11 Steps to Stay on Top of Daily Stress: Beginning with Being Grateful
11 Steps to Stay on Top of Daily Stress: Beginning with Being Grateful!
Stress will always be a part of Your Life: It is the very Core of your Existence
So if this is the case – How can you prevent it from having such Detrimental effects on your emotional health, physical health and happiness. Staying on top of stress at times can seems rather daunting and overwhelming.
When you begin to count your “Blessings” being “Grateful”, this virtually melts the stress away. Find that hard to believe, I have more support for you with giving you an understanding of how gratitude works, understanding stress and 11 steps you can incorporate each day that will help you to stay on top of stress.
Gratitude the Most Powerful Emotion to Melt -Away Stress
When I was younger growing up with feelings of discontentment, despair, anxiety and sadness. I would stop myself realizing that I didn’t want to feel this way. I had a little notebook, which now people call a journal and would write down things that I was grateful for. Over time I noticed that this replaced the feelings of discontentment, despair, anxiety and sadness with feelings of hope, joy and eliminating feelings of overwhelm or stress. I have continued to do this ever since, every day of my life.
Dealing with Stress
Not dealing with in Positive or Constructive Ways is like kerosene to a fire it combusts the situation making it feel even worse leading to increased feelings of anxiety, hopelessness and despair. When you change your perspective toward stressful moments this will help you to cope and feel better with these what may seem challenging moments.
Understanding, Knowledge and Gratitude are vital elements in Coping and Rising above the Stresses that come about in your Life. With the understanding that you aren’t alone, each person in life has their own stressful situations this is helpful in helping to diminish the thoughts of “Why is this Happening to ME!” Therefore not feeling quite so isolated with the situation.
11 Steps to Stay on Top of Daily Stress
1. Keep a diary – By keep a list – for at least a fortnight – of events, times, places and people that seem to make you feel more stressed. You will probably be surprised to find that a pattern soon emerges; and this may be linked to time pressure, personality clashes, inappropriate demands or simply trying to do too many things at once. Once you have identified your pressure points you can move on to the following solutions –
2. Talk -Communication with yourself, others and from others is very important and will be discussed in more detail. Finding a good friend someone you can trust to talk to – discussing things often makes you feel better. Ask for impartial advice as to how to ease the problems that you have discovered, or choose the sort of stressful situations that you have identified in which to use the following relaxation techniques.
3. Learn Relaxation Techniques – Practise deep-breathing techniques such as slowly inhaling while counting to five:
- Hold your breath for five seconds then breathe out slowly. Repeat these 10 times when feeling stressed, concentrating on nothing but your breathing.
- Stretch the muscles of your neck and shoulders by keeping your shoulders level and trying to touch each shoulder with your ear –
- Look right up at the ceiling, down at the floor and then rotate each shoulder in a wide circle. Repeat five times. Open and close your jaw widely after each time since stress often causes tenseness in the jaw area.
- Take time out – For five minutes every hour, try to ‘shut down’ and think of nothing being happy and at peace.
4. Exercise regularly you do not have to be a gym freak to get the stress beating benefits of exercise. Even 20 minutes of brisk walking three times a week will help to reduce stress as well as promoting restful sleep.
5. Plan breaks in the day the aim here is to allow time for the unexpected (which, as we all know, will happen!). Get up 15 minutes earlier than you think you need to and prepare for the day without rushing. Even better, get things ready the night before. Try to have 20 minutes in the morning and afternoon that is exclusively ‘your’ time, in which you can do whatever you want, even if it is simply sitting doing nothing. Look forward to these times when things get busy and if you are unable to use them always remember to ‘catch up’ later on.
6. Stretch .Sitting upright on a chair, and keeping your back straight, extends your arms out in front of you as far as possible. Hold for ten seconds. Repeat, with your arms behind you. Then hold on to the sides of your chair and push your body upwards. Feel your spine stretch. Hold for ten. Now stretch arms to the ceiling, to release tension in back and shoulders. Relax and shake your arms.
7. Use Scent to improve your mood certain aromas are thought to activate the production of the brain’s feel-good chemical serotonin. Drip a few drops of the following aromatherapy oils on a tissue to sniff when you feel stress levels rising: jasmine, neroli, lavender, chamomile, rosemary, and clary sage.
8. De-Clutter Mess creates confusion and a sense of loss of power. If your desk/home/car is messy and disorganized, have a good clear out and tidy up. You’ll instantly feel more in control.
9. Change the Habits: Many stresses are habitual. If you start to feel anxious or stressed out, do something out of character. Stop what you’re doing and do something else. Or take a minute to take stock and work out why you’re feeling uptight. Daily affirmations are a great way of altering thought patterns that we no longer find beneficial for us.
10. See the Positives – Being positive doesn’t mean that you ignore the problems it just means that you look at the problems in a different way. The biggest secret is being able to see the good even when it is something not so good happening. If there is a problem and it is directly related to you and within your realm of change then put in the processes needed to change it, That may be learning a new skill, ringing to postpone paying a bill for a couple of weeks. Restructuring things so they work better for you.
11. Learn to Say NO: Sometimes we need to say no to either doing something because we haven’t got the time or we are unable to do it. It may be an outing and we are just too tired because we have been working hard or it may just be that you want some time for you.
It’s not always the situation that is “So Stressful” but how you Perceive the situation. Taking time to see things differently sometimes through someone elses eyes. This could be a trusted friend or health professional will help to bring back balance.
Remember each and every day to be Grateful and work on that List
An example of Coping with Stress – When Good times turn Bad!
There is a high probability that you or someone you know and care about is going through this – or will in the future. Gerald was worried sick — literally – because of the cash crunch he found himself in. it was not his fault. The company was downsized and it capsized his whole life. He felt huge anger then fear.
The more time that went by the more his self-esteem eroded. It was, indeed, a gloomy time and his life and the lives of those in his immediate family were affected in a very negative way. “Woe is me” was his oft-repeated theme. He was one sad, angry man. He would Fret. Get angry. Wring hands. Stew. Worry. Cry. Negative self-labels. Fight with spouse. Lose patience easily and often. Cry some more.
These are the things that many people do when things are going badly in their lives. Better to acknowledge those feelings that make you cry than to keep them bottled up. If you keep them bottled up they will find a way to come out — somewhere. Usually in a negative or destructive way Gerald sought me out for advice.
I listened to his lamenting and sad ranting about how bad things were for about 15 minutes. Then I gently cut him off and told him that I was so sorry that he was going through all that. It was awful. Then, like a breath of fresh air I told him that if he wanted my help we weren’t going to commiserate about the past one minute longer.
It was no longer to be discussed except for when it would be of value regarding knowledge or a helpful experience. I said that from that moment forward we were going to focus on possible solutions – only. He agreed to that and within six weeks his upside down life was right sized. He followed my advice to the letter.
FIRST, he repented of the way he had been treating his family and made a heartfelt commitment to treat them with the love and respect he had for them – no matter what. He called a family counsel and told everyone he was sorry for the way he had been acting and explained in quite a bit of detail what had happened and how it had affected him.
He was truthful. He then asked for their help in dealing with the hassles and emotional stress he was under. The children all rallied to his aid. The kids were more responsive and helpful once they knew how hard things were for their dad. His wife was much more patient with him and comforted him in all the ways only a wife can.
She became a major source of encouragement and showed him that she loved him even though he was really struggling financially and consequently, emotionally. She comforted him physically as only a lover can.
All of this worked like magic for him. He attacked each day with renewed enthusiasm. Instead of sending out one resume a week he sent out 30 to 50. In addition to an aggressive job search he also started a home based business I recommended with the idea that he was not going to ever put all his eggs in one corporate basket again.
He got another job offer and took it. His home- based business began to take off and create several thousand dollars a month for him. He ended up being far better off than before he lost his job. The moral of this story is this: *** Do not keep things bottled up inside. *** Also, focus on solutions not problems.
Keepings things bottled up inside can dramatically affect your physical health and actually make you sick. It will always affect your relationships. It can cause you to withdraw from your husband or wife. Stuffing your feelings can affect your income.
It can affect every area of your life. Things happen in our lives that are hard, scary, and even hurtful. Sometimes your life is turned totally upside down by a tragic event such as the loss of your job, a major health problem or the loss of a loved one.
Worry and fretting doesn’t help. Crying can relieve the emotional stress and help you feel better especially if your loved ones are there for you even though they can’t do anything. But it doesn’t help solve the problem. So be open and honest with your feelings.
Always Go ahead and fret or worry out of fear, frustration, sadness or anger…for a moment or two. But then decide to focus on solutions and like Gerald did, you will take back control of your life. Please share this with anyone you know who might be struggling with what Gerald went through. It might inspire them to take the kind of action that will give them back their life, their health, their happiness…and maybe even more.
A Poem to Remember – Going through Difficult Times
God grant me the serenity to accept the things
I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can.
Wisdom to know the difference
Read Next: The Truth Behind Positive Thinking
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