Steps to Reduce Stress

We’ve had blogs about being resilient and choosing happiness. Seems only right that we talk about something else that seems to be getting to people lately – stress.

I don’t about you, but I know I am stressed. With three full-time jobs (attorney, writer and wife/mom), there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t feel like I can’t do another thing. But in making a decision to choose happiness, I’ve also realized that I need to get rid of some of my stress.

Seems hard? In reality, there are some simple ways to eliminate stress in your day.

  • 1. Prepare the night before. Whether it’s just packing up your briefcase or making your lunch to take to work, do it the night before. Round up all that you need so that the next morning you are not scurrying around trying to make it all right. If you lay out everything the night before, you’ll leave the house in a much better frame of mind and will be less likely to forget something important.
  • 2. Get up ten minutes earlier. I know, I know. Hard to do. I like to hit that snooze alarm as much as you do. But if you give yourself that extra time, you won’t be as harried. You’ll also be able to give yourself that extra five minutes in that nice hot shower. I don’t know about you, but the shower is my most creative time. Must be all that water washing away the negative ions.
  • 3. Be polite. Smile, say Thank You and Please. Those common civilities go a long way in not only helping you feel better, but in fostering a positive response in the person with whom you are speaking.
  • 4. Take a nap or go to bed a little earlier. More and more studies are showing that lack of sleep is a killer. treat yourself to an afternoon siesta if you can. If you can’t, try getting to sleep a little earlier and get the rest that you need.
  • 5. Read a good book. It’s amazing how relaxed you can get by sitting back for a half an hour or so and reading a novel that pulls you away to another world for a little bit.

Hope these help you reduce your stress levels!

Also, I’m guest blogging at Pagan Spirits today! Just click on this link to visit me at Pagan Spirits.

On Choosing Happiness…

I want to thank my friend and fellow author Mary Kennedy for her wonderful blog on resiliency! It’s the perfect segue to something I was discussing with a train friend on the ride home the other day, namely choosing happiness.

As Mary so aptly noted in her blog, “Ruminating and drowning in negative thoughts will not help. Taking action will.”

And one action you can take is to choose to be happy. Some might say that it’s easy to say that, but doing it is a different thing. It’s hard.

Yes, it’s hard. I know. For the last few months — yes months — I’ve been letting a lot of things pull me down. Things over which I don’t even have any control (which being the control freak that I am only makes it worse).

But here’s the thing – I can continue to allow these things to keep me down, but I know that’s not the real me. The real me is usually optimistic and believes that there is goodness out there. That it is possible for good things to happen if (1) I imagine them happening and (2) I work at making them happen.

So, I’m choosing to be happy. I’m going to stop investing time in those things that are pulling me down and refocus on those things that make me happy and over which I have control.

You may be wondering how my talk with my train friend brought this about. Well, we were both discussing how certain things were bothering us and he mentioned a man he once knew. No matter when my train friend spoke to the man and asked how he was, the man would say “Exceptional” and always in an upbeat tone. That consistently made my train friend feel good.

That man chose to be happy and if you think about it, just conveying such positivity to others can raise not only their mood, but your spirits as well.

So if you’ve been like me lately, down and a little depressed about the state of things, make it a point if only for today to be happy. Think about all the good things going on instead of the negative. Try being upbeat and see if that doesn’t change how your day goes today.

If it worked to make today better, try it again tomorrow and then the day after that.

Hopefully you’ll find that by choosing happiness you will improve how are you are feeling.

So to get you started – list one negative thing you are going to put out of your mind today. Or better yet, embrace something that makes you happy.

I’ll start – my daughter. She always makes me feel good!

happy