Stress management tips

The first step is to become conscious of the warning signals your body and soul are sending you. Become aware of the unreasonable demands we often make on ourselves. We need to increase our self-awareness and become more observant of our reactions to stress. The second step is action. Now we’re talking stress management, building up power and energy, and dealing with what doesn’t feel right in our lives.

Is it difficult for you to find your way out of stress? This advice may help:

Practice relaxation

Relaxation will help you find your inner balance. It will be easier for you to hear all the messages your body is trying to send, and you will find that you become more in touch with your spiritual and emotional self.

Do something different

Only you can change your life. If you do what you’ve always done, you will get the results you always have gotten. If what you are doing isn’t giving you the results you want, it is time to do something different. See the connection between what you are doing and what you get in return and take full responsibility for the improvements that need to be made.

Listen to your body

Become conscious of the warning signals your body and soul are sending. Increase your degree of self-awareness and become more observant of your reactions to stress. When you don’t feel good, there is always a reason. Take pain seriously. Are you often tired, irritated, bothered by aches and pains? This could be your body’s way of telling you that you need to slow down, take some time off, or deal with whatever’s bothering you.

More fun

Move yourself up on your list of priorities. For some people, easing stress can be achieved simply by allowing themselves to accomplish a little less here and there. Others need to eliminate entirely certain parts of their lives. But don’t cut back on the things you enjoy, don’t cut back on the fun things in life that make you happy.

Live a healthier life

Regular exercise, proper diet, and enough sleep are necessary ingredients for keeping your body in trim. Make sure you get enough sleep. Lack of sleep is one of the major reasons people feel stressed. Start to exercise regularly. If you have a job where you sit still a lot then physical activity will be even more important.

Observe your thoughts

Practice positive thinking, look for possibilities and stop the re-runs of the unreasonable demands you didn’t live up to or any other things you blame yourself for, or beat yourself up about. Negative thoughts lower your achievement level and increase stress; positive thoughts have the opposite effect.

Use the word "no"

Learn to say no to the things you don’t want to do, can’t manage to do, or simply don’t feel like doing. Learn to recognize your own limits. Don’t take on more than you can handle. Take a moment’s time-out, go off to the side, and ask for some time before you give an answer - very few things need to be done, or answered, immediately. Be bold enough to ask for help, and to delegate to others that which needs to be done. You do not need to do everything yourself.

Plan and prioritize

Plan your time. Learn to prioritize. Decide what jobs are more important than others. Do not procrastinate. Write down what you’re going to do so you don’t get stressed by forgetting something. Do one thing at a time.

Laughs is health

Develop your sense of humor. See to it that you get a few good laughs every single day. By laughing we often get a new perspective on the problems that cause stress. See yourself in that humoristic light.

Friends are important

Take good care of your friendships, they are very important. We all need friends we can discuss our worries and problems, as well as share our joys with. Talk to someone you trust about the things you experience as stressful or draining.

Change your attitude

Realize that stress is not caused by the problems themselves. It is your attitude, your interpretation of what is happening that is the answer to the question of whether you will become stressed or not. Dare to change the things that can be changed. Accept that which cannot be changed. Either change the situation or change your attitude about it.

Time of your own

Make sure you take a moment for yourself every day. Time for yourself is not something you get; it’s something you have to create yourself. Prioritizing your time is a choice, and just like all the other choices you make in your life, you are solely responsible. Enough time to yourself is one of the many roads leading to a better and more enjoyable life.

Plan time for rest and recreation

Plan pauses in your life. Find your own ways to relax, to rest, and to recharge. You might take a walk, read a book, take a bike ride, listen to music, go to a movie, or do something else nice that you thought you’d do someday, that you really could do right now.

Solve your conflicts

Unsolved conflicts that just lie there gnawing away at you use up enormous amounts of energy. Realize that you are wonderful, just as you are. Be as tolerant with yourself as you are with everybody else.

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Re-printed with permission from Eva Johansson