It is a beautiful Monday morning, the sun is bright and the smell of your morning coffee fills the kitchen with a delicious aroma. Your schedule is full and you think to yourself that this is going to be a busy day. What can you do to make this day less stressful?

Stress is one of the most common psychological conditions among college students. Stress can be associated with anxiety, depression, a decrease in academic performance and life satisfaction. Here are some stress reduction techniques to help you with your stress management.

Take your lunch near nature:

While you take your lunch break from work or from classes, a good way to reduce stress is surrounding yourself with nature. For example, sitting in a chair in a nearby park while eating your lunch enjoying the fresh air and seasonal colors is one way to reduce stress.

In a behavioral sciences study from the U.S. National Library of Medicine titled, “Levels of Nature and Stress Response,” it was found that surrounding yourself with a natural environment reduces stress.

Stretching:

If you have been sitting all day in your classes, you should consider stretching to release muscular stress and tension. Stretching is the act of releasing tension from muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons. While stretching is usually used before or after exercising to prevent injuries, it is also a way to release stress from your body.

A publication from the Harvard Medical School called, “The Importance of Stretching,” encourages people to practice stretching to keep muscles flexible, strong and healthy. With a proper five to ten minutes of light stretching a person can reduce their muscular stress.

Aromatherapy:

Aromatherapy is a holistic healing treatment that can be done with essential oils, and other aromas such as candles with fragrances.

In a publication called, “A Study on Stress and Aromatherapy Intervention Efficacy” from the University of Montana it was tested if aromatherapy could reduce stress. The study found that aromatherapy is effective in reducing stress.

You can use a diffuser with essential oils to reduce your stress at home or try an aromatherapy candle with your favorite fragrance.

Listen to some music:

Music is a powerful thing; a song can affect your mood and choosing the right kind of music to reduce your stress is one of the best stress management techniques. You can create a playlist in Spotify or go to YouTube and add a list of your favorite relaxing songs.

A study published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine named “The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response,” found that listening to music before a stressful situation helped people to recover faster from stress. Therefore, if you are about to have a busy meeting, it would be a good idea to play your music beforehand to reduce the stress from the meeting.

If this week you feel like your stress is getting out of hand, all of these techniques could help you manage your stress on a busy day.