Living With Less Stress

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In today's world too many people are trying to take on too many things. We all think that adding to our plates one or two things here and there doesn't really make that big a difference, but over time it all adds up.  What we need to learn is ways to manage our stress to live healthier happier lives.

•   Learn to say no Saying yes to every opportunity that gets thrown your way is an express train to stressing out. Adding more on to your already full plate does more harm that good. While you shouldn't always say no, learning when its okay or necessary to can save you from stressing out.

•   Taking Breaks I have worked with many different kinds of people and while not everyone works the same way, I have seen that people who take more breaks are less stressed out.  Some people don't like to take breaks because they feel it is taking away from the time that they could be working, but it never hurts to take a 20-30 minute break every once in a while. NPR ran a very interesting article back in May on this topic, if you don't believe me you can read about it and listen to their podcast.

•   Exercise  Nearly anyone in the health profession when asked "what can I do to relieve stress from my life?" will say that exercising regularly will help to relieve stress. While I do not claim to be a health expert, I can attest from taking up running that when I run things that have been bothering me just seem to melt away. I suggest you check out this post about Running to Relieve Stress 

•   Meditation While meditating is not the easiest thing to get into there are many who swear by it.  You can find many guided meditations online if you are just starting out.  Yoga has also been proven to help reduce stress, but if you are one to get frustrated when things are difficult yoga may not be for you.

•   Eating Properly If you are eating too much fast food, or starving yourself to get through the work day, stop.  This goes along with the taking breaks point. If you don't know when to stop then you have a serious addiction to working, we all need to eat so if there is a pressing email that needs to be answered or a phone call that needs to be made, move it to the top of your to do list and do it when you get back from having a proper meal.

•   Sleep Last and certainly not least is sleep.  Sleep is written about everywhere online, in studies, in books... you name it.  But the bottom line is if you don't sleep properly (for the right amount of time) your body stresses out naturally.  I'm not telling you to sleep for 9 hours a night, there is no real exact number; some people only need 15 minutes every few hours, some need 7 hours, some need 9 everyone is different. Run a few experiments to see what works best for you but what ever you do don't starve yourself of sleep, its just not worth it.

Try some of these tips out and feel free to share about your experiences in the comment section below or even share some tips.  I'm not saying to try them all out, but pick one that you feel speaks to you and if it work stick with it and if not try something else.