I often get very anxious and stressed out when a sprint is ending and work really hard to finish all my tasks. I'm not alone in this on my team. I've tried l-theanine but it seems to have no effect on me. Any other suggestions? I don't want anything from big pharma. Edit: I exercise daily and drink moderately on some weekends. Helps a little.
Commit to less work than you think you can get done during sprint planning.
Try natural herbs, you can try Ashwagandha. Heard really good stuff about it, research about it. Disclaimer: I aint a doctor and try at your own risk.
Ashwagandha is great
Drinking is never an alternative to stress it makes you feel so momentarily but it causes indeed more stress !!
Try Accupuncture
Good breathing exercises really helps me.
Yoga
I recommend reading up on Stoicism. This ancient philosophy has some pretty good tools to handle modern day stress. The core of stoicism is to completely surrender to things that we have no control over and completely focus our energies to things over which we have control.
To old to play fake schedule tea party. I just go along with whatever and try my best. If I get too much work it'll flow to next sprint. If I run out of work I'll just grab more work.
http://naturalvitality.com/natural-calm/ this has helped me along with meditation and regular vacations or days off
A healthy mix of sport / hiking / alcohol