If you are among the many millions who are stressed and anxious and would like permanent relief from anxiety and unhappiness, here are a few things you can start doing right away:
1. Recognize that stress is the response that you make to the situations that you have to face. The terrible situations by themselves cannot cause you stress. They need you to play victim. If you respond in ways that enhance your energy and improve your health, you will turn the stressor into a trigger for self-improvement. What are you facing that is making you anxious? Name the culprit and look at them and say with conviction, ” I can handle that”. You are stronger than you think.
2. At the slightest onset of stress change the way you breathe – breathe deeply and slowly in through your nose.
3. Increase the level of awareness that you bring to your life especially awareness of your body. Be mindful every moment of how you are living and moving and carrying yourself. Straighten your spine, sit up and look upwards and turn up the wick of your awareness. Awareness leads to control
4. Recognize that you can predict many if not most of the stressors that will hit you in a given day. Take time to prepare for them. Stop the activity and look at your life. Anticipate what stressors will strike every day, and deal with them well in advance. Tell yourself that you will maintain a positive posture and a strong belief that you will succeed in all you do. Don’t take pot luck, predict and prepare for the stress of each day. This will take the sting out of the stressor and it will turn your fear and anxiety into positive energy.
5. Use your imagination and visualize how you would like to feel and to behave and see yourself as you would want to be as a victor in each circumstance. See yourself as calm, steady and cool and successful under trial. Use your imagination to engineer your success.
6. Know that trials, disappointments and troubles will come and when they do, assume control. Establish control wherever you can. Do not abdicate any modicum of control. Refuse to be a victim of hardship. Raise your perception of your ability to win, so that you will see yourself able to deal with any stressor that life throws at you. Perception is the gateway to stress and if you think, affirm and act out “I can handle this” you will change the way you react to stress and you will learn to quell feelings of anxiety in the face of any predicament.
7. Examine your routine and see if you are carrying more cargo than you need. Life is like a voyage. You are like a leaky ship in the midst of the storm and there are reefs all around. You need to be vigilant and light. Too much cargo is a detriment to your safe passage. So ask yourself do I need all this baggage that I am carrying? Do I need to work all this time that I am working? What can I eliminate that will make no difference? Free yourself from the shackles that bind you and limit your power. Walk away, if you must, from the abusive relationship, stop going to all those useless meetings that drain your energy and stress you out and add no benefits to your life. In short, ditch cargo you don’t need and discover the incredible lightness of being. Free yourself up so you can accomplish your real purpose in life.
Try these 7 simple ideas. They will help you create within yourself a state of psycho-physiological harmony and you will find a new way of being in the world with less anxiety and stress.
Click here to watch a one minute video on stress.