17 Ways To Remove Stress From Your Life Once And For All

6. Don’t let life fool you into thinking you are helpless in the face of challenges – you’re not. Take charge. Don’t blame circumstances or other people – blaming only wastes precious time and energy. Ask yourself how YOU can improve the situation and do it. (Oh look at me getting all bossy!)

7. Give up on holding grudges. Forgive and let go. Holding onto blame and anger towards others acts like a poison in our souls. The crazy thing is, if I’m still angry at my ex-boyfriend who cheated on me 15 years ago the only person who’s even aware of that is me! He has no idea unless I tell him and most of us don’t do that – we stew and hold onto those resentments like a warm blanket while the other person gets on with their life in ignorant bliss. As Buddha said, holding onto resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Let it go and free yourself from the burden.

8. Stop settling for a life of boredom, dissatisfaction or frustration. If you really, really hate your job – find another one. If you hate where you live – redecorate or relocate. If you’re dissatisfied with your relationship do something about it – choose to love that person, work on your relationship or move on. Stop making excuses for not taking control and living your life (it’s the only one you’ve got after all.)

9. Remove all or nothing thinking. You don’t have to give your life a complete do-over to find fulfillment. Find some activities, passions and people that light you up inside.

10. Stop telling yourself you hate exercise – it might not be what you feel like doing, especially when you’re tense but it’s the bomb when it comes to releasing endorphins (happy brain chemicals,) and increasing alpha waves – the electrical brain patterns associated with calmness. Getting a little sweaty never hurt anyone.

11. Don’t run away from your feelings. Name your emotions, acknowledge them and accept them. Notice them without judgment. You’re going to feel sad, angry, downright demented sometimes – don’t judge yourself for the emotion, just be curious about where it’s come from and whether it is appropriate, effective and helpful to you. Only then can you begin to do something about it.

12. Give up pushing through exhaustion. If you’re getting overwhelmed or caught up in one particular issue or stressful situation – take a break. Go for a walk, listen to some music, read a book – just give your brain a rest from thinking about it for a while. You’ll be far better placed to tackle it again afterwards.

13. Stop sweating the small stuff. Remember what is truly important to you – yes things will get stressful at times but often we get ourselves stressed out about ‘the small stuff’ as Robert Carlson calls them. On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being life ending disaster) how important is the thing you’re stressing about? How important will it be in a month’s time? 6 months time? 6 years time?

14. Give into your fears and take them to their logical conclusion. What is the very worst-case scenario? Could you survive it? Most of the time we spend so much time being fearful of what might be that we don’t stop and examine whether we could handle it or not. Most of our fears are of the fear itself. The very worst is extremely unlikely to happen, and even if it did, you would likely handle it.

15. Surrender your phone/tablet/laptop. The temptation to be connected at all times means we are never truly unplugged. We don’t have to wonder or ponder anything – we can just look it up. We don’t need to day dream – we can keep ourselves occupied at all times. Which means we never truly switch off either. Our brains need time to rest, to recharge and to be calm. Give yourself the givt of boredom now and again.

16. Ban technology from the bedroom. Sleep disturbances are endemic with more and more of us experiencing insomnia, interrupted sleep or just plain sleep deprivation. A key cause of sleep disturbance is technology like phones, TV’s laptops and tablets in the bedroom. It’s not just that we’re using tech late at night but what this does to our circadian rhythm (the system within our bodies that tells night from day and keeps our sleep patterns in check.) Our bodies are diurnal – meaning they are awake in the light and sleep in the dark – the light from tech devises, coupled with the fact that we are using them right up to the minute we want to sleep means our bodies don’t get chance to wind down in preparation for sleep. Your bedroom needs to be a sanctuary for rest and rejuvenation. Think of it as a calm oasis in a hectic world.

17. End excessive worrying. Worry is mental rehearsal for disaster. It hasn’t happened yet. It may never happen. All that you have is this present moment. Oops, it’s gone. Ok this present moment….no THIS moment…you see what I’m getting at? As my 3 year old daughter says ‘It’s tomorrow today.’ We can spend so much time worrying about what might be that we forget to focus in on and notice what actually IS.

But the real trick…?

Putting it into action.

Another word for stress is pressure – and you can learn to handle it. Pressure is an inevitable part of life but it doesn’t have to hold you back. Learn some killer strategies to deal with what life throws at you, and practice them on a daily basis. Think of it like brushing your teeth or taking a shower – stress management needs to become part of your daily self care routine.

We know that life is short – we’re not here that long and it’s way too precious to spend it stressed out, overwhelmed and unhappy -especially when there are some simple, effectively ways to manage it.