If you’re breathing, you experience stress. Stress is apart of life and unavoidable 100% of the time. But, you can learn to recognize when you are stressed and develop a system for dealing with it. It is very important that we learn to manage the stress we have and discover the major causes in our individual lives. We will all experience some form of crisis if we live long enough but the kind of stress I’m talking about here is that day to day stress that comes with just “doing life”. When crisis arise, we will definitely face stress. Some of this is unavoidable and out of our control. But for the purpose of this post, I want to focus on the stress that comes with having a family, a career, managing finances, sickness, relationships and any stress that comes from engaging in life.
I truly believe the more organized you are, the better you cope with life’s stressors. So organization is very important. Keeping a calendar can also help minimize stress. When you know what you will be dealing with from day to day, you can plan more appropriately for those tasks and activities rather than “winging it”. Adopting a few of the techniques I will be mentioning later will also be “preventative” when it comes to managing and or eliminating stress.
Stress that goes unmanaged can disrupt nearly every system in the body. The biggest impact chronic stress has is lowering or suppressing your immune system, which makes your body susceptible to all forms of disease. Stress releases a combination of hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and epinephrine. These “stress hormones” affect almost every area of the body. They interfere with sleep, increase risk of stroke, high blood pressure and heart disease. Stress has the ability to wreak havoc throughout the body in addition to leading to forms of anxiety and depression.
Encountering stress, is at times unavoidable, but managing it and eventually eliminating it is totally possible. Below is a list of things you might consider incorporating into your daily routine in order to avoid stress. There are also some techniques listed you might consider at particular times when stress seems to have invaded and you find it affecting your productivity.
Daily techniques for avoiding or relieving stress:
Exercise. Just 15 minutes of any exercise can help reduce stress, but 30-40 minutes 4-6 times a week reaps even greater benefit.
Good Nutrition. The better your diet, the better you feel….period!
Get adequate sleep and rest. 7-9 hours each night is optimal.
Reduce caffeine intake.
Manage your time effectively. Don’t make promises you know you can’t keep. Always allow a buffer in time so that you allow for things unexpected…keeps you from running late or feeling stressed due to time constraints.
Stay positive and be grateful. Start a “grateful journal”. Daily journal for all that you are grateful. Laugh everyday!
Engage in healthy relationships. This will require you to be diligent to work at these and be mindful of the time they require.
Set boundaries and KEEP THEM! This means you will have to learn to say ‘NO”.
Meditate/Pray/Practice Mindfulness. Create a peaceful place in your home that you can go to and meditate and pray daily. Make it inviting and comfortable.
Techniques that can be used at particular times when unusual events cause excessive stress:
Deep Breathing. Take 5 minutes and deeply breathe. In through the nose and out the mouth.
Use Visualization. Example: Close your eyes and imagine you are at the beach. Imagine hearing the waves crashing and the wind blowing through the palm trees. Hear the seagulls and feel the sun on your skin. Use any scenery or scenario as long as it is calming and you can get outside of your stressful thoughts.
Listen to calming music or recordings of the ocean, rain, etc.
Talk about what is concerning you to a close friend, spouse, etc. Write out what you are experiencing and what possible solutions you can think of to solve the issue. Most of what we worry about never comes to pass, but write out your scenarios of solutions anyway.
Aroma Therapy: Use essential oils or incense. Calming scents are: lavender, rose, bergamot, frankincense, sandalwood and geranium.
Supplementation: Always check with your doc especially if you take prescription meds. Lemon Balm, Fish oil-omega 3 fatty acids(this needs to be daily not occasionally), Ashwagandha (herb), Green Tea, Valerian and Kava Kava.
Remember if you can’t control what’s going on, then worry is a waste of time. Worry is actually always a waste of time, but refuse to stress over things out of your control.
In order to live your best life now, begin pursuing ways to manage daily “life stress” and consider incorporating some of the suggestions to help prevent some of those stressors altogether!
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