6 Ways To Finally Become A Morning Person

Pop quiz: How do you react when your alarm goes off? A) Hit the snooze button a half dozen times. B) Begrudgingly slide out of bed. C) Toss the covers off with glee and start your day.

You may need to let your genes answer. While our lifestyle habits and personality traits contribute to our preferred sleep routines, it’s the genes of early birds and night owls that determine what time of day they are most alert.

Does it matter if you’re a morning person or a night owl? “The world is oriented toward rewarding morning people,” said Laura Vanderkamp who is the author of What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: “Research has shown that students who are alert in their morning classes get better grades. And in the workforce, if you’re on top of your game at an 8 a.m. meeting, everyone notices.” In other words, no one sees how much energy you have or how hard you’re working at 11 p.m.

But here’s the good news: It’s possible to seize the day and develop morning-person habits, even if your genes say otherwise. We partnered with Tropicana and talked to experts about the best tips and tricks to follow to help you make the most of your mornings.

1. Calculate Your Ideal Bedtime

The easiest way to wake up earlier in the morning is to get enough sleep. But that number can be drastically different for everyone. Here’s how to figure out your sleep needs: For a week, track the number of hours you sleep, including weekends. Divide that number by seven to calculate your nightly need. In reality, babies, work projects or a “Sherlock” marathon can make this exercise laughable. If that’s the case, think about a time you’ve been on vacation or of a night you felt particularly rested — how much sleep did you get? Once you have that number, count backwards from the time you want to get up and plan to go to bed at that new hour.

2. Identify Your Stay-Awake Triggers

Nighttime can slip away fast, especially when you have a lot to accomplish. To be successful in sticking with an earlier bedtime, you may need to set an alarm to start winding down. And contrary to popular advice, you don’t have to turn off screens right before bed. “It’s really an individual thing,” said Vanderkamp. “Think about what gets you going and has your mind racing and avoid it.” Reading is a great way to unwind and relax, but reading a thriller may not be the best idea. Paying bills or checking your child’s schoolwork could induce more stress than watching a comedy that sends you off to bed with a smile.

3. Create A Morning To-Do List

Another good habit is to think about what you want to accomplish in the morning. “Having a morning goal is the best motivation,” said McKey. She recommends writing three tasks you have to do the next day. “This way you’ll feel like you’re on a mission when you wake up, you’ll get closer to your morning goal and you’ll have a clear schedule to follow.” Seeing the benefits of your earlier wake-up time (like feeling less overwhelmed when you arrive at work) will make it feel less like a chore.

4. Reward Yourself

Similarly, have a reward in mind for why you want to wake up early. “Every kid is a morning person on Christmas day,” said Vanderkamp. Find a little bit of that magical motivation: Think of something you want to do, but can never find the time to do, whether it’s playing with your cat, catching up with a friend or enjoying a home-cooked breakfast. McKey’s own reward is to see the sunrise, which is why she jogs early in the morning.

5. Exercise

“People who exercise tend to sleep better than those who don’t,” said Vanderkamp. Indeed, studies have shown a strong correlation to a better quality of sleep for people who work out at least 10 minutes a day. One reason: exercise reduces your stress levels, which in turn helps combat insomnia. By working out, your body releases serotonin and endorphins. “Both of these hormones are responsible for happiness, will help you feel more energized during the day and you’ll be able to think more clearly,” said McKey.

6. Ask Yourself, ‘Why Do You Want To Do This?’

It can be difficult to develop new habits on demand, even if you know the habit is positive and useful. Think about New Year’s resolutions. Even when it’s something you should be doing, success rates are incredibly low. “If someone chooses to develop morning-person habits by their own will — not because a spouse or friend said so — it will be easier to do,” said McKey. Think about how becoming a morning person can make your life better. For most people, just knowing that they’re most productive in the morning is a big incentive. As Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.”

8 Surprising Reasons You're Tired All The Time

We’re in the midst of an energy crisis. No, not that one. This one: We’re tired. So. Completely. Tired.

To paraphrase Aerosmith, it can often feel like your get up and go musta got up and went. It’s not just a matter of working too much and sleeping too little, though of course those are both big parts of it. It’s sometimes easy to pinpoint why you’re flagging by the afternoon — that weekend of partying, for instance — but sometimes the causes are more complicated.

Here are some common contributors to that two o’clock feeling:

1. You’re not sleeping enough.

OK. So this one is kind of a gimme, but not for the reason you think. Sleep isn’t just about resting; there’s a lot going on inside while you’re conked out for the night. Case in point: human growth hormone. Growth hormone, a protein made by the pituitary gland, plays a role in making muscles healthy and bones strong. It affects how our bodies collect fat (especially around the stomach area) and it helps balance the ratio of good to bad cholesterol. It’s also essential for normal brain function. Not enough it of leads to fatigue, decreased strength and stamina, and depression symptoms. Since growth hormone is secreted primarily when we sleep, seven and a half or eight hours of high-quality shut-eye each night will help keep weight and pain down and boost up your energy.

2. You’re eating too much junk.

We think of sugar as a quick way to boost energy, but in the long run it does just the opposite. All those that end in -ose, like glucose, dextrose, maltose and sucrose, are just going to leave you sluggish. Research shows that fast food also puts you in biological slo-mo. Try this all-day energy meal plan, instead.

3. You’re not drinking enough water.

Many people can’t identify when their fatigue is due to dehydration. A glass of water may be the jolt you need, rather than sugar (see above). Drink as much H2O as it takes to keep your mouth moist throughout the day. And remember this rule of thumb: Your pee should be light yellow to clear. If it’s brighter and darker yellow, you need to drink more water.

4. You’re low in vitamin B.

You need B vitamins for your mitochondria to turn glucose into energy. We can absorb B vitamins well in liquid or pill form, but 99 percent of us don’t get enough from our diets. Try taking a vitamin in the morning and evening. This will keep levels stable and get you energized, and there’s no harm in it since you’ll excrete any excess water-soluble vitamins.

If you’re having symptoms of low energy, check your vitamin B12 and D levels, and, in any case, have them checked annually. If you find you have the rare case of not absorbing them well into your intestine and stomach, you can get a B12 injection yearly.

5. You’ve got an infection.

Infection and inflammation can be two dominos in the low-energy cascade of symptoms. One of your goals could be to monitor your body so infections don’t linger. So what can you do? Floss regularly to lower your gum inflammation risk. Reduce sinusitis with a neti pot. Use probiotics to treat prostatitis, vaginitis and bowel infections. With viral infections, frequent hand washing, sleeping and avoiding saturated fats and simple sugars can help.

6. You need to move more.

You can jump-start your energy with an activity as simple as walking. When you get moving, nitric oxide is released from the artery linings to allow blood to move freely through your vessels. This helps get more nutrients to your cells. Your body responds to your actions. If you tell your body you’re watching re-runs all night, it will downshift energy production. If you tell your body that you need to have a brisk morning walk, it responds by giving you the energy you need to do just that.

7. Your hormones are out of whack.

There are numerous hormones that factor in to how energized or blah you’re feeling. Hormones are like dimmers on headlights. When you need bright lights, you turn on certain hormones to increase the energy to that area, and decrease usage elsewhere. The fine-tuning starts in your hypothalamus and pituitary. The two primary sources of trouble are slow-functioning thyroid and adrenal glands. As for adrenal hormones, take this little test: When you’re hungry, do you quickly switch to feeling so irritable and ravenous that if you don’t eat, you’ll commit a felony? This is a sign that your adrenal glands may not be working properly.

8. You’re insulin resistant.

Insulin resistance — a precursor to diabetes — makes it hard to get sugar (our body’s fuel) to our energy production plants. We then distribute the sugar into fat storage rather than storing it in cells, which need it to produce energy.

Why You Should Never Sleep On a Cotton Pillowcase

Never sleep on a cotton pillowcase. It can add years to your appearance by causing wrinkles. Silk pillowcases are the best choice for beauty rest.

According to skincare experts, they cut down on friction against the face. They're also said to reduce irritation, hair frizz and wrinkles.

Cotton pillowcases are said to catch your skin because they don't allow skin to slide. On the other hand, silk pillowcases are said to let your skin breathe, while not pulling at the skin. Lying face down could also cause aging.

Even Kourtney Kardashian is a fan of silk. She says on her app it won't dry out skin like cotton pillowcases because it doesn't absorb natural oils from your skin.

It isn't clear if she was paid for the post.

With that said, silk pillowcases will set you back up to $100 -- but can you really put a price on preventing wrinkles?

5 Foods That That Are Proven To Relieve Stress

If there is one thing most people have experienced, it’s stress. We’re either managing it with a commitment to self-care or being run by it and trying to hold on, and it’s all very normal.

In fact, the American Psychological Association conducted a survey called “Stress In America” in January that shows Americans, in general, have more stress now than ever before. Their studies show that most people are concerned about police violence, personal safety and the overall state of the country.

Those umbrella topics don’t even cover our individual lives that come with their own uniquely stressful situations.

If you’re like me, then you find comfort in little things, one of them being food, which is fine as long as its done in moderation.

According to Sleep.org, getting enough sleep is also a huge part of keeping stress down.

So, in honor of our love for a great meal and even better sleep, here are five meals that will contribute to sweet rest, less stress, or both.

1. Sweet potato toast

ccording to the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute, Jaclyn London, R.D., sweet potatoes are a great source of potassium (which regulates your heartbeat according to Web MD) and will help you to relax.

As you can see from the yummy-looking photo, an easy way to munch on sweet potatoes before bed is by toasting slices of it so that you aren’t over-stuffed. The slices are convenient since you can top them with whatever items you have in your fridge that you think compliment the sweet potato.

2. A bowl of blueberries

Keep a low food prep time and just snack on a bowl of fresh blueberries. They are great for reducing stress and have a chemical, valproic acid, that stabilizes your mood.

Blueberries also shouldn’t make you feel too stuffed when you lie down for bed.

3. Yogurt

Yogurt manages stress, but also contributes to healthier skin and stronger bones, according to a Huffpost report. The fun thing about yogurt is not just that it comes in a million different flavors, like the Yoplait root beer flavor waiting in my fridge to be devoured right now.

You can also get creative with how you consume this healthy dessert, by abandoning the traditional cup and trying a fun yogurt bowl stocked with fruit.

4. Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a great way to beckon sleep, according to Psychology Today. It also relieves stress, so you can easily double up and drop in a few blueberries.

Just be careful with the sugar because it will wire you and then cause a crash, which does not bode well for a good night’s sleep.

5. Salmon

According to Healthy Eating, salmon is one of the best super foods to munch on since it has omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce stress hormones.

So if you want to eat dinner before bed and need something hearty, a single piece of salmon and something green on the side is a nice, light meal that will make you feel good before you head to sleep.

Why Waking Up Early Could Help You Lose Weight

Researchers say early risers make healthier food choices than their night owl counterparts

Eating healthily and losing weight can be difficult tasks for anyone, but a new study shows that when you choose to go to bed and wake up can make a big difference.

Researchers from The Obesity Society (TOS) have found that consumers who wake up early and go to bed at a decent hour are more likely to have a balanced diet than those who stay up later. It is the first study of its kind to investigate what and when people with different internal clocks eat.

TOS spokesperson Dr. Courtney Peterson explains that early birds have an advantage over night owls when it comes to fighting obesity because they instinctively choose to eat healthier foods earlier in the day. She states that factors such as metabolism and our biological clocks play a big part in weight loss.

“Previous studies have shown that eating earlier in the day may help with weight loss and lower the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. What this new study shows is that our biological clocks not only affect our metabolism but also what we choose to eat," she said.

Early birds vs. night owls

The study analyzed data from 2,000 randomly chosen participants and looked at how their circadian and biological clock rhythm affected what they chose to eat and at what time they were most likely to eat.

The findings suggested that early birds are more likely than night owls to eat high-energy, healthy foods throughout the day. On the other hand, night owls were found to consume less protein and more sucrose and saturated fatty acids. These differences were even more pronounced on weekends, with night owls eating more often and at more irregular times. The researchers found that night owls also tended to be less physically active and have lower quality sleep.

"Linking what and when people eat to their biological clock type provides a fresh perspective on why certain people are more likely to make unhealthy food decisions," said lead researcher Mirkka Maukonen. "This study shows that evening type people have less favorable eating habits, which may put them at a higher risk for obesity, diabetes and heart disease."

Weight loss implications

While the health implications are striking, the researchers believe that the findings could be particularly important to consumers who are seeking to lose weight. They say that health care providers could help consumers by directing them towards healthier options and specific meal times.

"Clinicians can help steer people to healthier options -- and suggest the optimal time to eat these foods -- based on what we now know about our biological clocks," said Peterson.

8 Things Every Person Should Do Before 8 A.M.

Life is busy. It can feel impossible to move toward your dreams. If you have a full-time job and kids, it’s even harder.

How do you move forward?

If you don’t purposefully carve time out every day to progress and improve — without question, your time will get lost in the vacuum of our increasingly crowded lives. Before you know it, you’ll be old and withered — wondering where all that time went.

As Professor Harold Hill has said — “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.”

Rethinking Your Life and Getting Out of Survival Mode

This article is intended to challenge you to rethink your entire approach to life.  The purpose is to help you simplify and get back to the fundamentals.

Sadly, most people’s lives are filled to the brim with the nonessential and trivial. They don’t have time to build toward anything meaningful.

They are in survival mode. Are you in survival mode?

Like Bilbo, most of us are like butter scraped over too much bread. Unfortunately, the bread is not even our own, but someone else’s. Very few have taken the time to take their lives into their own hands.

It was social and cultural to live our lives on other people’s terms just one generation ago. And many millennials are perpetuating this process simply because it’s the only worldview we’ve been taught.

However, there is a growing collective-consciousness that with a lot of work and intention — you can live every moment of your life on your own terms.

You are the designer of your destiny.

You are responsible.

You get to decide. You must decide — because if you don’t, someone else will. Indecision is a bad decision.

With this short morning routine, your life will quickly change.

It may seem like a long list. But in short, it’s really quite simple:

• Wake up
• Get in the zone
• Get moving
• Put the right food in your body
• Get ready
• Get inspired
• Get perspective
• Do something to move you forward

Let’s begin:

1. Get A Healthy 7+ Hours of Sleep

Let’s face it — Sleep is just as important as eating and drinking water. Despite this,  millions of people do not sleep enough and experience insane problems as a result.

The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) conducted surveys revealing that at least 40 million Americans suffer from over 70 different sleep disorders. Not only that, 60 percent of adults, and 69 percent of children, experience one or more sleep problems a few nights or more during a week.

In addition, more than 40 percent of adults experience daytime sleepiness severe enough to interfere with their daily activities at least a few days each month — with 20 percent reporting problem sleepiness a few days a week or more.

On the flipside, getting a healthy amount of sleep is linked to:

• Increased memory
• Longer life
• Decreased inflammation
• Increased creativity
• Increased attention and focus
• Decreased fat and increased muscle mass with exercise
• Lower stress
• Decreased dependence on stimulants like caffeine
• Decreased risk of getting into accidents
• Decreased risk of depression
• And tons more… google it.

The rest of this blog post is worthless if you don’t make sleep a priority. Who cares if you wake up at 5 o’clock A.M. if you went to bed three hours earlier?

You won’t last long.

You may use stimulants to compensate, but that isn’t sustainable. In the long-run, your health will fall apart. The goal needs to be long-term sustainability.

2. Prayer and Meditation to Facilitate Clarity and Abundance

After waking from a healthy and restful sleep session, prayer and meditation are  crucial for orienting yourself toward the positive. What you focus on expands.

Prayer and meditation facilitate intense gratitude for all that you have.Gratitude is having an abundance  mindset. When you think abundantly, the world is your  oyster.  There is limitless opportunity and possibility for you.

People are magnets. When you’re grateful for what you have, you will attract more of the positive and good. Gratitude is contagious.

Gratitude may be the most important key to success. It has been called the mother of all virtues.

If you start every morning putting yourself in a space of gratitude and clarity, you will attract the best the world has to offer, and not get distracted.

3. Hard Physical Activity

Despite endless evidence of the need for exercise, only one-third of American men and women between the ages of 25 to 64 years engage in regular physical activity according to the Center for Disease Control’s National Health Interview Survey.

If you want to be among the healthy, happy, and productive people in the world, get in the habit of regular exercise. Many people go immediately to the gym to get their body moving. I have lately found that doing  yard working the wee hours of the morning generates an intense inflow of inspiration and clarity.

Whatever your preference, get your body moving.

Exercise has been found to decrease your chance of depression, anxiety, and stress. It is also related to higher success in your career.

If you don’t care about your body, every other aspect of your life will suffer.Humans are holistic beings.

4. Consume 30 Grams of Protein

Donald Layman, professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of Illinois, recommends consuming at least 30 grams of protein for breakfast. Similarly, Tim Ferriss, in his book, The 4-Hour Body, also recommends 30 grams of protein 30 minutes after waking up.

According to Tim, his father did this and lost 19 pounds in one month.

Protein-rich foods keep you full longer than other foods because they take longer to leave the stomach. Also, protein keeps blood-sugar levels steady, which prevents spikes in hunger.

Eating protein first decreases your white carbohydrate cravings. These are the types of carbs that get you fat. Think bagels, toast, and donuts.

Tim makes four recommendations for getting adequate protein in the morning:

• Eat at least 40 percent of your breakfast calories as protein
• Do it with two or three whole eggs (each egg has about 6g protein)
• If you don’t like eggs, use something like turkey bacon, organic pork bacon or sausage, or cottage cheese
• Or, you could always do a protein shake with water

For people who avoid dairy, meat, and eggs, there are several plant-based proteins. Legumes, greens, nuts, and seeds all are rich in protein.

5. Take A Cold Shower

Tony Robbins starts every morning by jumping into a 57-degree Fahrenheit swimming pool.

Why would he do such a thing?

Cold water immersion radically facilitates physical and mental wellness.When practiced regularly, it provides long-lasting changes to your body’s immune, lymphatic,  circulatory and digestive systems that improve the quality of your life. It can also increase weight-loss because it boosts your metabolism.

A 2007 research study found that taking cold showers routinely can help treat  depression symptoms often more effectively than prescription medications.  That’s because cold water triggers a wave of mood-boosting neurochemicals  which make you feel happy.

There is of course, an initial fear of stepping into a cold shower. Without a doubt, if you’ve tried this before, you have found yourself standing outside the shower dreading the thought of going in.

You may have even talked yourself out of it and said, “Maybe tomorrow.” And turned the hot water handle before getting in.

Or, maybe you jumped in but quickly turned the hot water on?

What has helped me is thinking about it like a swimming pool. It’s a slow painful death to get into a cold pool slowly. You just need to jump in. After 20 seconds, you’re fine.

It’s the same way with taking a cold shower. You get in, you heart starts beating like crazy. Then, after like 20 seconds, you feel fine.

To me, it increases my willpower and boosts my creativity and inspiration.While standing with the cold water hitting my back, I practice slowing my breathing and calming down. After I’ve chilled out, I feel super happy and inspired. Lots of ideas start flowing and I become way motivated to achieve my goals.

Plus, it’s healthy to do something in the morning that kind of freaks you out! Get’s you feeling alive and sets the tone for living outside your comfort zone!

6. Listen to/Read Uplifting Content

Ordinary people seek entertainment. Extraordinary people seek education and learning. It is common for the world’s most successful people to read at least one book per week. They are constantly learning.

I can easily get through one audiobook per week by just listening during my commute to school and while walking on campus.

Taking even 15–30 minutes every morning to read uplifting and instructive information changes you. It puts you in the zone to perform at your highest.

Over a long enough period of time, you will have read hundreds of books.You’ll be knowledgeable on several topics. You’ll think and see the world differently. You’ll be able to make more connections between different topics.

7. Review Your Life Vision

Your goals should be written down — short term and long term. Taking just a few minutes to read your life vision puts your day into perspective.

If you read your long term goals every day you will think about them every day. If you think about them every day, and spend your days working toward them, they’ll manifest.

Achieving goals is a science. There’s no confusion or ambiguity to it. If you follow a simple pattern, you can accomplish all of your goals, no matter how big they are.

A fundamental aspect of that is writing them down and reviewing them every single day.

8. Do At Least One Thing Towards Long-Term Goals

Willpower is like a muscle that depletes when it is exercised. Similarly, our ability to make high quality decisions becomes fatigued over time. The more decisions you make, the lower quality they become — the weaker your willpower.

Consequently, you need to do the hard stuff first thing in the morning. The important stuff.

If you don’t, it simply will not get done. By the end of your day, you’ll be exhausted. You’ll be fried. There will be a million reasons to just start tomorrow. And you will start tomorrow — which is never.

So your mantra becomes: The worst comes first. Do that thing you’ve been needing to do. Then do it again tomorrow.

If you take just one step toward you big goals every day, you’ll realize those goals weren’t really far away.

Conclusion

After you’ve done this, no matter what you have for the rest of your day,you’ll have done the important stuff first. You’ll have put yourself in a place to succeed. You’ll have inched toward your dreams.

Because you’ll have done all these things, you’ll show up better in life. You’ll be better at your job. You’ll be better in your relationships. You’ll be happier. You’ll be more confident. You’ll be more bold and daring. You’ll have more clarity and vision.

Your life will shortly change.

You can’t have mornings like this consistently without waking up to all that is incongruent in your life. Those things you despise will meet their demise. They’ll disappear and never return.

You’ll quickly find you’re doing the work you’re passionate about.

Your relationships will be passionate, meaningful, deep, and fun!

You will have freedom and abundance.

The world, and the universe, will respond to you in beautiful ways.

7 Signs Of A Nervous Breakdown

Keep an eye out for classic signs of anxiety too, such as tightness in your chest and rapid breathing.

I’m having a nervous breakdown. You may utter this (or at least think it) when you’re overwrought and ready to snap. But what is a nervous breakdown, exactly? And what should you do when you feel like you’re about to fall apart?

It turns out “nervous breakdown” isn’t a clinical term. And it’s not considered a mental illness, says Erin Engle, PsyD, assistant professor of medical psychology in psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a serious issue. “[A nervous breakdown] is a situation in which a person cannot function normally because of overwhelming stress,” Engle says.

That stressor can be anything from a bad break-up or money issues to grief or psychological burnout. The symptoms will vary from person to person. “Our bodies and minds respond to stress in different ways,” Engle explains. But here are a few typical signs of a nervous breakdown:

Symptoms of anxiety and depression

“Anxiety and depression are common, common reactions [to stress],” says Engle. “Where you get into problems is when that stressor is ongoing and persistent, and the person’s coping resources are overwhelmed.” If you’re headed for a nervous breakdown, you might feel weepy, or even experience episodes of uncontrollable crying, says Engle. Some people suddenly struggle with self-esteem and confidence. “Feeling guilt is a big one,” she adds.

Sleeping too much, or not enough

A change in your sleep habits is another warning sign, says Engle. “Some people find that they go into sleep overdrive,” she says. “Sleep becomes an escape.” Others may develop insomnia because their brain is in overdrive. They may lay awake at night ruminating, she says, “mentally rehearsing situations over and over again that have no solution.”

Fatigue

Extreme tiredness could also be a clue you’re stressed to the max. You might even feel weakness in your body, Engle says. Activities you previously handled with ease may become increasingly difficult. And things that used to bring you joy may lose their appeal. Loss of libido is commonly linked to stress.

Changes in appetite

“Maybe you’re not eating, or conversely, you might be overeating,” says Engle. The stress hormone cortisol can trigger cravings for high-fat, high-sugar foods. What’s more, when you’re in the middle of a breakdown, you may be less motivated to prep healthy meals. “There’s less ability to care for oneself in the way one typically would,” says Engle.

Physical pain

Think headaches, or stomachaches. “For some people there might be a GI component,” says Engle, such as diarrhea or constipation. It’s no secret stress can do a number on your gut. It’s known to cause a variety of problems with digestion. 

Brain fog

Are you having trouble concentrating? Or just feel like you’re not thinking clearly? There are often cognitive symptoms with a nervous breakdown, says Engle, which might include anything from difficulty with problem-solving and indecisiveness to a sense of disorientation and memory loss.

Trouble breathing

Keep an eye out for classic signs of anxiety too, such as tightness in your chest and rapid breathing. Taking quick, shallow breaths can ramp up the body’s stress response even more. A breathing exercise designed to slow down your breath can provide fast relief. But if you experience trouble breathing on a regular basis, it’s important to address the root of the problem. 

Ok, so you might be having a breakdown. What next?

Now is the time to prioritize self-care. Engage in healthy coping mechanisms that work for you. (Maybe exercise helps you blow off steam, for example, or your favorite hobby helps you unwind.) Talk with family members or friends you trust. And don’t be afraid to seek professional help: “I always encourage someone to seek out the chance to speak with, or meet with, either a therapist, a psychologist or a social worker — but a licensed mental health professional,” Engle says. “Going to get help is one of the most important things you can do.”