20 Ways to Eliminate Stress From Your Life

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You often see articles on ways to unwind and relax after a stressful day, which I always find useful, but for me the most important advice would be to get to the source of the problem, and cut stress out before it even happens.

By careful editing of your life, and changing certain habits, you can eliminate most (not all) sources of stress in your life.

I don’t believe that a stress-free life is possible. Stress is a response to challenges in life, and a life without challenges is too boring to contemplate. However, I do believe that most of the stress in our lives is unnecessary, and that it can be eliminated by taking some simple (and some not-so-simple) steps. It can’t be accomplished overnight — I’ve been eliminating stressors in my life for awhile now, and I’m still not done. But I think it’s a worthwhile goal.

Let’s first take a look at an example — it’s a little extreme, but it exemplifies the typical stressors in people’s lives. Let’s say Fred gets up in the morning, waking up late, and now has to rush to get ready. He’s so rushed that he spills his coffee on his shirt and has to change, a nicks himself shaving. He heads out the door and then has to go back in the house because he forgot his wallet. He gets in the car and realizes he forgot his keys.

Now he’s on the way in to work and is in the middle of rush-hour traffic — and his temper starts to flare after someone cuts him off. He’s honking at people, cursing, and arrives to work late and in a bad mood. He snaps at someone and is surly all morning. His desk is covered in piles of paper, and he can’t find that report he needs to work on. His inbox is overflowing and his email notification is going off, and he sees he has 36 messages to respond to. He knows he’s late on two projects and his boss isn’t happy. He’s got to finish 5 tasks before the 11 a.m. meeting, and he’s got meetings all afternoon.

You get the idea. His day does not go well, and he hits rush-hour traffic on the way home. He gets home late, exhausted, completely stressed, his mind still on his late and as-yet uncompleted projects, his still-full inbox and email inbox, and all the stuff piling up that he has to work on tomorrow. The house is a mess and he snaps at his family. His kids have not put things away exactly where he told them to put them away, so he begins to yell at them. He has a quick, greasy dinner in front of the TV and zones out before falling asleep late.

Again, this is a bit extreme, but you can see through this illustration some of the things that stress people out. There are many more, of course, and I won’t cover all of them here.
But these sources of stress can be eliminated with a little thought.
Here’s how:

1. Identify stressors. This is the most important step of all, as identifying the things that stress you out in your life is the first step towards eliminating them. Take 10 minutes to think about what stresses you out during the day. What weekly occurrences stress you out? What people, activities, things cause stress in your life? Make a Top 10 list, and see which of them can be eliminated, and start to weed them out. For those that can’t, find ways to make them less stressful.

2. Eliminate unnecessary commitments. I did a post on editing your commitments before … apply those concepts here. We all have many commitments in our life, starting with work but also including commitments related to kids, our spouses, things to do at home, other family, civic, side work, religious, hobbies, online activities and more. Consider each of them, the amount of stress they provide, and the value you get out of them. Edit brutally, and take steps today to remove the ones that stress you out the most.

3. Procrastination. We all do this, of course. But allowing stuff to pile up will stress us out. Find ways to take care of stuff now (form a Do It Now habit) and keep your inbox and desk clear. See 20 Procrastination Hacks for more ideas.

4. Disorganization. We’re all disorganized to some extent. Even if we’ve organized something, and created a great system for keeping it that way, things tend to move towards chaos over time. But disorganization stresses us out, in terms of visual clutter, and in making it difficult to find stuff we need. Take time to get things in your life organized, starting with your desk and the papers in your home, and moving on to other areas.

5. Late. Being late always stresses us out. We have to rush to get ready, rush to get there, and stress out the whole time about looking bad and being late. Learn the habit of being early, and this stress disappears. Make a conscious effort to start getting ready earlier, and to leave earlier. This also makes driving less stressful. Time yourself to see how long it actually takes to get ready, and how long it actually takes to get somewhere. You’ve probably been underestimating these times. Once you know these times, you can plan backwards so that you show up 10 minutes early each time. It’s a good feeling.

6. Controlling. We are not the Master of this Universe. I know we sometimes wish we were, but acting as if we are is a sure way to get stressed out. Trying to control situations and people cannot work, and only serves to increase our anxiety when it doesn’t work. Learn to let go, and accept the way that other people do things, and accept what happens in different situations. The only thing you can control is yourself — work on that before you consider trying to control the world. Also learn to separate yourself from tasks and to delegate them. Learning to let go of our need to control others and the situations around us is a major step towards eliminating stress.

7. Multitasking. Having multiple tasks going on at the same time might seem productive, but in actuality it slows us down from actually focusing on a task and completing it — and it stresses us out in the meantime. Learn to single-task.

8. Eliminate energy drains. If you’ve analyzed your life (in Step 1) and found things that stress you out, you might have also noticed things that drain your energy. Certain things in our life just cause us to be more exhausted than others, with less value. Identify them, and cut them out. You’ll have much more energy and much less stress. Happiness ensues.

9. Avoid difficult people. You know who they are. If you take a minute to think about it, you can identify all the people in your life — bosses, coworkers, customers, friends, family, etc. — who make your life more difficult. Now, you could confront them and do battle with them, but that will most certainly be difficult. Just cut them out of your life.

10. Simplify life. Simplifying, of course, is a major theme of Zen Habits. Simplify your routines, your commitments, your information intake, your cluttered rooms, the mass of stuff going on in your life … and have less stress as a result. Start with Edit Your Life and then look through the other simplicity articles.

11. Unschedule. Create more open periods of time in your life. It’s not necessary to schedule every minute of our lives. Learn to avoid meetings, keep wide open blocks of time where we either work on our important tasks or batch process the smaller ones. When someone asks to schedule a meeting, first try to get it done through email or phone … if that doesn’t work, avoid having it scheduled. Ask them to call you and see if you’re free at that time. You will love having an open schedule.

12. Slow down. Instead of rushing through life, learn to take things slow. Enjoy your food, enjoy the people around you, enjoy nature. This step alone can save tons of stress.

13. Help others. It may sound contradictory to add more tasks to your life by trying to help other people (you’ve got enough to do), but if you were to add anything to your life, this should be it. Helping others, whether volunteering for a charity organization or just making an effort to be compassionate towards people you meet, not only gives you a very good feeling, it somehow lowers your stress level. Of course, this doesn’t work if you try to control others, or help others in a very rushed and frenetic way — learn to take it easy, enjoy yourself, and let things happen, as you work to make the lives of others better.

14. Relax throughout the day. It’s important to take mini-breaks during your work day. Stop what you’re doing, massage your shoulders and neck and head and hands and arms, get up and stretch, walk around, drink some water. Go outside and appreciate the fresh air and the beautiful sky. Talk to someone you like. Life doesn’t have to be all about productivity. You should also avoid using online activity too much as your de-stressing activity — get away from the computer to relax.

15. Quit work. This one’s drastic, and probably too drastic for most. But in most likelihood, your work is your absolute biggest stressor. Getting out of your 9-to-5, automating your income, and finding something you truly love to do, that you’re passionate about, will create a positive life and much less stressful one at that. Give it a little thought before dismissing it — there might be possibilities here you haven’t considered.

16. Simplify your to-do list. I’ve written about this before, but attempting to do everything on your long to-do list will definitely stress you out. Learn to simplify your to-do list down to the few essential tasks, and you will enjoy the process much more.

17. Exercise. This is common advice for stress relief, and that’s because it works … but it’s also a stress prevention method. Exercising helps relieve the stress buildup, it gives you some quiet time to contemplate and relax, and just as importantly, it makes you more fit. A fitter person is better equipped to handle stress. Another important factor: being unhealthy can be a major stressor (especially once you have to go to the hospital), and exercise can help prevent that.

18. Eat healthy. This goes hand-in-hand with exercise as a stress prevention method, of course. Become healthier and a major source of stress will disappear. Also, I’ve found that greasy food, for me, puts me in a worse mood and can contribute to stress levels immediately.

19. Be grateful. This might not be as obvious as some of the others, but developing an attitude of gratitude (I sound like a preacher with that rhyme!) is a way of thinking positive, eliminating negative thinking from your life, and thereby reducing stress. Learn to be grateful for what you have, for the people in your life, and see it as a gift. With this sort of outlook on life, stress will go down and happiness will go up. That’s a winning formula.

20. Zen-like environment. Take time to declutter your desk (as mentioned above) and even once you do that, continually edit your desk and working space, and the things in your home, until you’ve created a simple, peaceful, Zen-like environment. It will be much less stressful to work in an environment like that than a more cluttered and distracting one.

source : Zenhabits.com

Originally posted 2009-01-04 20:35:03. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

A Simple Tip For When You’re Stressed

This is a fantastic tip from Touch For Health to help you when you’re stressed, angry, anxious or upset. Try holding your frontal eminences. These are bumps on your forehead that many people hold instinctively when they’re upset.

For those of you who don’t do this naturally, let me help you locate them. Feel up from the middle of your eyebrows going towards your hairline. Your forehead comes outwards before it curves back in towards the hairline. Hold your forehead at the points where it is furthest out – about 3cms (1.25 inches) above the middle of each eyebrow.

While you hold these points think about the stressful event. It can be something that has already happened, something that is about to happen, or something you fear may never happen! Gradually you should find that the stress lessens.

You can use it for small things, but you can also use it for more traumatic events too. If the thoughts/images are too overwhelming initially, imagine you are watching it on a TV – you can always switch it off if becomes too stressful – you’re the one in charge. You can watch it in black and white if that feels easier too. Use it to defuse anything that you feel anxious, stressed, angry or fearful about.

You may want to do it several times covering different aspects of the problem. You can do them one after the other, or at different times, whichever feels best for you.

As you hold the points and think about/imagine the event, you will probably start to feel calmer – you may even find that you start to feel a little bored thinking about this scenario that previously stressed or angered you so much.

Why does it work?

These particular points on the forehead, known as frontal eminences, are reflex points with connections to the central meridian (involved with the brain), the stomach meridian (and your stomach often churns when you’re anxious or angry), and the bladder meridian (trips to the loo/bathroom are often necessary when we’re apprehensive).

I recently explained this self-help technique to a business colleague – a keen mountain biker who’d had a serious bike accident at 30 miles an hour and had broken his skull and collar bone. His bones had mended, but he was now sometimes fearful of the sport he loved.

This is what he wrote to me later:

“I don’t know how to thank you enough for the technique you described to me over the phone the other day, it helped me enormously!”

The following week he sent me this message:

“Your tip worked once again last night – went out (in the pitch black with my Light&Motion ‘daylighter’ light) and did some serious single-tracking and downhilling!!! I never thought I’d be doing that again – ever! Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was brilliant!!!!!!!”

It may be hard to believe that something this simple could be effective in removing anxiety and stress, but try it and see.

Anger – Lose Your Cool and Look Like a Fool

I lately found a scene in a center parking area that has had a lasting effect upon me – it was 2 middle-aged women debating over a parking spot. They were both standing alongside their cars and shouting at one another while waving their arms in a threatening way. The argument finally became a name-calling competition, with each attempting to outdo the other.

The bad thing was that the store was not busy and there were plenty of empty spaces accessible. Their arguing became so heated that other shoppers started stopping to watch the spectacle. In the meantime, the women’s kids sat in their cars and saw the whole scene. How proud those kids must be!

The fact is that everyone gets angry. Whether it’s at a family member, a co-worker or the stranger who took our parking spot, we all get angry. The problem with getting angry is that there’s only a slim chance that it might solve the problem, but a much greater chance it’ll create new ones.

Anger is really us losing control and when we lose control bad things usually happen. At home it can mean a damaged relationship, publically it can mean a confrontation with a stranger, and at work it can mean getting fired or passed over for promotion. Samaria Maxamus said, “Anger itself does more harm than the condition that caused it.” If you can’t remember that, try: Anger is only 1 letter away from danger!

Let’s be honest here, just like the two women in the parking area, most of us can look and act pretty foolishly when we’re angry – usually saying and doing things we’ll later regret. Getting angry is a great deal like being drunk, the intoxicated person is the only one who doesn’t realize he’s a problem.

What makes anger so dangerous is that it can occur so quickly we’ve lost control before we even realize it. The only way to minimize the damage is to gain back control.

Before we can begin to diminish our anger we first have to understand what causes anger. There’s really only one reason why we get angry and that is because someone didn’t act the way we wanted them to. Interesting, isn’t it? Anger is not an action, but how we respond to another’s action. Getting angry is letting someone else control you.

When was the last time something good came out of you getting angry? Benjamin Franklin said, “Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.” The next time you find yourself getting angry, try and take a moment to ask yourself these questions: Is winning this argument really worth ruining the relationship? How important will this be a year from now? A month from now? A day or even an hour from now?

The moment you bring back control you’ll lose the anger. Don’t let someone else control how you feel.

Who really suffers when you get anger? Gautama Buddha said, “hanging on to anger is like keeping to a red-hot coal, you’re the only one who’s becoming to get burned.”

Why is it that when we hurt ourselves physically we learn not to do it again, but when we hurt ourselves emotionally we repeat the same action again and again? No one benefits from anger.

The best way to end an argument is to bite your tongue. That’s not admitting fault, it’s controlling the anger. Bring back control. Besides, even if you win the argument, you still can’t enjoy the present if you’re angry about the past.

Balance life, stress and work

The tension is technical adverse reaction to a person who has excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them. In the workplace, the negative, damaging, effects of stress may arise from time to time when pressures are extreme, for example maximum busy periods, but also can be caused by exposure to stressful conditions, such as being in a job improper or unfair treatment. Outside of work, the stress can be caused by negative events of significant change, such as a death in the family, but also by the pressure of making a life force or to be dominated by the work situation.

The tension is personal to the individuals affected by this tension in different ways. Conditions or in situations some people face, even thrives on pressure, while others find it difficult to cope and suffer the negative voltage. It is also personal in the sense that the amount of control that the individual has about their workplace conditions, events, and assess the work-life balance, will influence the amount of negative voltage which suffer. Those individuals with greater control and tolerate handle voltage levels, or avoid altogether more successful.

the balance of work-life, is literally balancing the demands, the amount of time and effort, given the work and the workplace, and that given to the individual household, personal, family and social life. A vital factor in achieving an appropriate balance of work-life balance is ensuring that the dominant element of the work, that I is not causing harm to the individual with the negative effects of stress. It is most unusual to find people with a balance of work-life that dominates a negative for his life outside the workplace. It is almost always the activity of the workplace and often dominates the negative. For the company of professional and personal career development activities, the positive personal development should be actively managing to ensure they do not have a negative effect on levels of stress and cause damage to the balance of the work-life of the individual.

The growing awareness of the importance of managing the balance of tension and the work-life has led to effective approaches such as time management, stress management, achieving the balance of work-life balance, personal development management and related approaches such as training and mentoring. The tools and techniques within these approaches have values help individuals manage the balance of tension and the work-life more successfully. All these are worth exploring in more depth. However, here we focus on simple measures, provided that any individual can take themselves.

N There are some established, simple to execute, the approaches that will help reduce the negative effects of stress and help maintain a proper balance of work-life. These include: recognizing the symptoms that you will be alerted to the fact that you can be under tension. Symptoms commonly experienced are: poor health – headaches, stomach upset, trouble sleeping, change in appetite, muscle tension, indigestion, fatigue, stomach, intestinal problems and skin and heart attacks (but not uncommon in extreme cases severe); personal – concern constantly, annoyed, feeling pressured, unable to cope and make decisions, being less creative smoking, excessive, excessive use of alcohol, not sleeping, unsatisfactory work situation – low job satisfaction, relationships poor fellow, focusing on unproductive tasks, missed deadlines, level of functioning fell, missed opportunities, poor performance appraisal, feeling unmotivated, Life Style: stopping social, and controversial to be annoyed with family and friends, personal relationships deteriorate.

Many of these symptoms can be experienced in normal life, but signs of tension when converted several experienced at the same time, or when there is no obvious cause, or when one or more symptom becomes so overwhelming. We need to remember, however, that while the symptoms are often more visible, and potentially harmful in the workplace, are not necessarily caused by pressures of the workplace. Many, but not all and not always.

Identification of the sources in the workplace: As individuals working in a business world that is changing at an ever-increasing need to be adaptable and flexible. To avoid the negative tension that we need to be aware of, prepared for and able to handle the impact of: time pressures, demanding deadlines, increasingly complex relationships with others; peaks and channels too little or too much work, business or multiple changes, overlapping of work, threat of redundancy or job change unwanted pressure from senior management; unfair or discriminatory actions by management, pressures of travel, increases in expectations of performance, a more visible under scrutiny and surveillance technology , requirements to undertake continuous personal professional development.

Identification of sources of external work in life outside the workplace are regularly occurring events and pressures that are a normal part of our lives, but can be a source of stress, or satisfaction, or both. These include: death of the member or family friend, a breakdown of the relationship that leads to separation or divorce, personal injury or family member, mobile home, the large financial gain commissions for such a mortgage; periods holiday which are restored and renewed relationships, or placed under intense pressure, up from a donor such as smoking habit, the birth of a child, getting married and so on.

Knowing what your natural response: Individuals adapt and adjust to external pressures in different ways, depending on your personality type. The range of rates is very wide, but two broad bands of personality type are identified. The type A people described as competitive, aggressive, or precipitate, while type B people behave in a passive, non-competitive, so slow to react. The type A people tend to pass on to other stress, type B tends to intern the effects of stress. While establishing these categories proved that most people fall into, other factors such as age, gender, health, financial assistance and access to heavily influence the response to the causes of stress, regardless of features of personality. Knowing your personality type can be useful, but can make only a small part in the successful management of stress.

Identifying strategies and actions to help you cope: As we have seen, individuals react differently to stress, so that each of us need to adopt various coping strategies. The following actions and strategies are established, tested for stress management and achieving the balance of work life: being aware of his own weakness and strength, understanding and accepting that some things can not be avoided or be changed, taking action to reduce or remove the pressure, analyzing problems into smaller pieces and setting targets to address each part in order, execution of technical management of personal time, replacing a negative relationship for the positive, supportive relationships, adopting a healthy living style ; develop interests outside of work, such as activity of mania, educational, social or fun, positive business development career, seeking advice and help of others, including professionals, if appropriate, accept that the balance management of stress and work-life balance is an ongoing learning.

Corporate support mechanisms: Some organizations have recognized that the balance of tension and the work-life issues that need to be supported by corporate action. Individuals in these organizations should, where appropriate, mechanisms of support such as: flexible work hours allow employees to arrange work hours to accommodate important aspects of home life, self-managed teams: A team resolve their own hours, responding to each others needs, using a system sidekick: paired with a colleague to provide cover for each other, allowing each to take time when needed, knowing that his sidekick take control duties and responsibilities; flexible Locations: various locations of work or home, regularly or occasionally to help with family responsibilities and to reduce or eliminate switching time, availability of special leave: Paid leave for example or unpaid, to dealing with personal crises and emergencies, without the formal permission of the holiday, career interruptions: the sabbatical for study or research, travel, family commissions, or Volunteer Work Programs health – advice and counsel of supply to a range of issues, Private health insurance, fitness programs and benefits of membership of the gym; Childcare / Eldercare facilities or subsidies: nursery workplace or subsidized places in nursery or local nursing homes. All these are highly valuable opportunities for assistance, which, if available, must be taken when needed.

For most managers and specialists in all sectors of business today is an essential requirement that practitioners undertake courses in management development, or in specialist disciplines such as quality management, project management, accounting , human resources or marketing. The objective of this activity, from the standpoint of the individual, is generally obtain higher financial rewards, a higher status, increased job security, I’m off to increasing opportunities and choice of career. From the standpoint of the law is aimed to improve awareness, understanding, skills, and ultimately the functioning of the individual and collective labor. The impact on the individual, no matter who put these goals in contrast, is that the balance of the work-life is concerned, pressure will arise and will need to be managed to avoid this resulting in the negative voltage. For any professional development of individual enterprise, especially those studying in the country, in part or whole is essential that this is recognized as a potential source of negative voltage, and that the individual joins the supervision and control of the pressure their development plans.

To manage stress and achieve a satisfactory balance of work-life, it is necessary to avoid common pitfalls that practitioners encounter. These include: the belief that the suffering of the tension is a weakness, it is not, but the positive, corrective action is necessary to remedy the situation. Allowed to suffer from tension and off the balance of work-life balance, it is simple, easy to implement solutions is present, it is a weakness; Custodianship of tension is the best approach, it is not. All the evidence shows that the advice and assistance they seek is the key to reducing and eliminating the negative tension and restore a proper balance of work-life; Assuming that others are to blame for their stress and imbalance between their work and his life outside of work, the causes may be, but you are responsible for allowing the negative situation continues, is cutting or eliminating social, sporting, business or personal interests of the answer to restoring a balance of work-life is not, because these are essential elements needed to achieve a healthy balance of work-life and a relatively stress free life, if not to danger signals, they are easy to identify, if not for yourself then others will not identify the sources of stress and reasons for the imbalance, a simple analysis of your situation, perhaps with some help from a professional counselor, colleague, partner or friend, will identify the main causes of their problems, not address in terms of health and happiness, if you are unhealthy, inappropriate, or in an unhappy relationship, or not in any relationship and is alone and isolated, you will find it difficult to handle the tension and balance the work-life effectively; Believing that there is only one solution to problems of negative imbalance and stress of work-life, no. You need to take a holistic approach to managing their lives, at work in the country and society. This includes their work, their aspirations, their personal development, their fitness, their lifestyle, their health, their relationships, their general attitude to life, everything that makes an individual, unique person.

This has been a first look at the links between the stress of the workplace and the balance of work-life, and specifically has addressed these professionals are adding to the pressures of the workplace and home life by acquiring professional development. Personal continuous professional development for managers, professionals, and specialists in all sectors is essential. Even those who leave and employers’ organizations to be independent risk that is overwhelmed by the workload and pressures of work-related activities. The solution to avoid the negative effects of stress, and maintain an appropriate balance of work-life, to acquire additional burden on staff development, equal to those organizations. You need to be aware of the dangers, be alert to symptoms in the place defensive positions, and then handles dynamic life of work and personal life in a way that protects you against the dangers of negative stress and to maintain a healthy and satisfying balance of work-life.

7 Amazingly Quick and Easy Ways to Feel Happier

We all have days when we ‘re out of school. You just wish you were in a better mood. You ‘ve had days like that, asylum ‘ t you? Perhaps you tried to get in a better mood, but struggled to achieve it.

We got stuck in our own emotional and downloads sometimes forget how easy it is to feel happier, so here are seven simple ways to lift your mood. Many people have found useful. Some of it may surprise you!

1. Go for a walk.

Most people know that I go for a daily walk of the short circuit is one of the best forms of exercise. When you’re feeling down it is even more beneficial. If you can enter a natural environment with plants and birds. Can you think of this setting is not? What you notice first? Are the various shades of green, the smell of fresh country air, the sounds of birds, or the sunlight shining through the trees? Make taking a real short ride.

2. Listen to quality music.

Music can change a listener since the ’s status within moments. She the ’s effect can be almost magical. Dig the CD asylum you ‘t heard in ages or keeping something in your radio you ‘ ve never heard before.

3. Open to discover something new.

Read something (paper, not online) different than what you normally look. There are a ton of different types of magazines you can get today. Visit your local library or browse through a shelf compartment. Take or buy a magazine wouldn ‘t normally buy. You may discover something wonderful.

4. Finding something to laugh.

Laughter is one of the best ways to lift their spirits. Find a funny book or watch a comedy. Even better, try to learn some new jokes and tell others.

5. Simple breathing meditation.

Meditation is a great breathing exercise you can do anywhere. I would just feel comfortably with your back straight. Close your eyes and is now aware of the air flow in and the windows of the nose. That ’s all there is to it. Do this for 10-15 minutes. Notice how nice it is may be surprised how you feel then.

6. Doodling for the fun of it.

Most people can remember when she was young and used to doodle for hours. Kids love drawing silly little pictures. The drawing is not just for kids or the artists. Whoever you are get some pens, pencils, crayons or whatever you have and just drain the fun of it. Notice how your mood changes post.

7. Think of others less fortunate.

The fact that you are reading this article suggests that you are probably much better that most people on this planet. Occasionally it may be hard to believe, but if you can read and access the internet, just those two things means only that you are better that most people in the world. There are many people who have little access to the basics of survival. There are people in lots of pain. Allow your compassion to grow.

These are all fairly simple. ‘S nothing profound or life changing, but when all you need is a quick pick me up they can be just the thing you need. Putting simple ideas, methods, tools and techniques in action will help achieve change quickly and easily – surprisingly so in time – you imagine.