If you're looking for help in managing stress without antidepressants, then these 5 quick, effective steps will help you find relief from stress naturally. The only side effect you'll experience is an increase in your happiness!

Foods don't cause stress and they certainly can't cure stress but they can help reduce stress levels and boost your moods. Cod liver oil is one food that may help you because it is high in an essential fatty acid called Omega 3. Liquid is best but harsh so try taking a cod liver oil capsule every day and see how you feel. Refined sugar has been linked to hyperactivity and I must admit, I rarely eat it these days and I do feel calmer. Another great way food can help with managing stress is to enjoy a solitary evening indulging in your favorite comfort food. Home-made chicken soup, buttery mashed potatoes, chocolate, ice cream - all can be the culinary equivalent of a hug and make you feel better.

One of the most damaging ways to trigger a severe episode of stress, depression or anxiety concerns the way meanings are applied to an event or events you face. If you apply a single, worst-outcome meaning to an event, you will arouse powerful emotions within you and your mental health will suffer. Please try not to assign single negative outcomes to problems. Single negative outcomes are rarely true and are a recipe for stress, depression and anxiety. Generate multiple outcomes to problems and work towards more positive solutions. Rarely will a single, negative outcome be true and if you take a step back and take your time to assign a meaning, you will generate more positive solutions and reduce stress enormously.

Throughout your life, you are going to have to face many trying events. There will be deaths of loved ones, job changes, relationship problems, family crises, accidents, illnesses - a wide range of issues affecting differing areas of your life. Yet all of these differing events have one thing in common: none of them, by themselves, has any meaning whatsoever. The only meanings they have are the ones you assign to them. Two people can suffer the same event - say a job loss - one will go to pieces, the other will see it as just an inconvenience. The reason is because of how they assigned a meaning. In your mind lies paradise or hell, and you have the power to choose which by carefully assigning multiple meanings to events.

Performing the same routines day in day out really can become a grind. Although routine gives us a sense of certainty and security, it can also make us feel like robots who live a predictable existence. This feeling can trigger stress, depression and anxiety as you don't enjoy life when you feel it is predictable. So try to vary your days: start and finish work at different times, don't eat the same types of meal each day (e.g. cereal for breakfast each day), vary how you start the day (go for a swim, a walk, a jog, rise at different times) and try to visit somewhere new at least twice a month (a restaurant, a museum, a theatre, a town etc.) as this will help to bring variety to life and keep life interesting. It's also a great way of easily managing stress without making major changes.

Being "on the go" all day every day will soon send your stress-levels soaring and mental and physical health will take a hit. Try to make time to switch off from the daily trials and tribulations and relax for at least one hour every day. Just shut the world out and do something you enjoy. Reading, playing a musical instrument, taking a relaxing bath with music and candles (and maybe a glass of wine) are all great ways to unwind and will be extremely beneficial to both your mental and physical health.

Put all 5 of these natural stress relief tips into practice and you'll soon feel your mood levels rise!

Ex-anxiety sufferer Chris Green will show you how to kick stress, anxiety and depression out of your life forever without drugs. To discover more essential natural tips and techniques, visit: http://www.conqueringstress.com