Stressed? Try These 5 Doctor-Approved Rituals To Relax + Unwind

The Science of Stress: What It Does to the Body

Stress is a normal biological response to perceived challenges, but that doesn’t mean we want it to stay. When stressed, the body is flooded with cortisol and adrenaline for too long… disrupting mood, sleep, digestion, and even immunity.

Rather than attempting to eliminate stress altogether, a nearly impossible task, the goal should be to support the body’s adaptive response to it. How well your body responds to stress may be more important than how much stress you’re exposed to.

During my years of seeing patients and leading breakthrough neuroscience research, I’ve uncovered a few key habits to help manage stress. Here are my best practices and rituals.

1. Begin Your Day With Regulation

The first hour after waking is when your cortisol awakening response (CAR) naturally peaks. If unstructured, this response becomes exaggerated and can initiate a cascade of stress that might last most of the day.

The fix? Establishing a morning routine trains your nervous system to stay in a parasympathetic state, helping you feel relaxed.

Try this simple routine:

• Rehydration with mineral water
• Mobility movement or gentle stretching
• A few moments of gratitude or journaling
• 5 minutes of breathwork (see #3)
  

A consistent start to the morning sends the message to the brain that the day can proceed without a "perceived threat.” A simple ritual like this reduces the risk of extra stress.

2. Support Mental Well-Being With Adaptogens And Amino Acids

Adaptogens are phytochemicals that regulate the body's main stress response system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

Some of the most studied:

• Ashwagandha helps manage daily stress, providing calm and stress relief throughout the day.*
• Saffron extract can help support positive mental well-being and mood.*
• L-Tryptophan is the amino acid precursor to the neurotransmitter serotonin.* Serotonin controls your mood, stress response, and well-being.
  

Adaptogens, nutrients, and amino acids won’t magically remove stress from your life. But they do offer support in ways a regular diet doesn’t always cover.*

3. Use Box Breathing To Calm Your Nervous System

Box breathing is a simple method for bringing balance to the autonomic nervous system. After a 31-year service in the U.S. Army, I ran across this technique multiple times during training. Many service members use box breathing to calm themselves down in high-stress situations.

It can apply to everyday life too. Here's how it's done:

• Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds
• Hold your breath for 4 seconds
• Slowly exhale through your mouth for 4 seconds
• Hold again for 4 seconds

Repeat for 2–5 minutes. This cycle synchronizes heart rate and breathing, stimulating the vagus nerve. It actually helps move the body out of “fight-or-flight” and into “rest-and-digest” mode. It’s perfect to use before bed.

This Frontiers in Human Neuroscience study¹ confirms that slow, patterned breathing improves heart rate variability (HRV), a key metric for resilience to stress.

4. Cut Out Caffeine By Early Afternoon

Do you ever feel extra wired from your second cup of coffee? Caffeine increases epinephrine (adrenaline). This briefly raises alertness, but it also activates the same pathways triggered by stress. In the afternoon or evening, this activation can disrupt melatonin release and interfere with the sleep cycle.

One of the most powerful antidotes to stress is sleep, and without restful sleep, your body will feel more stressed day after day.

Experiment: Eliminate all caffeine consumption by noon for two weeks. Take notice of how your sleep, concentration, and emotional stability improve.

This way, you can still enjoy your cup of coffee (without the downsides).

5. Make Nature A Non-Negotiable

Spending time in nature does more than provide a break. It actually rewires the brain's stress centers.

There is growing scientific evidence in support of nature therapy (or ecotherapy). One study² found that this type of nature escape positively affects stress-related physiological responses, like heart rate variability and cortisol levels.

It doesn’t have to be a beach vacation or a walk through the forest. Start simple:

• A morning sun walk in the park for 20 minutes
• Starting a garden in the backyard
• Sitting under a tree with your phone in airplane mode
  
  

Your nervous system is designed to gain peace, serenity, and stress reduction from being in nature. Don’t deprive your brain of that.

Becoming Stress Resiliant, Not Stress Reactive

Stress is not the enemy. It’s there to help protect us from threats, both physical and mental. However, you can easily practice these five habits to improve your body’s response to normal, everyday stress that tends to take over our lives.

With some intentional shifts, you can transition from stress reactivity to stress resilience. Follow this guide to tap into internal calm, clarity, and joy starting right now.

References: 

1. Zaccaro A, Piarulli A, Laurino M, Garbella E, Menicucci D, Neri B, Gemignani A. How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing. Front Hum Neurosci. 2018 Sep 7;12:353. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00353. PMID: 30245619; PMCID: PMC6137615.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137615/ 
2. Isham, A., Jefferies, L., Blackburn, J., Fisher, Z., & Kemp, A. H. (2025). Green healing: Ecotherapy as a transformative model of health and social care. Current Opinion in Psychology, 62, 102005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102005 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X25000181