Many of the obstacles life throws our way are out of our control. However, how you choose to respond to them is not. Your response to the stresses in our lives is only exemplified by our responses to them. For example, by feeding that stress with more doubt and uncertainty, you will increase it 10 fold.
Start looking at what you CAN control. Find ways to help us feel more relaxed. Down below I will go over many bad habits that will not make stress any easier. I know I am guilty of a lot of these as well.
Step 1: The habit of bad thinking. When something stressful comes up, this is the thinking that continues that stress and feeds it. This is done by focusing all of our attention on it and reliving that stress over and over. However, the good thing about habits is they can always be broken.
Step 2: Not receiving enough sleep. Sleep deprivation affects our stress in life way more than people may realize. Think of it this way, would you want the guy building your house exhausted? No! Why wouldn’t you want them to be tired? Because they can mess up.
This also applies to us, when we don’t get enough sleep, we are setting ourselves up for mistakes. Mistakes only cause what…. stress! This negative cycle is an easy one to fix by starting with 8 solid hours of sleep.
Step 3: Eating in a harmful way. I know this is my worst habit. Whenever I get stressed, I stress eat. That means all the things that I love but my body doesn’t, I eat anyway. This has a multitude of problems, but feeling sluggish and tired after is always the worst for me.
What I love to do now is find healthier options to indulge in. A protein shake, fruit, veggies, and smoothies are a few of my favorite. Either way there are definitely healthier options to ease this stress mechanism.
Step 4: Kick out the toxic people in your life. This is a no brainer that the toxic people in your life cause you stress. You’ve felt it, I’ve felt it, and the neighbor down the street has as well.
Removing those people the best you can from your life will save you a lot of sleepless nights. After I limited how much I saw a toxic friend, my life changed for the better. Instead of being worried about this person non-stop, I was allowed a breather. Then, when I was healed and my cup was full, I was able to interact with that friend again.
Step 5: Take a step back in your schedule. Keeping a fully loaded schedule will not give you the necessary time to breathe. Schedule in 5-10 minutes every 2 hours to relax and move away from stressful environments.
Step 6: Put your body first and exercise daily! I used to push this back hardcore. Eventually, I was exhausted and felt slow throughout my day. That was my body’s way of telling me it was time to start putting it first again. After two weeks of working out, I felt like me again. I wasn’t tired and had enough energy to complete my tasks.
Step 7: The last and most important step, don’t push your stress aside. While it’s important to not stay in it for a long time, It’s also important to work through it. Go to the beach, go on a walk, get some pampering, talk to a therapist, take a nice long bath.
There are so many ways to work through our stress in life. Some are harder than others, but it’s not about completing the race as fast as you can. It’s about taking one step at a time until you’re confident enough to run the whole race without stopping.
What are some ways you manage stress? I’d love to know down in the comments below.
All my love to you during this stressful time,
Talesha