Top 10 Ways to Prevent Stress
Unfortunately, stress is a part of life. Everyone deals with it at some point. However, when you begin to feel overwhelmed with stress and it interferes with you living your life, this is when it becomes a problem. Here are my top 10 tips of ways I have been able to reduce stress and make my life just a little bit easier.
1. Have a Support Network
A support network is essentially people you can talk to and share your troubles with. This can include friends, family or a professional. It is so important for your own emotional health that you have people you can lean on when times get tough. Find people who are positive in your life who you know you can lean on in order to decrease your stress.
2. Learn to say “No”
Having a lot on your plate can be overwhelming and stressful. If you're like me, you have a very difficult time saying no when a friend, family member or peer asks you for a favour. Even agreeing to do a simple task only adds to your list of things to do and sometimes it can be too much. Once you learn to say no when someone asks you to do something for them without guilt, you will decrease your stress by not becoming overwhelmed with all that you have to get done in the day.
Here is an article on 7 tips to learn how to say no without feeling guilty.
http://www.inc.com/jonathan-alpert/7-ways-to-say-no-to-someone-and-not-feel-bad-about-it.html
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3. Write Things Down
Don’t depend on your mind to remember everything. You will only feel scattered and unorganized. That feeling of forgetting something is awful and only increases your stress. Stay organized and write down everything such as meetings, birthdays and things you need to do. This way you won’t be trying to remember that one thing that’s driving you crazy, it’ll already be written down for you.
4. Sleep
If you are insanely busy in your everyday life and not paying close attention to your sleep schedule, this can be a major factor as to why you are feeling stressed. Lack of sleep can worsen your stress. Make sure you are getting the recommended hours of sleep for your age each night.
5. Eat Right
Stress and a poor diet are closely related. When we are stressed, we often don’t eat the proper, healthy foods that our bodies need. It has be proven that high levels of omega 3 and fatty acids reduce your stress level. Make sure you are eating proper foods that make you feel good and energized to reduce your stress and make you able to conquer your day.
6. Learn the Best Ways for You to Handle Stress
Stress is inevitably a part of life and everyone has it as some point. Too much stress can cause physical and emotional health problems. Everyone handles stress differently. Learn what strategies are best for you in order to manage and even prevent stress. If you aren't sure, try asking someone or doing some research on different ways you can cope with stress.
7. Limit Caffeine
Many people rely on their morning coffee to get themselves ready for the day when in reality this is adding to your stress levels. Caffeine stimulates your nervous system, which means too much can lead to a rapid heartbeat and increase in blood pressure. This can make you feel overly hyper or agitated. Then the awful feeling that comes after you come down from your “caffeine high”. Therefore reducing your intake of caffeine can also reduce your stress levels.
8. Accept what you can’t change
This one is really important. I know personally I can dwell on something for hours or even days when the matter of the fact is that I can’t change it no matter how badly I want to. When we are faced with something we can’t change yet it is stressing us out, we need to come to peace with the situation because stressing over something that isn’t going to change only hurts you.
This blog goes more in depth about how you can accept things that you can’t change in order to not stress over it.
http://youhaveacalling.com/emotional-health/5-keys-to-accepting-what-you-cant-change
9. Take a break
If you are feeling overwhelmed and stressed at school or work, it can be very helpful to simply take a 10 minute break. This could be as easy as listening to music or closing your eyes. If you are at home and need a break this could be doing some yoga and meditation. Taking a few minutes out of your day to relax isn’t much but it will clear your head, reduce stress and you will feel better in order to keep going on with your day.
10. Exercise
This is the obvious one but staying active can drastically improve your stress and anxiety levels. I explain this in my previous blog post “5 Ways to be Happier”, your brain releases chemicals in your body that makes you feel good. Exercising brings down your stress levels, plus it’s a good way to clear your mind after a long, busy day.