10 Best Natural Stress Relievers for Students

Stress and anxiety follows our teens, and for some of our kids is a real battleground. As a mom, I hate to see someone I love struggling with overwhelming stress and anxiety. I want to fix it. While we can’t always make all our teen’s stress disappear, we can help teach our students to manage and cope with their stress and anxiety. Here are 10 best natural stress relievers for students.

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10 Best Natural Stress Relievers for Students

Anxiety and stress is real and it doesn’t always make sense. Sometimes stress is very specific but often it is vague like a nagging sore tooth. Work with teenagers and tweens to help identify some of the roots of their stress. And then we can help them develop better ways to cope!

Identify the Areas of Teenage Stress

When helping your teenager deal with the stress of school and life, first identify the areas that cause the most stress. Students typically describe struggling with the following:

Worry about grades and achieving a certain level.
Overwhelmed at how behind they feel.
Fear about the future.
Friend problems or lack of friends.
Anxiety about going to school.
Procrastinating and then feeling unprepared for class.
Bullying issues at school and online.
Sleep issues and getting up in the morning.
Stress from the drama at home or at school.

Identifying what is causing your student the most stress can help parents and teens get on the same page and develop a plan! After identifying stress, use some of the techniques below to mentally prepare and manage stressful periods during the day or week.

Sometimes, we can rework life to avoid high stress situations. But often we have to help our kids learn how to cope with the stress to go through situations.

Create a Workable Schedule for Home and School

In working with teens, I have discovered that many students, like us parents, can create habits that cause stress. While it is fun to stay up late and binge watch Netflix, that scenario will cause stress if done more than occasionally.

Review your teenager’s schedule for areas where they are consistently staying up too late, wasting time or showing up unprepared. What can we do to help our kids learn how to balance work and break time, studying and fun?

Help your student create a schedule that has some fun and de-stress time built in. But a good schedule also needs focused time to work at school, develop their hobbies and skills or apply themselves to a part-time job.

As you create a workable schedule ask your teen these questions:

What time of day do you feel most motivated?
After coming home from school or activities what do need the most?
What talent would you like to develop next?
What are the biggest time wasters in your life?
How much sleep do you need to function your best?
What is your ideal study environment?
How would you prefer I remind you to stay on schedule?

Creating a schedule doesn’t have to be about taking all the fun out of life. In fact, having a schedule can leave to feelings of being in control, productivity and calm.

Hands on Projects Help to De-Stress

Working and creating with their hands can be super helpful for most students. Studying and school work is often done sitting down. So getting up and moving is healthy and it produces calm for kids, especially those that have sensory issues.

Discuss with your teenager hand on tasks that they enjoy. Is there a way that they can help out at home, start a hobby or take on a activity that requires them to make or produce with their hands. Even our son that enjoys computer work benefits from time working outside doing something physical.

Here are some ideas to get you and your teenager thinking.

Cooking or baking
Building or construction
Caring for animals
Cleaning
Organizing
Household repairs
Lawn Care
Gardening

In our home, I typically want my kids to know every aspect of running a household. But after they know the basics, I find it helpful for them (and for me) if they are working in an area that suits them the best.

Once of our sons was an absolute terror when it comes to folding laundry. The clothes looked worse then when he started!! Ha! But Teen Red loves to fold laundry and looks up ways on Pinterest to develop different folding styles. And the act of carefully folding laundry can help her focus on the physical space she is in and can be grounding.

Use Aromatherapy for Stress Relief

Aromatherapy is an an excellent way to care for yourself and your environment while offering stress relief. You can use aromatherapy is a variety of way in your home to offer stress relief to your middle and high schoolers. Here are a few of our favorite ways!

Create a soothing aromatherapy bath by drawing a bath and adding Epson salts mixed with 8-9 drops of your favorite essential oil (like lavender or chamomile). This is one of my favorite essential oils brand!!
Make a lotion with essential oils. When feeling stressed rub lotion into hands then cup over mouth and breathe deeply 3 times.
Add your favorite essential oils to a diffuser and fill the whole room with the calming or upliftings scents. I love to use citrus oils (grapefruit or orange) to lift everyone’s spirits. Make sure that any pets are able to move away from the aromatherapy diffuser as some scents are not healthy for animals. I love this aromatherapy diffuser. The diffuser is non-breakable (so my cats can’t break this one). It has several settings for time limits. The diffuser lights up and changes colors on a cycle making it a soothing night light.

Mix your favorite carrier oil with 7-8 drops of oils in a rub-on bottle. Or you can buy pre-mixed aromatherapy roll ons like these! Keep in your purse to pull out when feeling stressed.

Natural Remedies for Teenage Anxiety and Stress

A doctor trained in naturopathic medicine or a person knowledgeable in herbal healing can offer helpful recommendations for ways for high school students to manage stress and anxiety.

One simple vitamin that I absolutely love and is magnesium. I started using magnesium to help with headaches. But as I began to use it consistently, I realized how many amazing benefits magnesium has.

Magnesium does help with relaxing the body so it can ease headaches, balance out constipation issues, plus it can have a calming effect. I always take magnesium every night to sleep better. And one of my kids take it to help them sleep better at night too.

Now, I am a bit of a bargain shopper. When it comes to essential oils, herbs and vitamins I want high quality products that work. I am willing to pay more up front to reap benefits to my health and my pocketbook in the long run. By learning from others about the use of natural health products I have saved a ton of money and time with fewer trips to the doctor’s office.

That is why I love Physician’s Choice Magnesium!

Physician’s Choice Magnesium uses a patented process to create their pure non-buffered Magnesium Bisglycinate. For you that means the highest absorption possible and no unnecessary fillers! . No spending money on a product that your body isn’t even going to absorb. Your body receives the full benefit of the magnesium with Physician’s Choice Magnesium.

The capsules are easy to swallow and contain 133 mg of elemental magnesium.

Plus, I love that Physician’s Choice does a third party testing for purity and to ensure a quality product. Ease headaches and menstrual cramps, reduce stress and anxiety and find more restful sleep with Physician’s Choice Magnesium.

Find out more about Physician’s Choice here.

Good Diet and Nutrition Balances Student Stress

Now, I am not going to try to talk you into rehauling your kid’s eating habits. I know that might overwhelm some parents. But I do want to talk to about how small changes can make a huge difference! Let’s look at what our kids drink!

Recently, we had a family that was struggling to help their teen stay on track in school with all his ongoing health issues. The teen happened to mention how much pop (soft drinks) he was drinking daily and I was a bit shocked.

By just changing out what your kid drinks you can make big changes. Highly caffeinated beverages or sugar laden drinks can actually increase anxiety and stress, cause your child to have trouble sleeping and decrease their immunity! Yikes!

Instead of sweet coffee drinks or highly caffeinated beverages being a daily thing, let’s limit those to a weekly treat.

Encourage your teen to drink water, tea sweetened with stevia drops or unsweetened sparkling water. Our bodies function so much better with water. Water decreases headaches, helps you think clearer and fights fatigue!

Here is one of my favorite unsweetened sparkling water drinks (I love it in lime)!

Weighted Blankets are Stress Busters

Weighted blankets come in a variety of weights and colors and offer comforting relief from stress and anxiety. A weighted blanket has a filler to it making it “weighted”, offering a comforting hug when you lay under it.

We purchased a weighted blanket a year and half ago and have used it everyday since then. Weighted blankets offer stress relief by gently pressing in on a person, giving a sense of groundedness and reassurance. And for many people this is like the calming feeling you get when you are buried under a gazillion blanket or your favorite pet is snuggled in close.

If you have a loved one that is struggling to sleep or deals with ongoing stress and anxiety I HIGHLY recommend adding a weighted blanket to your stress relieving repertoire!

Some students may prefer just to sit under it while reading or watching TV, while others will reap a lot of benefits by sleeping under a weighted blanket.

For a tween or teens look at weighted blankets that are around 10-15 lbs.

Use Planners to Manage Stress for Students

There is nothing worse than struggling with stress and anxiety and having all your thoughts come at you at equal importance. Teenagers feel paralyzed unable to make movement on anything.

Give your student a planner, notebook or journal (or pick out a planner or journal together). Encourage them to write down everything that they feel like they need to be doing. Writing down things can clear your thoughts and help your student see what truly needs to be done and to prioritize.

Here are a couple ways that I have used or encouraged my students to utilize a planner or journal for stress relief!

Do a Brain Dump. Write down everything that is in your head including all the things you need to do, problems you feel like you should fix and tasks you want to complete. Then sort through them identifying what you want to tackle first, then next and what items are going to move to your “review it in a couple months.” It is amazing how just making a decision on something (even if that decision is to not tackle it now) can be so freeing and cathartic.
Plan Out Your Week. On Saturday or Sunday evening plan out the following week. Put down what you hope to accomplish each day.
List Your Top Goals for the Day. Another trick is to write down everything you want to accomplish that day. Then just pick 2 goals for the day. This helps especially, if you feel overwhelmed, to focus on just 1 or 2 goals.
Keep a Gratitude Journal. At the end of the day have your teens write down 5 things they are thankful for from that day.
Create a Bullet Journal with these beautiful soft bound journals.

Fun Stress Relief Activities

As we get older we speak more of productivity and to do lists then we do about being playful. But there is power in being playful and creative. In her book, Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Browne talks about the power of fun and creativity.

Creativity, which is the expression of our originality, helps us stay mindful that what we bring to the world is completely original and cannot be compared. And, without comparison, concepts like ahead or behind or best or worst lost their meaning.

So encourage your tweens and teens to relief stress by tapping into their creativity. Here are some fun stress relief activities to explore.

Photography
Woodworking
Sewing
Macrame
Refinishing furniture
Painting
Sketching
Crafts for Tweens and Teens (Crafts for Teens Pinterest board here)
String Art
Calligraphy
Playing an Instrument
Coloring
Blowing bubbles
Playing with sidewalk chalk

Go Outside to Alleviate Stress

Stepping outside for even 15 minutes can be so therapeutic. Being outside can offer grounding and a sense of connection to the ground, pulling us outside our head and away from our often overwhelming thoughts.

Thank You for PINNING!

Around here in the Midwest, we are all Vitamin D deficient, so going outside is super important to building healthy bones, maintaining a balanced nervous system and keeping low moods away.

Plus, with all the screen time students are partaking in, they need to get outside to refresh and alleviate stress!