Thursday, October 28, 2010

How You Can Find Stress Relief

All have heard of the harmful effects stress can have on our lives.  Although we can never totally eliminate stress we must be able to manage stress, and find stress relief, especially the prolonged stress which will indeed cause many ill effects on your health.

In many ways we can eliminate much of our stress by the way we perceive things.  There are many things in life in which we have little or no control over.  Things such as traffic jams and the way others act.  If we react to these things in a way that adds stress to our lives many of our bodily functions shut down and prevent our bodies from keeping ourselves healthy and youthful.

Much of our stress can be relieved by the way we perceive things.  In many cases we are stressed out by things we have no control over.  If we can do something about a situation then we should act on it to resolve the problem.  If the situation is out of our control we would be better off just accepting it for what it is and focus our attention on something more pleasant or something that will enhance our day and our lives.

The body reacts to stress by producing a flood of chemicals that shut down important but not vital functions to survival.  This constant supply of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline and the suppression of growth hormones and other healing hormones that help your body heal after stress, will damage your body and have a negative effect on your health over time.

Some ways you can control the amount of stress you encounter is to monitor a few things about the so called stressful situation you are in.  Firstly ask yourself, am I in control of the situation that is upon me.  Like I said earlier if the situation is beyond your control you must let it go.  If there is something you can do about the situation then you must be in action and do something to resolve it.

Secondly you could identify to what extent your stress is the result of your interpretation of the situation, which in fact, relates to your beliefs and judgments.  If you are caught up in the story of “this always happens to me” or are you always trying to prove something to yourself to reinforce a limiting belief you have about yourself or others.  This can be a harmful cycle in which you will always generate unwanted stress in your life.  Pay attention to see if the same situations come up and you get stressed out about similar things.  Awareness to our beliefs and judgments can open doors to freedom within our consciousness.

The third thing that one can do is to learn to consciously adjust your reaction to what is happening in our lives.  Learn to be calm in situations, to be focused and powerful in dealing with stressful issues.  When we react all the time we are not in control and not being in control can add to feelings of recklessness.  An out of control feeling is definitely a situation which can cause stress.

Besides the few perceptive ways to deal with stress just mentioned one can also start a program which will be more proactive and help you put your mind and body in a state that more readily handles situation as they arise. Proactive stress management techniques can be addressed with knowledge.  Through personal development books or courses that teach you to be in more control of your life and to accept others for who they are, you can eliminate about fifty percent of your stress.

There are also courses in anger management if you feel you have an issue with anger.  Many times anger is the end result of other emotions such as disappointment, jealousy, fear, or other emotions.  Not being able to communicate this in a healthy manner and really understanding your emotions can lead to anger in almost any area of your life.  The recognition of these emotions and the ability to communicate them to yourself and others can be a big stress releaser and put you in better control of your emotions and your life.

Of course eating well and exercising help your body to deal with stress.  The release of good hormones through things such as yoga, aerobic, meditation,  breathing exercising or weight lifting greatly help your body deal with stress, firstly by having a means to release the stress through the physical activity and secondly these activities enable the body to produce the healthy endorphins and healing hormones into your body.

Other ways to reduce stress is to engage in something you love to do.  Get your mind off the situation that is causing you stress.  By having a hobby that you just love to do such as gardening, playing a musical instrument, stained glass or whatever gets your mind focused on something you love.  Usually something creative opens you up a totally different space within you.

And of course my two favorite thing to relieve stress, laughter and good supportive friends.  Go see a funny movie or go out with supportive friends to a comedy club.  Spend good quality time with them and share your love, don’t complain about your stressful situation unless you discuss it to find possible ways of resolving the situation and then end the conversation and have some fun.

Listen, stress can kill you and the more and more scientist explore this issue the more and more they know that almost all disease can manifest from stress and ill thoughts.  Choose to deal with stress in a positive way.  Find the way to incorporate stress relief practices into your life and help you mind, body and spirit live a healthier more fulfilled life.

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Basic Outline To Cope With Stress

Your ears might have heard countless number of times “do this… and get away from stress,” or, “do that…, and you will be totally relieved of stress,”turning you even more stressed out!!

…Stop scratching your head over what to be or what not to be done. I have compiled a definite set of action plan to cope with stress in life. I have tried it in the past and it really helped. In fact, I have used them time and again.

This might help you as well, simply read on.

1. Beware of your own warning signs. For, this could just be a sudden feeling of anxiety.

2. Consider what is really causing stress to you? You may be surprised to find the fact.

3. Think over what you could do to change the things. Find out how much of stress is indeed caused by you?

4. At times, due to excessive stress we fall into vicious trap of not eating properly and go to ill practices such as smoking and drinking to further worsen the situation. Instead, you should try and eat a balanced diet.

5. Eat complex carbohydrates rather than refined ones. This will really help you cope with mood swings.

6. Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and keep sugar and salt intake low.

7. Drink plenty of water, it will rehydrate your body. Try to keep caffeine consumption to the minimum.

8. Avoid nicotine or any other self prescribed drug.

9. Don’t feel guilty about including a period of relaxation every day. We all need to turn off from time to time.

10. Do something that is creative and helps you relax. Say, listen music, do yoga, meditate, enjoy aromatherapy or any other stress busting exercise.

11. Learn to be more assertive and try to manage your time properly.

12. You can even consider attending a stress management training course.

13. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.

These are certain steps that can truly help you cope with stress. It will work wonders for you. The choice is yours, if you wanna live with stress or acquire any of these good points to mar the stress out of your life.

400 Breakthrough Stress Elimination Strategies

Three Good Ways to Relieve Stress

Of all the ways to relieve stress, meditation may be one of the best, but what if you don't have the time? What if you are having trouble with your meditation? Try one of the following three good techniques. They don't even require any practice.

Breath To Relieve Stress

If you don't feel like meditating or just don't have the time, you can at least stop for one minute to just breath. Just breath deeply through your nose and let the tension drain from your muscles as much as possible. Give special attention to the tightness in your face and shoulders. Deep breathing, even for a minute, can relax you significantly.

Resolve Your Stressors

As I was sitting here getting ready to write this, something was bothering me. On reflection, I realized I've been putting off making a phone call. I needed to tell a acquaintance that I couldn't testify in court as I said I would. She was disappointed, but as soon as I made the call I felt more relaxed.

Simply making decisions and taking action can be one of the most immediate ways to relieve stress. Take a moment whenever you feel stressed, identify the things in your mind that are contributing to your state, and then do something about them. That's all there is to this simple technique.

Almost. Naturally, you can't resolve everything that is bothering you at any given moment. Still, what you can do is take some action. Indecisiveness, waiting, wondering and worrying cause stress. Even if you just make a list of what you need to do, your mind will often let these things go. Start a list, talk to someone, make a decision - just do something to let the stressor go.

Do Things You Enjoy

On Friday nights, when I play chess at the coffee house, I don't think about anything else for four hours. When you are totally engaged in an activity, there isn't room for stressful thoughts. Fully engaged, though, usually means that it's something we enjoy doing.

While physical activity has some advantages, you can try doing anything that you can put your whole mind into. That could be reading a good book, cooking, or playing with the dog. Notice which activities really engage you and let you drop your worries, and keep that mental list handy for whenever you are stressed. When your passionate activity is also your job or business, this can be one of the best ways to relieve stress.
  
Know More... How To Get Natural Anxiety, Depression And Stress Relief

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