Creative title, right? Talking about stressing out about stress in your life only leads you to a life filled with more stress. It is a vicious cycle that I have found myself in over and over. I would guess that most people who ever check this blog have found themselves trapped in a cycle where they just want to get past the stress for a little bit of time so they can relax. The next few tips are things I have tried, and we’ll lead off with my favorite one, and the real backbone of my first post on this blog where I wrote about breathing techniques during the introductory post of this site. The following tips are specific to stress management.
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So, learn to practice different breathing techniques. It bares repeating that learning to control the breath is said to be a way to control emotions. It is said that one is linked to the other. Don’t do something that could harm yourself, but the next time your breath is accelerated for any reason, stop and take note of your emotional state.
Even if you are simply working out and feeling good, I would guess that your current emotional state may very well be “heightened”. Now imagine that you are very upset, but without the offsetting effects of the feel good hormones you get from exercising. This is a poor example, but the best I’m currently capable of, to show how emotions and breath may be linked for people.
That brings us to the idea that meditation is likely a good idea for anyone who deals with high amounts of stress, anxiety or panic attacks. A lot of people have a hard time meditating. After all, we stress cases are usually stressed because we have a million and one thoughts racing through our heads at once. Quieting these thoughts is tough, but if you can do so through meditation, this could be your escape from the stress cycle right there.
As a side note, the controlled breathing technique discussed in my first post seems to have a bit of a meditative effect for me, and I’d bet it may have a similar effect for you too.
Go to a comedy club once a month. Either that or look into a great comedy movie and watch it. Clear out the time that it takes to do this, and commit to. The saying that laughter is the best medicine is especially true these days. I recently had some rough news come my way, and instead of being flustered and angered, I found myself laughing. I still cannot explain it, but it’s how I handled the situation. Since then, I’ve had the chance to rethink what is going on, and my emotions have shifted a bit. It is still odd to me that sometimes laughter comes about whether we want it or not.
This means that getting ahead of the game and finding the laughs that you want is a really good idea. So let go, try and relax, and have a really nice and long laugh.
If you can’t laugh, or if you have a little soreness, try getting a massage. I go cheap style and go to Brookstone in the mall and sit in the massage chair. I love those chairs. Just for a minute or two, I can get a chronically sore back to relax a little. I’m not injured, but I sit for work, and I work out a bit as well. As I get through my mid 20s, I’ve noticed that previous sports injuries creep up. I hear it’ll get worse when I hit my 30s and 40s, so this has a duel purpose for both stress relief as well as some corrective and restorative effects as well.
This brings us around to the next couple of points that should wrap this post up pretty well, at least I hope it will. Carve out time for you. I have written about it in other posts, and I will certainly write about this in future posts, but making sure to take time for yourself is vital to your mental well-being. If you love to run, then cut out time to go for a run on your schedule.
If this means keeping a reduced schedule or asking for help, then by all means, get the help, and cut the schedule down. Letting other people’s expectations of you guide your every move is common and easy to do. It is also a good way to get stressed out, anxious and find yourself in a bit of a downward spiral. The only way to dig yourself out is to take back the situation and your life to set each day’s tasks on your terms as much as possible.
Stress has a way of creeping in and running your life. Getting some positive stress management steps into place is a crucial point. I am currently looking at ways of developing my own stress management routine that I can adhere to, as well as a plan to dig myself out of the much when I notice that I’ve lost control of my plans.
I hope these help you to do something similar when it comes to stress.
