If you’re feeling under a lot of stress and pressure recently, perhaps to the point where you are struggling to sleep, feeling depressed or even finding it difficult to go to work and face the day, there are many things you can do to help reduce your stress levels.

While you can visit your doctor and ask for some prescription medication, many people would rather try to reduce their stress naturally. Here are some of the tried and tested methods of naturally reducing your stress levels.

1. Sleep more

One of the main causes of stress is a lack of sleep. If you aren’t sleeping long enough at night, it could cause you to feel stressed or exacerbate existing stress. With sleep, different people need varying amounts of it, so you could need 10 hours while your partner only need 6 hours.

Try to sleep longer at night to see whether it improves your stress levels.

2. Eat a healthy diet

Many people have experienced a drastic change in their overall mental health when they start eating a healthier diet. It can be difficult to do this if you have a busy life and you are often eating food on the go and grabbing something quick, but making the extra effort to have a healthy diet for at least part of the week can go a long way to naturally reducing your stress levels.

There is evidence to suggest that some foods are particularly good at helping to combat stress, such as chicken soup, peppermint tea and fresh fruits and vegetables.

3. Essential oils

Essential oils can be used around the home, on your pillow before you sleep, or in the bath. They have many properties which have been known to reduce stress and anxiety levels, so shop around to find which scents and types you like and experiment to find something that works for you.

4. Exercise and moving more

Exercise can help with reducing stress, but this doesn’t mean that you have to suddenly start hitting the gym every day.

You can get some exercise by moving a little bit more than you normally do, such as taking the elevator up a few floors and walking the remaining flight of stairs. Alternatively you can walk to the next bus stop or ditch your car once a week in favour of cycling to work or to the shops.