Managing Your Stress

Stress is part of everyone’s life and can cause problems with your health. Finance and money are frequently among the first of the stresses that most people feel. However, families and work are also a frequent cause of stress and tension. Use the following tips to ensure that you deal with your stress in a healthy way.

Examine the source of your stress.

See if you can make changes in the areas of your life where you are feeling stress.

Find ways to relax such as massage, deep breathing, meditation, or yoga.

Exercise or other physical activity will help you deal with stress

Practice time management. Put your tasks into a priority list. When you make your list take into account yourself, your family, and your job. Using a check list will give you satisfaction when you complete a task.

Avoid sugar, fats, tobacco, caffeine, and alcohol to help your body and mind to cope with stress.

It is important to get enough sleep.

Professional counselors and support groups will help if you have something bothering you. Your family and friends are also usually there to help you.

Volunteering can give you a sense of purpose and increase your self esteem and reduce your stress.

Take some personal time. This can include reading a book, watching a movie, listening to music, or any other personal time that you enjoy.

Practice anger management. If you feel that you have problems dealing with you anger find a support group that you can join.

Take a vacation, no matter how short a time you can afford to get away.

Don’t take on too much at one time. Learn to take it easy.

Remember that nobody is perfect.

Try not to judge others harshly.

Laugh whenever you can, even at yourself now and then.

Move your head from side to side and rotate you neck in a circle to reduce the tension in your neck and jaw.

Set small and smart goals for yourself and then work carefully and realistically towards achieving them. Keep in mind that unrealistic goals never seem to be reached and this can add to your stress level. Try to set just goal for yourself this week by using the SMART approach:

SPECIFIC: Choose one little goal and write it down.

MEASURABLE: How will you know when it is done?

ACHIEVABLE: Is it realistic? If not, make it smaller.

REWARDED: Reward yourself when you reach your goal.

TIME-LIMITED: In order to be a SMART goal it must have a realistic finish date and time.

The most effective stress reliever for your body is laughter. Learn to laugh or turn to funny movies or tv shows to provide some relief from stress. Be ready to use laughter for stress management.

Cope with stress by going for a walk. If the stress is at work, go for a walk at lunchtime. Walking will give you time to look at the situation that is causing you a problem. Any other exercise will also help with stress relief.

Tagged with: exercise • health • manage stress • Stress • Stress Management

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