How to Stay Stress Free

Stress-free living

Stress can kill. At the very least, it can make you incredibly sick. Heart attacks, ulcers, indulging in too much food, drugs or alcohol can all be side effects of too much stress. Not to mention the toll stress takes on your mental and spiritual health. However, you can stay stress-free with a few useful tools, any of which that can be used any time of the day when it feels like ton of bricks is resting on your forehead.

Instructions

1. Meditate. Daily meditation not only centers your soul, but it vacuums out your brain of unnecessary debris. Simple sit in a comfortable position with your back erect, close your eyes and breathe deeply. Let your mind ramble about until it bores itself and you can concentrate simply on your breath moving in and out. Make your practice as lengthy and elaborate as you like, adding incense, chanting and Tibetan bells if desired. You can use meditation any time, like on a packed, rush-hour subway or even in the dentist’s chair, to bring you stress-free peace of mind.

2. Exercise. Physical exercise, even something as simple as a morning walk with the dog, has been shown to greatly reduce stress. Any pent-up emotions or overloaded brain sockets can be cleared by busting your muscles to their full capacity. Yoga is a glorious way to help stay stress-free.

3. Remember you are human. You are not Superman or Wonder Woman. Sorry. Humans make mistakes and humans can only do things humanly possible. Go figure. Stop beating yourself up by trying to accomplish too much or putting impossible expectations on yourself or yourself or others.

4. Ask yourself “How important is it?” While many things will feel like the end of the world as they are happening, they are really not. You’ll get through them. Some you won’t even remember next week, although they are making you stressed-out today. Another good question is to ask if you, or anyone else will remember the thing that’s killing you now in two years. Two weeks. Two days. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t sweat any stuff.

5. Take time for yourself. A schedule packed with too many to dos never gives you time to pamper and care for the most important person in the world: yourself. You can’t tend to anything outside yourself without stressing out or with much effectiveness unless you make sure to also take care of yourself. This could include something as simple as daily naps or weekly baths to a day in the sun reading the most mindless novel possible.

6. Say no. There are only so many hours in a day. Don’t fill them with obligations you have neither a desire nor reason to undergo. Saying “no” can be tough, but it can also reduce stress a million-fold and increase your sanity likewise.

7. Detach often. When the world is swirling crazy around you, close your eyes and mentally take yourself out of the situation. Meditation plays a great key in helping to detach from seemingly impossible or intolerable situation.

Tips & Warnings

• Classical music, as long as it’s not one of Stravinsky’s angry works, is another tool for a stress-free life.

• Bubble baths are a godsend for keeping stress-free.

• Once you practice these tips long enough, they will become second nature.

• Laughter also reduces stress. Have some fun, will ya?

• Don’t think you are failing at staying stress free if you want to pull your hair out now and again. Stress happens.