The word is such a fast paced world that is constantly evolving and changing. With change we feel a loss of control over our lives and we start to see situations presenting themselves throughout the day that become stressful. Stress is a characteristic of many peoples daily lives, whether it be stress brought on through work, through commuting to work or from your interactions throughout the day with other people. You can never predict when your bout of stress is going to hit you, what is clear is that stress is not a good thing for your health. Certainly if you want to live a happy and fulfilled life stress shouldn't be apart of that equation. It is difficult to comprehend a enlightened Buddhist monk who just reach enlightenment being stressed. So if stress is largely a condition of our environment we live then there is certainly things that we can do to reduce or even eliminate the stress in our life by adjusting the way we experience within the environment. After all we may not be able to control our external environment but we do have control over the way we react to it. Here are 5 simple tips that may help you reduce your stress today. 1. Exercise every day. If you want to reduce the stress in your life find a way to give it an outlet physiologically. After all, if you think about the toll stress has on your body you would want to also increase your physical health so that your bodies tolerance is also improved. The added bonus of exercising is that it also releases chemicals to your body that gives you a feeling of well-being and happiness. 2. Listen to music. This doesn't mean you listen to just any type of music. While you may be a rock and roll fan when it comes time for stress relief you want to find soft soothing music. You want to calm the mind and release the tension. A good type of music is that of nature sounds, why not pick up a cd from your local store today. 3. Consume water throughout the day. Your body is made up of roughly 90% water, drinking water daily is a good source to replenish your bodies fluids. Nutritionists suggest drinking 8 glasses of water a day for good health. Not only is water good for you but it is also good for your body and therefore helpful to reduce your stress. What you don't want to be doing is drinking coffee or alcohol throughout your day. 4. Take a nap during the afternoon. A sure sign of stress is when you are overworked and tired. A good habit to introduce into your daily routine is to take what some call a power nap. This is a short 30 min nap sometime during the afternoon to recharge your batteries. Not only will you feel better and re-energized you will also feel less stressed. While not everyone is going to be in a position to take a nap during the afternoon without their boss looking at them with a frown, what you can do instead is to take a short brisk walk out of your normal environment to take your mind off things. This might be to walk around the block or even around your office. 5. Relax, it's not urgent. I know we feel that everything these days is urgent and time sensitive but remember the world is not going to fall apart because you didn't get a chance to reply to someone's email within 30 mins. A fast way to give yourself unnecessary stress is creating urgency when there really isn't any reason to. So instead of responding to emails throughout the day, why not instead set aside 1 or 2 hours daily to respond to them all at once. Instead of picking up the phone while your in the middle of doing something let it go to voice mail. Let you colleagues know when you aren't to be disturbed. You will find that most people will be accommodating and understand. In return you get to feel more control over your daily routine and therefore feel less stressed. |
