20 Tips To Reduce Stress

Stress weakens your immune system and damages your overall well-being. Therefore it's vitally important to know how to avoid feeling stressed. These twenty tips will provide you with enough knowledge to remain stress-free even in the most demanding circumstances.

1.Know your priorities

If you don't clearly know what's important in your life, it's easy to lose yourself in all kinds of trivia and end up with headaches and other stress indicators. Your priorities should be always in your mind because they will guide you to take actions that will improve your life and enhance your well-being.

Stress shows that you've gone off track and you need to readjust your actions or behaviour. Stress often occurs when you work on some project and you get focused on unnecessary components of it. Because of that your mind gets confused as it cannot decide what you are working towards so you get stressed as a result.

2.Think about one thing at a time

Your mind can only deal with one thing at a time and if you introduce more that two goals to you mind, you will surely end up feeling stressed. The only reason large projects seem stressful is because you try to think of everything you would need to accomplish at once. You should divide a large project or problem into small steps and execute those steps one at a time. This will make you more productive and you will not feel overwhelmed, therefore you will avoid getting stressed.

3.Have a clear objective

You also get stressed when you don't clearly know what you are working towards. You should define the objective so that there wouldn't be any doubt as to what kind of results you want to get. When you clearly know what you are working towards, your mind will influence your actions so that you would produce the results that you want to get.

4.Exercise

Exercise strengthens your body and refreshes your mind. It also allows you to take your mind off the subject that stresses you out. When you do that, you let your subconscious mind provide solutions to the problems that you are faced with so you don't need to consciously think about everything non-stop. When you go back to the subject that stressed you out after the exercise, you will find that it's not nearly as stressful as it was before the exercise.

5.Eat Healthy

Healthy food makes you feel better because it nourishes your body and gives you more energy. Because of that you are able to cope with situations that can stress you out much more effectively. The more live food (fruit and vegetables) you eat, the more energy your body will have and the more you will be able to deal with overwhelming situations without feeling stressed.

6.Meditate

Meditation relaxes your muscles and lets your conscious mind rest. It lets you get in touch with your body and feel what it needs. If you meditate regularly, you become much more relaxed in your everyday activities and that keeps you at ease even in situations that used to stress you out.

7.Listen to music

When you listen to music you raise your vibration from feeling stressed to being happy, relaxed or energised. However, sometimes when you feel stressed you will not want to listen to your favourite music because the vibration of stress and that of joy are so far apart. If this happens, still try to play music because this will get you out of stress very quickly.

I'm sure you had such experience when you felt like you had no energy, but then you started playing your favourite music and your state changed completely. You started dancing or singing and you suddenly had the rush of energy in your body that you could not access several minutes ago. That's how powerful music can be. It can break any negative emotional state you are in.

8.Get a good sleep

There's nothing more refreshing than good sleep. What I've noticed is that sometimes a short nap during the day can give you more energy than all night's sleep. I'm not sure why this is so but that was definitely the case for me on many occasions.

So if you feel stressful, take a nap. During sleep you let your conscious mind rest and your unconscious mind can find solutions to the problems you are faced with.

9.Balance your life

Sometimes you feel stressed simply because you spend a very large amount of your time in one area of your life and you pay no attention to the other areas. If you, for example, work all the time, no wonder you are stressed. This is an indication that you should cut your work hours and do something else to let your body relax a bit.

10.Have a laugh

Laughter removes stress because it reduces the level of stress hormones. Even if you don't feel like laughing, try at least to smile. This will still reduce your stress to some degree.

11.Avoid causes of stress

That's quite a self-explanatory tip but I thought I will still mention it. If you can, avoid stressful situations, problems, people or projects at all costs because they really damage your health. So if you are constantly stressed at work, I would advise you to search for another job unless you want to die earlier than you should. I know that sounds very extreme but it's true.

If you are constantly stressed, you will either have a heart attack or some other organ failure because our organs cannot work long under constant pressure. It's like if you put more and more heavy material on a chair, it must break at some point. So you need to think about your priorities. What's more important to you, your health or the outcome of what stresses you out?

12.Accept the inevitable

If there is some kind of stressful situation in your life that you absolutely must live with, then just accept it and don't fight against it. Just say to yourself that it is how it is and if you cannot change it, you might as well accept it. When you accept something as unavoidable, your stress levels considerably go down.

13.Do something you love

To fully enjoy your life you must find time to do what you really enjoy. No matter what price you have to pay for doing the things that you like, it will be well worth it. Your health will improve and your stress will be reduced. The more you do what you love, the less stress you will experience in your life.

14.Don't multitask

Many people think that multitasking is a gift that only some people have. In reality multitasking creates stress and is the cause of average results. If you want to be productive and not get stressed out, do one thing at a time in the best possible manner. If you get stuck and feel that you're getting stressed, take your mind off the subject and return when the stress is gone.

15.Try self-hypnosis

Self-hypnosis works in a similar way to meditation. So far I've used this method for 145 days (I wrote this article on 21 Oct, 2009) and I've discovered some differences of effects between meditation and self-hypnosis.

Self-hypnosis is more suited for those that don't seek spiritual development because meditation comes with some after-effects that some might not want to experience. For example, you can accidentally open your third eye (that happened to me) or you can start experiencing other dimensions whilst meditating.

When you experience self-hypnosis, you don't go through anything like that, it just keeps your mind clear and your body relaxed. It reduces stress because of the muscle relaxation. However, many people are afraid of any forms of hypnosis because of the bad associations attached to the subject in the past. In reality, you can be unintentionally hypnotised many times in a day which can make you more open to suggestions. So there's no magic in hypnosis as many think.

16.Go for a walk

Sometimes all you need to do to reduce stress is a breath of fresh air and some light exercise. So going for a walk is an excellent way to relax your body and reduce stress levels.

17.Segment a complex task

Usually you get stressed not because of the main issue that you have or a project that you need to complete but because of a small detail of whatever you try to accomplish. Maybe this detail seems impossible to accomplish or you know that it will require lots of work. If that's the case, divide it into two or more steps until it seems manageable. When you see that it's possible to accomplish it, your stress will be gone.

18.Try aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is the practice of using essential plant oils to reduce stress and improve your well-being. People respond to different scents in different ways, so you should find a scent that de-stresses you. Usually lavender is used to relax and de-stress your body.

19.Reduce caffeine intake

Caffeine elevates stress hormones so the more coffee you drink, the more stressed you can become. If you can, replace coffee with green tea because green tea has the ability to reduce stress.

20.Don't procrastinate

Procrastination creates stress because of the internal conflict that you have. You know that you need to do something, but you don't so this conflict inside you creates stress. The more you delay to take action, the more stressed you will feel.

When faced with the issue that you are reluctant to resolve, remember this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Do the thing and you will get the energy to do the thing."

It worked for me every time!

Conclusion

Now as I've finished this article I remembered another great tip to reduce stress. And that is not to rush to accomplish things. When you rush, you get stressed. So take your time and be patient no matter what you do.

It is vitally important to find out what stresses you out and deal with the issue. Stress is a very uncomfortable feeling that causes damage to your body, so take the necessary time to remove it from your life. The more stress-free you become, the quicker your body can heal and the more clarity you will have in your mind.