5 Minute Stress Relief

5minutestress

We all have a favorite expression when it comes to being stressed out. But when it comes down to it, I think that it is how we work or even relax, for that matter that triggers stress.

Have you ever been stressed even when you’re well relaxed and bored? I know I have.

Since stress seems to be unavoidable in life, it is important to find ways to decrease and prevent stressful situations as much as possible as well as decrease our negative reactions to stress we just can’t seem to avoid.

Here are some quick tips for helping you to manage the stress!

Learn to manage your time as much as possible (the truth is we can’t really manage time but you know what I mean :-))

Time management skills will allow you more time with your family and friends, down time or whatever it is you want to do as well as lead to increased increase performance and productivity. Which, in the end will help reduce your stress.

To improve your time management:

  • Save time by focusing and concentrating, delegating, and scheduling time for yourself.
  • Keep a record of how you spend your time, including work, family, and leisure time. (you might be surprised how much time you are wasting on certain items that can easily be delegated or taken off your to do list altogether)
  • Prioritize your time by rating tasks by importance and urgency. Redirect your time to those activities that are important and meaningful to you.
  • Manage your commitments by not over- or under committing. Don’t commit to what is not important to you. (which means you gotta get clear on what is and isn’t important to you in the first place)
  • Deal with procrastination by using a day planner, breaking large projects into smaller ones, and setting short-term deadlines and goals, it will be less overwhelming too.
  • Examine your beliefs to reduce conflict between what you believe and what your life is like.
  • Build healthy coping strategies

It is important that you identify your coping strategies. One way to do this is by recording the stressful event, your reaction, and how you cope in a stress journal. With this information, you can work to change unhealthy coping strategies into healthy ones-those that help you focus on the positive and what you can change or control in your life.

Lifestyle

Some behaviors and lifestyle choices affect your stress level. They may not cause stress directly, but they can interfere with the ways your body seeks relief from stress. Try to:

  • Balance personal, work, and family needs and obligations.
  • Have a sense of purpose in life.
  • Get enough sleep, since your body recovers from the stresses of the day while you are sleeping.
  • Eat a balanced diet for a nutritional defense against stress.
  • Get moderate exercise throughout the week.

Social support

Social support is a major factor in how we experience stress. Social support is the positive support you receive from family, friends, and the community. It is the knowledge that you are cared for, loved, esteemed, and valued. More and more research indicates a strong relationship between social support and better mental and physical health.

Change your thinking

When an event triggers negative thoughts, you may experience fear, insecurity, anxiety, depression, rage, guilt, and a sense of worthlessness or powerlessness. These emotions trigger the body’s stress, just as an actual threat does. Dealing with your negative thoughts and how you see things can help reduce stress.

  • Thought-stopping helps you stop a negative thought to help eliminate stress.
  • Disproving irrational thoughts helps you to avoid exaggerating the negative thought, anticipating the worst, and interpreting an event incorrectly.
  • Problem solving helps you identify all aspects of a stressful event and find ways to deal with it.
  • Changing your communication style helps you communicate in a way that makes your views known without making others feel put down, hostile, or intimidated. This reduces the stress that comes from poor communication. Use the assertiveness ladder to improve your communication style.

If you’d like to take this learning a bit further feel free to download The Definitive Guide to Time Management inside the members only Vault. 

<<Access this training + $1000’s of Biz resources + training inside the Vault for FREE>>

 

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