Best Ways To Reduce Stress

It seems everyone is stressed these days. So what do you do to manage your stress? In this Best For Boomers segment, Mike Drak and Susan Williams share a few of the ways that they reduced their stress.

Susan Williams

Founder, Booming Encore

2 min read.

Everyone seems to be feeling a bit stressed these days. Whether it's COVID, the weather, politics or just the winter blahs, it's sometimes hard not to feel just a little strained.

So how do you manage your stress?

In this Best For Boomers segment, I'm joined by Author Mike Drak as we share some of the ways that we cope.

Here's our discussion;

Here are some of the highlights of our conversation;

Our Top Ways to Manage Stress;

Exercise

Whenever Mike is feeling stressed, he heads to the gym. He finds that turning up the music and doing a workout is one of the best ways to blow off steam and any stress he may be feeling.

Meditation

I discovered meditation later in life. Initially, I thought it was sort of a "new age" type thing but found that research had uncovered some major benefits of meditation - especially for older people. Did you know that some meditation for older people can;

Improve your memory
Decrease cognitive decline
Help improve digestion and circulation
Reduce stress and
Decrease loneliness

Not a bad return for something that doesn't cost anything except your time.

Having a Purpose

Mike shared that having something that he enjoys doing helps him get into a flow state and takes his mind off any stress he might be feeling. We discussed the need of everyone needing a reason to get out of bed in the morning and have something meaningful to do. Without this, life can be quite stressful.

Connecting with Friends

Another thing that I do when I'm feeling stressed, is reach out to friends. Either getting together or just talking can help ease a stressful situation. Beyond helping reduce stress, having meaningful relationships later in life can also help you live longer.

Have a Hobby

Mike's other stress buster is his hobby of fly fishing. He finds that either researching or doing this activity just helps take his mind to another place. In some ways he says that this is his form of meditation.

Go Outside

I find that if things get to be too much, just even going outside can help. A change of scenery and getting in touch with nature can be quite restorative.

These are just a few things that we do. We hope that you have found some good ways to manage your stress so that you are able to live a very happy and healthy booming encore!