate improves mood because it promotes the production of endorphin, the hormone of happiness. The cocoa beans from which real chocolate is made contain special antioxidants that prolong the life of nerve cells.

It is not necessary to get carried away with chocolate and eat it in large quantities to prevent stress. It is enough to consume about 30 grams of high-quality dark chocolate per day.

To reduce cortisol levels by 47%, drink a cup of black tea

The best definition of this property of black tea was given by the British, calling it a drink that is cheerful, but not intoxicating. And an experiment during which volunteers from University College London had to complete a complex stressful task only confirmed this characteristic.

Thus, among students who regularly drank black tea, after an hour, the level of cortisol in the blood dropped by 47%, while their colleagues who drank other tea all the time decreased by only 27%.

The author of the experiment, Professor Andrew Steptoe, associates this feature of tea with its constituent polyphenols and flavonoids - antioxidants, which, among other beneficial properties, are responsible for a person’s relaxed state during and after drinking tea.

Green tea

Tea makes us resistant to stress and helps improve mood during depression. All this can, of course, be explained by cleansing the blood of toxins, but it is much more pleasant to realize that together with tea we are pouring into ourselves a mysterious, magical essence. Connoisseurs of this drink note that conversations over tea are different from everyday conversations and reveal the best side of the interlocutor.

Only fresh and properly prepared tea has such wonderful properties. In addition to normalizing the functioning of the body, green tea is also a powerful spiritual stimulant. This is why green tea helps us fight stress.

To lower your cortisol levels by 39%, spend time with a fun friend.

Communicating with a friend who will listen to you at any moment and try to turn all your worries into a joke will help not only cope with anxiety, but even neutralize the body’s hormonal response to stress. Just the anticipation of laughter is enough to reduce your cortisol levels by almost half.

And if for some reason your friend is out of reach and a therapeutic meeting with him cannot take place, you can achieve a similar effect by arranging for yourself a home viewing of films from your personal rating of the top 5 favorite comedies. A couple of episodes of Friends and no stress.

What calms the nerves without drugs

And if you need to get your nerves in order, but you don’t want to resort to certain medications, then here’s what will help you relax at home.

The easiest way to calm down and relax is to take a dip in a hot bath . If your nerves are completely on edge, run yourself a bubble bath. To calm down and get your nerves in order before bed, add pine needle extract to your bath, it will help you sleep better.

You need to lie in such a bath for at least 20 minutes to calm down and free yourself from worries. The sleep after it will be healthier, deeper and more peaceful.

If there are a lot of negative thoughts in your head and you are constantly worried about something, take a contrast shower . To do this, you need to turn on the shower and adjust it so that the water temperature is as comfortable as possible for you.

Once you get used to it, make it colder. Next, you need to alternate cold and hot water to improve blood circulation. This procedure will help not only restore nerves, but also give elasticity to the skin.

You can also get rid of nervous tension with the help of cold dousing . To do this, it is recommended to go outside or onto a balcony and pour a bucket of cool water over yourself. The blood vessels will narrow sharply, and the nervous system will come into order.

In addition, if you are suddenly stunned by unpleasant news and feel an increase in your heart rate, then you need to drink a glass of cold water . It will help fill cells and blood vessels with life-giving moisture, which will also have a beneficial effect on the nerves.

Loads and bursts of energy

Once upon a time, our primitive ancestors experienced a nervous shock in the face of a threat to their lives. So, when attacked by a dangerous predator, a large amount of adrenaline was released into a person’s blood, which helped him run long and fast.

But modern shocks mostly do not pose any threat to our lives, but the adrenaline rush is still present. Therefore, to calm your nerves, it is recommended to practice physical activity :

Do squats.
Pull the dumbbells.
Run in the morning.
Walk a lot.

All these actions will not only help calm your nerves, but will be beneficial for your figure. In most cases, psychologists do not recommend “keeping negative emotions inside”; you need to throw them out periodically .

If you need to cry, cry; when you need to scream, scream. This way, all the negativity will not accumulate inside and corrode you further.

Recreation and nature

To get your nerves in order, it is recommended to periodically remain alone with nature. For city dwellers, this is not so easy because not everyone has a dacha.

To forget about your problems, try to get out of town and arrange an active holiday:

take a walk in the forest;
climb mountains or hills;
go fishing;
collect mushrooms.

And this is not a complete list of what you can do in nature to calm down and at least temporarily forget about what’s bothering you.

How to eat healthy

If a person is nervous almost constantly, even for minor reasons, then this indicates the exhaustion of his nervous system. And to put it in order, you also need to pay attention to how we eat.

So, you need to eat more foods containing fatty acids and vitamins :

Dairy products.
Sea fish.
Eggs.
Oils.
Beans.
Meat.
Honey.

You can eat chocolate when your nerves are at their limit and you need to quickly calm down. Thanks to this product, endorphins ( "joy " hormones) are produced, which help improve mood and restore nerves.

Music to calm your nerves

Music is a strong stimulant that creates positive energy. Thanks to it, you can be inspired to do new things and calm down when you need it.

To calm your nerves, the best works of the classics :

Chopin.
Bach.
Mozart.
Beethoven.

You can include sounds that imitate nature - the sounds of the forest, the sound of a sea wave or the singing of birds. If you find yourself in a situation of loss where you need strength to move on, play some inspirational song that will help you cope with the problem and give you the strength to move on.

Get a massage to reduce cortisol levels by 31%

A small relaxing massage works better than any sedative, and it is also a thousand times more beneficial. According to the University of Miami, people who received a half-hour massage session once a week for a month saw their cortisol levels drop by almost one-third.

Spa treatments help not only keep the stress hormone normal, but also produce pleasure hormones such as serotonin and dopamine. Therefore, if you haven’t yet figured out what to give your loved one for the New Year, then a subscription for 10 massage sessions or any other relaxing treatments will be a win-win option.

Almond

These nuts are similar to chocolate in their beneficial composition. Almonds contain vitamin riboflavin (B2), vitamins E, zinc and magnesium. They produce serotonin in the body, which counteracts stress and improves mood. Zinc also removes the negative manifestations of stress, and vitamin E works as a powerful antioxidant.

It is enough to eat a small amount of almonds daily to relieve the nervous system. Just be careful not to overdo it, as these nuts are high in calories and can lead to unwanted weight gain. Doctors recommend consuming no more than 50 grams of almonds per day.

Chew gum to reduce cortisol levels by 16%

In case of unexpected stressful situations, always have chewing gum on hand. When you feel like you're about to explode with rage, one piece of gum will help you instantly relieve tension.

At least, data from Northumbria University in the UK shows that the saliva of a person who chewed gum during a moment of stress had 12% less cortisol than the saliva of a person who did nothing.

Scientists explain this property by the fact that monotonous chewing increases blood flow and stimulates neural activity in certain areas of the brain.