3 No-Fail Ways I Deal with Stress (The Truth)

Disclosure: this post is brought to you in partnership with Talkspace

What you’re about to read is something quite personal. So, please be kind 🙂

Like anybody else, I experience stress in my day-to-day life.

But, since I live in the United States, I tend to think of my stress as “first world problems”.

And, well, they are first world problems.

In fact, I’m too embarrassed to admit the kinds of things that stress me out. I’ll leave that to your imagination.

The problem with stress though is that it can snowball into every other area of life.

As a Personal Trainer, i’ve always felt that it’s my job to manage my stress.

Because if I don’t manage my stress, it is very difficult for me to:

• eat healthy
• be motivated to exercise
• be nice lol

I also find that when my stress levels are high, I tend to waste a lot of time and I don’t get as much done as I would like.

All these issues have made stress management one of my top priorities in my life.

Over the years, through a lot of trial and error I have found things that work well for me.

I hope sharing what I do will encourage you to also manage your stress in your own way.

1. Talking to a therapist on this website…

Yes, you read that right.

I have been using Talkspace for all my therapy needs since 2015.

Get $150 off your first month of Talkspace with code KOBOKO

It is – by far – the easiest and most convenient way I have found to talk to a licensed therapist anytime I want.

The thing I love the most about Talkspace is that I don’t have to get dressed to see my therapist.

Trust me, you don’t want to know the number of times I have messaged my therapist with deep conditioner in my hair.

The reason I went to therapy in 2015 is that I had a significant number of life changes occur at the same time.

I felt very overwhelmed and I didn’t have a very good support system around me at the time.

Not to be dramatic or anything but therapy kind of saved my life. I 100% recommend it!

I’ve included the link and discount code again below; so you can give Talkspace a try. What do you have to lose?

Get $150 off your first month of Talkspace with code KOBOKO

2. Doing my warm showers like this…

I take warm showers every single night.

The days that I have felt too tired to take a shower and tried to sleep; I did not sleep very well.

I find that the warm water relaxes my muscles almost like I’m getting a massage. I also like the sauna-like effect of the steam.

To crank things up a notch, I also tend to have a nice candle burning. My favorite scents usually have something vanilla in them.

There is always Spotify playing some slow jams and the lights are dim.

All this sounds very indulgent but guess what? It only takes 5 minutes.

5 minutes of indulgence to get a solid night’s sleep? sign me up!

3. Starting my 4:30am mornings like this…

It is not unusual for me to be up by 4:30am on most days.

While this might sound impractical, it is an essential part of my stress-management.

When I wake up at 4:30am, I can take my time with things.

I don’t rush through brushing my teeth or planning my day.

I don’t rush through breakfast.

And I don’t have to rush through taking care of my son when he wakes up at 6am.

I used to fight myself about this because I felt that I was wasting time by not rushing in the mornings.

But you know what? That’s okay.

I’ve made peace with “wasting time” in the mornings because the result is that I am less stressed during the day.

Keep in mind that this may not work for you if you are a night owl.

My family is full of people that are full-fledged night owls.

I sympathize with them because the world is not organized to leverage their strengths – at all.

The Bottom Line

There are a few other things I do to manage my stress.

But, these are the top three.

It feels great to have a mental health professional to talk to about any issue I am experiencing. Thanks to Talkspace!

I start my day with a lot of calm and intention. Thanks to waking up early!

And I go to bed feeling relaxed and taken care of. Thanks to the relaxing ambience of my 5-minute warm showers.

With all these three bases covered, I’m able to get through my first world problems with a lot less stress.