Everyone deals with stress and its symptoms in a different way. You need to learn what works best for you. If you do not learn to control your stress, it is undeniably damaging. You can, however, do things to reduce its impact and cope with the symptoms.
You may feel like the stress factors in your life are out of your control, but you can always control the way you respond to it. Managing stress is all about taking charge of your thoughts, your emotions, your schedule, your environment, and the way you deal with problems. It also involves changing the stressful situation when you can and changing your reaction to it when you can’t.
You can’t completely eliminate stress from your life, but you can control how much it affects you. Relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, and deep breathing exercises help you relax. A state of restfulness is the opposite of being stressed. When practiced regularly, these activities lead to a reduction in your everyday stress levels and a boost in your positive outlook. They also increase your ability to stay calm under pressure.
Learn how to get quick stress relief. Everybody has the power to reduce the impact of stress as it’s happening in that moment. With practice, you can learn to spot stressors and stay in control when the pressure builds. It may be as simple as breathing exercises. Since breathing comes naturally, deep breathing is often overlooked as an exercise, but it’s an excellent way to reduce stress.
Breathe in slowly and deeply. Be aware of the feeling of the air as it expands your lungs and your chest. You tend to have shortened breathes when you are stressed, so this exercise is to lengthen your breath. Hold it for 4-5 seconds. You are increasing the amount of oxygen that you are taking in. Then exhale slowly for 6-8 seconds to remove all of the stale air in your lungs. This gets rid of the carbon dioxide in your body. Repeat this for four times. When you feel stress coming on throughout the day, just take a moment to breathe. I picture in my mind a changing out of feelings. I am breathing in a new relaxed attitude and blowing out the stress that I am feeling at the moment. You should experience immediate relief from some of the stress level.
There are numerous ways to reduce your stress. The key is to recognize when the stress is building up inside so that you can address it right away. It is easier to erase a small amount of stress than it is to reduce it after it is overwhelming. As you go through this next week, concentrate on your stress level and what triggers it. Let me know what you are doing to control the stress in your life.
