Combat Stress with These 5 Tips

Stress is a part of living, and research suggests that stress is on the rise. Stress is not good for your health, which raises the importance of dealing with stress. Here we give you 5 tips to combat stress in your everyday life. What causes you stress Often a first step in stress management is to identify the stressors in your life and how you deal with them. "If you can't identify the cause of the issue, then you will not be able to fix it" is also true of stress management. A stress diary can help you to monitor the situations and your responses to the situations that cause you physical and emotional stress. Practice daily meditation You don’t need to wear robes and sit on top of a mountain to meditate. In fact millions of people every day benefit from meditation. Meditation relaxes and calms the mind. However meditation activates the relaxation response which directly counters stress. It can reduce tension, and also lower the levels of stress hormones that are released into the blood following stress. Spending 10-15 minutes a day meditating is a great buffer against daily stress. Learning to say “No” Do you put your hand up to do extra things when diary is already jam packed with engagements? Do you often miss deadlines or feel pressured by time? If so then it may be time to learn to say “No”. Learning to say “No” involves setting boundaries in your life. I know that I used to have real trouble saying "no". Regardless of how much work I had to do, I still put up my hand for more. However, in the end, by not learning to say “no” I learnt the hard way that I was working on other people’s priorities rather than my own. By creating boundaries and learning to say “No” you create time for you to pursue things that are meaningful to you. Plan your work and work your plan A lack of time is one the greatest causes of stress. Are you jumping from crises to crises? Do you feel that you are working really hard, but unable to get through the day? If so, then a lack of time could be causing you stress. An effective way to deal with this is to plan your work and then work their plan. This can be done at the monthly, weekly or daily level. Plan to do those things that are important to you, and then make sure that you do them. Breathing exercises Once of the simplest and most effective stress management tools are right under our noses. Like meditation, diaphragmatic breathing can activate your stress response. This counters the stress hormones and induces and calm and relaxed mind and body. These are great buffers to everyday stress. Conclusion Stress affects many people and is a huge personal and societal cost. In this article I have provided 5 strategies that you can use to reduce stress. This can improve your health and wellbeing.