Easy Ways to Reduce Stress

I know that most of us today are concerned with our physical health. We want to eat right, exercise and be in the best shape we can be. While being in good physical shape is important, we sometimes seem to forget about our Mental Health. Mental Health has a huge impact on our overall well being.

Reducing stress, enjoying life and having a positive attitude will help us to live a fulfilling and joyful. Of course there will always be circumstance in our lives that we have no control over, but we do have control over how the circumstances affect our lives. Only we can control the outcome of our lives.

#1 - Balanced Diet and Exercise

Eating a balanced diet and staying active will reduce stress and allow you to enjoy life. By eating correctly and adding activity to your life, you will have all the energy you need to do the things you love to do. You will also be feeding your brain all the essential vitamins and minerals that it needs to function properly.

#2 - Self Confidence

Build self confidence If you are not self confident then you will always feel lousy. If there is an area of your life you feel is lacking, do something about it. Work on it, it will make you feel better. Keep in mind that nobody is perfect. If you are striving for perfection you will never have the self-confidence that you need. Show off the abilities and strengths that you do have and feel good about them.

#3 - Challenge Your

Challenge your mind. Read books or do puzzles. Try something you have always wanted to try, but have never attempted. Even if what you are doing seems to hard, study it, learn it. Getting your mind thinking will make your mind grow even stronger!

#4 - Make Some YOU Time

Make time for yourself. I know it can be hard, but you need time to relax and unwind. Take a nice bath or take a few minutes to sit outside and meditate on the day. Take up a personal hobby or make time for something you really enjoy doing. Go for a walk. Walking can be relaxing and it can also get your blood flowing at the same time!

#5 - Get Rid of Unnecessary Activity

Eliminate some of the activities in your life. If you feel you have too much on your plate at once, cut down on some of the activities that you really do not need. For instance, if you have three children and they each have 2 different activities during the week, finding time to get each of them where they need to be can be tricky. Plus, how are you supposed to go to each of these activities? Instead, maybe limit each child to one activity each per week and find something that you can all do together one night during the week. For example: Make a bowling night or a night where you all shoot some pool. These type of activities will bring challenge, fun and quality time to your family. It is important that you are not always feeling rushed,obligated or overwhelmed.

#6 - Volunteer

Take part in your community. If you have a free day once in a while, volunteer at your local nursing home, hospital or school. Helping the community is wonderful and it will bring you great joy and satisfaction as well.

#7 - Learn to Say NO!

Remember it is OK to say NO. You are only one person and can only do so much. If somebody asks you to do something that you know you realistically can't do, say NO. Taking on too much at once will increase your stress and worries. Plus, not being able to follow through on all of your obligations might make you feel disappointed, bringing yourself added stress.

#8 - Get Plenty of Sleep

Sleep, sleep, sleep. Make sure you get enough rest. If you can, take a small nap during the day to refresh your mind. Having sufficient sleep is essential in maintaining a proper balance of mental and physical health Our bodies heal us while we sleep. Damage caused by stress, pollutants, infections and more are worked on while we are sleeping. Sleep also helps rid us of that foggy feeling and helps us with concentration and memory. Sleeping properly can also help us maintain a healthy weight, by regulating the hormones that affect our appetites.

#9 - Forgive Others

Forgiving others is important for your own well being. Carrying around grudges and anger will add more stress to your life and might hold you back from accomplishing your own desires and dreams. By being angry, you are unnecessarily using up energy that you could be using for something much more productive. If you do not forgive others, the anger you hold inside is controlling you, you need to learn how to control it!

#10 - Share Your Emotions With Others

Share your feelings with others. Keeping all your emotions bottled up can cause you to eventually explode. Make sure that if you are going through something, you find people to talk to and people who will listen to you. Having support during hard times is an essential part of healing. By holding in feelings or "masking" them, you are not solving any problems. Even if you manage to not think about them for a while, at some point in time, they will once again reveal themselves. The longer you wait to start dealing with your emotions, the harder it will be to overcome them. Feelings are a normal part of life. We all have them, and we need them in order to learn things, grow and to move on.

#11 - Forgive Yourself

Make sure you always forgive yourself. Yes you might have done something that you are not proud of, or wish you had not done. But what's done is done, and nothing can change that. Forgive yourself and allow yourself to move on. Beating yourself up about the situation will not change a single thing. Learn from the experience and next time try to make a better decision. Making mistakes is just another part of learning. If everybody always did the right thing, then the world would be perfect. And as we all know, the world is not near perfect. And neither are you. And you need to be OK with that.

#12 - Laugh

Make sure you laugh. Believe it or not, laughing actually causes a number of chemical changes in our bodies, which helps release enzymes and hormones that are helpful for normal functioning of various organs. Laughter also helps with pains in our body by releasing a hormone, endorphin's. It improves our attentiveness, pulse, heart rate and reduces stress. So grab a funny movie, or spend time with friends and family with whom you enjoy.Laughter is very important!

#13 - Balance Work and Play

Do not make life all about work and no play or make life all about play and no work.

While it is important to work, it is also very important to add some play time. Leave your work at work! Do not bring the days stress from work to the home. Your job is important, but so is your family. They really do not need for you to come home sulking, angry and upset.

If you are all play and no work, you will soon feel as if you accomplished nothing. Setting goals and achieving them is a big part of making our life joyful and worthwhile. While playing is important, working and doing something productive is just as important.

So make time to go visit places you have never been. Explore new things. Take a trip to the beach. Take a vacation. Play some sports. Set some goals. The key is balancing them.

#14 - Stay Away From Negative People

Try your best to avoid people who are always negative. Being around a negative person can rub off on you. Try to be around people who are positive and who appreciate and enjoy life. Of course if a friend or family member is going through a bad situation, you should be there for them, but if you hang around people who always look at the negative side of things, then it is time to let that person out of your life.

#15 - Reward Yourself

It is important that you recognize your own accomplishments. Be proud of them. If you have achieved something that you have been working on, reward yourself. Go buy that piece of jewelry that you have been wanting. Treat yourself to that expensive dinner. You deserve it! You work on things in your life because they are your goals and your desires. While it is nice to have others be proud of us, being proud of ourselves will bring us much happiness.

Let's face it. There is no magic pill that will take away all the stress in our lives. Stress, anger, disappointment and being overwhelmed is just a part of life now a days. But there are many little steps that we can take to help reduce the stress in our lives. We need to make ourselves the priority instead of putting all the other parts of our lives first.