Studies have shown that between 60 and 90 percent of all physician visits are for stress-related complaints. The increasing pace of life and information brought on by innovations like cell phones, instant messaging, webcams, 24-hour news channels, and so on has exacerbated our “fight or flight” response to stress. Below you will find 25 ways to help you relieve the stress brought about my modern life:
1. Prioritize
The tendency to try and accomplish too many things in too little time is a major source of stress for a lot of people. Instead of trying to do it all decide what are the most important things for you to accomplish and concentrate on those. Drop activities that don’t bring you joy and don’t move you closer to your dreams.
2. Set SMART Goals
Studies have shown that it’s important for people to maintain a sense of control over their lives in order to help reduce stress. An important way to achieve this sense of control is by setting goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realist, and that have a reasonable time limit for their accomplishment.
3. Time Management
When planning your day you need to start with the big picture in mind: start by looking to the future and describing what your ideal or ultimate life looks like. Then set milestones toward creating that ideal life, and then further break down these milestones into the smallest chunks you can think of. You then plan each day based on the small steps you have identified which will steadily move you toward achieving your goals.
4. Stop Sweating the Small Stuff
Don’t sweat the small stuff; and remember that it’s all small stuff. Stop focusing on little problems and concerns and blowing them out of proportion. In addition, learn to put things in perspective.
5. Release Your Need for Perfection
While striving for excellence is commendable, striving for perfection is not. Perfectionism means that you’re always zeroed in on what’s wrong, which creates frustration, stress, and dissatisfaction.
6. Meditate
Cardiologist Herbert Benson, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, has the following to say about the benefits of meditation: “Meditation sets off a built-in mechanism that is the opposite of the fight-or-flight response.” Practiced ten to twenty minutes once or twice daily, meditation has been shown–by Benson and others–to reduce blood pressure and other stress-related symptoms.
A very useful tool for learning to meditate is The Silva Life System. The Silva Life System will teach you how to slow down your brain waves to the alpha level, the brain frequency associated with meditation.
Some of the benefits of meditation are the following:
- Creates a sense of calm and well-being
- Slows down your heart rate and breathing
- Improves your immune function
- Helps your body produce health-enhancing hormones
- Slows the aging process
- Helps clear your mind and boost your creativity
- Increases your emotional stability
7. Recite a Mantra
Reciting a mantra will help you break the train of everyday thought to gain a sense of calm. Mantras can include any of the following: “one,” “peace,” “love,” “The Lord is my shepherd”, “Shalom”, “Om Mani Padme Hum”, “Don’t worry, be happy”, “I am at peace”, or anything else that calms you down. You can also try the mantra used by Gandhi, “Rama”, which is the word for God meaning “joy”.
8. Emotional Freedom Techniques
This is basically an emotional version of acupuncture, except needles aren’t used. Instead, you stimulate energy meridian points on your body by tapping on them with your fingertips. It’s very easy to learn and very effective in helping you to release any negative emotions you may be feeling and altering your mood. You can get the EFT manual for free at www.emofree.com. In addition, for a free video demonstrating a tapping routine you can use to relieve stress, visit here.
9. Cultivate Flexibility and Hopefulness
Stress scholars have discovered that far more important than the trials and tribulations in one’s life is how one deals with them. Instead of simply reacting to your environment and to events in your life, continously ask yourself: “What response would best-serve my goal to remain calm and relaxed?”
10. Laugh
Laughter is one of the body’s best coping mechanisms for the normal stress of life, and is also conducive to increased problem solving abilities and creativity. Pioneers in laughter research–such as Dr. William Fry of Stanford University–have documented the many benefits associated with a hearty laugh, such as the following:
- Reduces levels of stress hormones, including cortisol, adrenaline, and dopamine
- Increases levels of health-enhancing neurochemicals, including endorphins
- Increases antibody-producing cells, which strengthen the immune system and inhibit physical effects of stress
- Exercises the heart
11. Declutter and Organize Your Space
The physical condition of your home and work space influences your mental state. Cutting down on clutter and creating a relaxing, soothing space can have a calming effect. Set up your space to support the things you’ve identified as being important.
12. Keep a Journal
Journaling can help you develop self-awareness, which is a valuable asset in keeping your stress level to a minimum. It help you to become aware of your emotions, their origins, and create an outlet for thoughts that may be cluttering-up your mind and leading contributing to your stress levels.
13. Slow Down
Our current obsession with cramming more and more into less and less time is taking an incredible toll on our health, our happiness, and our relationships. The Slow Movement addresses the issue of the relentless speeding up of life. This movement encompasses everything from preparing simple meals at home and eating them at the table with the television switched off, to using technology in a more balanced way, to avoiding over-packing your social schedule, and so on. A great way to relax is to slow down. You can read more about how to slow down here.
14. Establish Proper Boundaries
People who don’t know how to set boundaries often discover that they don’t have time to do what’s important to them. In addition, they often feel overwhelmed, stressed, tired, and resentful. Inability to set proper boundaries can include all of the following:
- Failing to set a clear delineation between work and home life, which can result in being constantly “on the clock”.
- Having poor internal boundaries and thus letting what other people think of you and your abilities affect you negatively.
- Over-committing to others and under-committing to yourself.
- Being unable to say “no”.
15. Exercise
Exercise lowers stress, boosts blood flow to your brain and releases endorphins.
16. Get Enough Sleep
Sleep deprivation impairs performance. Not getting enough sleep decreases brain function, affects mood, memory and the ability to focus, all things which can contribute to stress.
17. Make Time for Play, Leisure, and Relaxation
Although you may think that the more time you spend at work the more productive you’ll be, the fact is that the law of diminishing returns starts to kick in when you’re constantly burning the midnight oil. By making time to relax and engage in leisure activities you’re actually increasing your ability to produce quality work. In addition, taking a break is one of the steps of the creative process. By taking “play” or “creativity” breaks after intense concentration you’re allowing the ideas to simmer in your mind and are more likely to have “eureka” moments and if you constantly have your head buried in your work.
18. Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils, extracts or essences from flowers, herbs, and trees to promote health, relaxation, and vitality. The oils prompt the brain to secrete neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, that can give you a lift or calm you down. Smells that are relaxing include cedar wood, chamomile, lavender, and sandalwood.
19. Put Your Finances in Order
Live within your means, create a spending plan, and have an investment strategy.
20. Breathing Exercises
Since breathing is something we can easily control and regulate, it’s a useful tool for achieving a relaxed and clear state of mind. Andrew Weil, M.D.–a world-renowned pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, a healing approach which encompasses body, mind, and spirit–, advices the following: “Practicing regular, mindful breathing can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems.”
One of the breathing exercises that he recommends is the 4-7-8 or Relaxing Breath, a natural tranquilizer for your nervous system. Simply place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind your upper front teeth, and keep it there through the entire exercise. Then follow these steps:
- Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
- Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
- Hold your breath for a count of seven.
- Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
Repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths. Note that you always inhale quietly through your nose and exhale audibly through your mouth. The tip of your tongue stays in position the whole time. In addition, exhalation takes twice as long as inhalation.
21. Self-Massage
Giving yourself a massage is another great way to release stress. Deepak Chopra, an internationally recognized expert on the mind-body connection, is a big proponent of self-massage for mood regulation. He indicates in his book “Grow Younger, Live Longer”, that a massage gives you access to your inner pharmacy, and a slow, calming massage releases natural relaxing chemicals.
You should gently massage your scalp as if you were shampooing your hair; then apply oil to your forehead, cheeks, chin, and ears; slowly massage the back of your ears and your temples; also, massage your feet. In addition, people are carrying more and more stress in their hands because of computer use and other repeated actions that cause cumulative tension in the hands and fingers.
22. Schedule Regular Work Breaks
When you’re working set an egg timer to go off every 40 minutes. When you hear the egg-timer get up, drink water, stretch, and sit back and close your eyes for a couple of minutes.
23. Get Rid of Small Stressors
Make a list of small things that annoy you such as the leaky faucet in the bathroom, the closet door coming off its hinge, and the burned light bulb in the closet. Get these things fixed.
24. Embrace Simplicity
Simplify your life so that you don’t try to fill your time with more than you can do. Follow my 100 Tips to Simplify Your Life. Some examples of ways to simplify are the following:
- Write down the steps you follow to complete each task you perform on a regular basis and find a way to streamline and simplify the process.
- Strike a work-life balance that creates harmony in your life.
- Avoid unnecessary conflict.
25. Act Within Your Sphere of Influence
A major cause of stress is focusing on things which are not within your control. Always remember Reinhold Niebuhr “Serenity Prayer”:
“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Conclusion
Stress is not always negative. An absence of stress tends to lead to boredom, frustration, and dissatisfaction. However, too much stress—created by overstimulation—can lead to exhaustion and ineffectiveness, high blood pressure, memory lapses, lack of concentration, and can even result in illness.
Between too little and too much stress is the optimum level of stress, also called eustress, which encourages us to grow, change, be creative, learn new things, and embrace challenges. Following the 25 ways to relieve stress described above will help you to keep stress under control so that you can use it to create your best life instead of allowing it to interfere with your quality and enjoyment of life.
Editor’s Note: This morning I was interviewed on “TODAY” by Beverley Anderson Manley–former first lady of Jamaica–on HOT 102 FM, CVM Communications Group, Jamaica, on the topic of stress management. This post–which incorporates a lot of ideas that I’ve been writing about on this blog–was written in preparation for said interview.
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