11 Ways to Reduce Farm Stress and Improve Mental Health

11 Smart Ways to Reduce Farm Stress and Improve Mental Health

Farm stress can eat us alive, but managing farm stress is a skill that can be developed and cultivated. Some of the things on this list are mindset shifts and some are ways to that lower the stress hormones in your body. Pick a few to implement today.

1. Deep Breathing-when you feel stressed take 10 or 20 deep breathes until you feel your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal

2. Re-frame exercise into the farmers runner’s high. This means that after we do something physical, we need to take two breathes and appreciate what we accomplished!

3. Anchor yourself- need some ideas check out our video 15 Ways to Anchor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAN38HuQ-9E

4. Remember Why You Love Farming. Sometimes the things that we love about farming are also the same things that stress us out. Need some examples, see them here https://youtu.be/GmW4-ReDGHc

5. Do a daily gratitude practice-every morning write down 3 bright spots or good things that happened the day before. This induces a double dose of dopamine first things in the morning plus is rewires our brain to search for positive things throughout our day. Need the how to video, get it at www.micultivatebalance.com/tools.

6. Drink your water-everything works better, you have more energy, and your physical, mental, and emotional health will thank you! Need the Water Tracker, get it at www.micultivatebalance.com/tools.

7. Tell someone you appreciate them and why-sometimes in stressful seasons of life we put our relationships on the back burner and this can help to bring that into the light.

8. At the end of the day, tell yourself 5 things that you did well today. . . seriously do it, you kicked butt today, give yourself a little credit.

9. Stretch your muscles-it feels great, relieves soreness and helps you sleep deeper. Need the Ultimate Guide to Stretching, get it at www.micultivatebalance.com/tools.

10. Focus on what you can control-sometimes we confuse what we are responsible for with what we have control over, read that again. Control and responsibility are different.

11. Say no- get good at saying no to things that don’t align with your priorities. Get comfortable saying no in a way that doesn’t offend the person asking you for something, and also in a way that doesn’t make you feel guilty.

Farming can be a blessing and a curse, if we can develop the stress relief skill then we can get back to a place where we truly enjoy farming every day.