Visualize a normal day of your life. Of course, a weekday.
- Your alarm clock is ringing to wake you up.
- Your maid calling up that she won’t be available for work today.
- You get up and do all the household chores.
- Your kids throw their tantrums before going to school.
- Your husband says you that he wants to leave early for a meeting.
- Your boss calls you and asks you to send the revised presentation immediately.
- Your junior calls you to tell that she would be coming a half hour late to the office.
Yes, you also have to visit a parlour soon for the function scheduled on Sunday. You also have to buy a gift. You have to pay utility bills, check the bank balance and fetch your new passport.
All these things just don’t gather in your mind in a normal way. They lead to a serious, yet common condition known as stress.
We all are facing stress in some or the other form. Stress is unavoidable and common for everyone. A junior must be stressed with over-work and responsibilities while a senior person will be stressed with clients. A housewife is stressed with daily household chores and family matters while a working woman is stressed with her kids.
We are also much aware that stress has an adverse effect on our body. In fact, it affects each organ of our body. We casually say to each other, “I am so stressed out’ ignoring all the impact it has made to our body unknowingly. Though stress management tips are available on internet, very few us take the actual step to adopt them as a lifestyle.
Experts and healthcare practitioners recommend us with few tips such as ‘Don’t take stress’ and ‘Do yoga every day’ or ‘Do meditation daily early in the morning’ but it hardly turns into a reality. Hence, we are bringing for you some of the best tips for managing and beating stress completely out of your lives. This does not mean that you can over-load yourself with tremendous work and then follow our steps to manage stress. In practice, you need to alter your lifestyle and make it a simpler and natural one.
It is better to be simple and peaceful instead of being complicated and stressed out. Let us Check some of these valuable tips on how to reduce stress.
How To Reduce Stress Effectively?
1. Learn to Delegate
‘I am the only one who has to take care of all the things. The others don’t seem to bother how much work I do every day. No one does their job perfectly, so at last, I have to do all it on my own. And at the end of the day, all this work makes me stressed out completely.’
Read the above statement twice. Who is underestimating people around us and their capabilities? Who is judging their work? It’s us who have set the standards and want others to follow those perfectly. We tend to become dominant and autocratic that we have to manage all the tasks without delegating to others by undermining their performance.
The delegation of tasks is necessary to manage stress levels. A person alone cannot do all the tasks. If you are a housewife, you need to appoint a maid for household chores or a caretaker for your kids for a few hours. You alone cannot do household chores, collect kids from school, take their studies and cook delicious food. In case you are a working woman, you have to delegate some tasks to your husband too even if he does not perform them well in the beginning. You also have to train your kids to carry their own responsibilities.
The delegation of tasks along with responsibilities will help you in beating stress effectively.
2. How To Reduce Stress – Learn To Be Patient
‘When are you sending the presentation, Kathy? I am waiting here since ten minutes. Don’t you know I have other pending work? Clients are waiting, meetings are scheduled…’
Do you think Kathy would be able to send an accurate and complete presentation? And when she does not, you will again tell her and stress yourself and Kathy.
Relax and relax. Whether you are waiting for a client’s call, or are standing in a queue at a coffee shop, or stuck in a stubborn traffic jam, you need to be patient. Such factors are primary reasons for accelerating your stress levels. You need to learn how to reduce stress to deal with them on a daily basis in an effective manner.
Divert your attention if you are waiting for a confirmation call. Let your subordinates do their work. When in a queue, talk with others and chill out the cooling time. Use a stress factor as a means of relaxation and enjoyment and notice the difference in your level.
Remember, stress is contagious. Hence, instead of telling at others, let them do their job properly.
3. Don’t Keep Imagining Consequences
‘I thought it will go perfectly. I will head for the bus stop, catch the usual bus and reach the venue on time. But I forgot my keys at home and everything went wrong. My God, it’s a wrong day!’
In this sentence, the person has imagined a perfect picture of what will happen next. This happens with us most of the times. When things don’t take place as we had planned or imagined, we get disturbed and stressed out. Later, we start blaming everyone and even ourselves.
Hence, do not always visualize next day’s agenda perfectly. Keep scope for changes, keep space for surprises, good or bad. Can you live a life as you had predicted? Not at all. We love surprises, we welcome changes.
Similarly, don’t always think about negative consequences. Some people have a tendency to expect negative happenings to avoid disappointment. It is better to have a Plan B but a wrong method to be negative and hopeless.
4. Live In The Present
‘I still remember how she had humiliated me in the past. I will never forget it. When I will meet her in the future, I will remind her about all the insult.”
Our mind is an open ground on which thoughts come and go. Some thoughts are about the past while some are future action plans. Past thoughts are difficult to forget such as past regrets, bad experiences, hurt, humiliation, unfortunate deaths of loved ones, break-ups, and so on. Future thoughts are either about next course of action or anxiety.
We always wish our past should have been different. And we always worry whether our future won’t repeat the past. In the meantime, our present is wasted.
Hence, living in the present is an effective way to beat stress. When a past regret or a future worry haunts you, just tell yourself, ‘This is not the right time to think about it. Let me ponder on it after a while.’ When you live in the present, try to concentrate on what you are doing. For example, even if you are drinking a cup of tea or coffee, then enjoy it. Don’t bother whether what you ex must be doing or how will be your next day meeting with the client. Feel the aroma of the coffee, feel its taste and feel the ambiance! Loving the moment is also loving yourself.
Here are the top relaxation exercises that you must start now if you want to shed the extra baggage of stress from your lifestyle.
5. Laugh And Smile Often
‘How can she smile even when she has to work for 10 hours a day? I really can’t fake smiles at anyone without any reason.’
Why do we have to search for a valid reason to smile? There are hundred reasons to smile. Waking up and seeing your loved one’s face is one of the reasons. Living another day in life is another reason. Eating a healthy breakfast is yet another reason. Heading for a dream job, talking to a client, making a deal, entering into a contract, welcoming someone are various reasons to smile.
Why always have a rigid, unwelcoming face that won’t make others smile and happy? Always wear your smile. It is like an invisible crown. When people will see you, they would smile back to you and welcome you, talk nicely with you. Smile and make someone’s day great!
6. Get Involved In Family And Friends
‘It’s been ages our family has not gone out for a movie or a dinner. The last time when I went out with my husband for a date was when …… I don’t remember exactly…’
Instead of sitting on the couch and playing with your mobile phone or staring at the TV screen, get involved with your family and friends. After dinner, spend time with your family in which you will share your lifetime stories and experiences with your kids and spouse. Similarly, instead of chatting on virtual groups, arrange a gathering of your friends. Invite them to your place, have a bash or just a casual talk with each other.
7. How To Reduce Stress – Show Gratitude
‘God has not given me this and that. I have everything except that new dress. When I will get promotion, I will buy myself a new iPad. Why do I live a wretched life like my cousin?’
We always regret on things that we do not have in life. But we never notice people around us who do not have basic necessities in life. Show gratitude every day. Begin you day with a thank you to the rising sun, to your family, to your maid, to your watchman, to your office employees and boss, and to yourself. We need to be thankful to all the persons and things in the world which are making our lives wonderful and divine.
8. Get Involved In Charity
‘I do not have time for myself. How can I spend time for others?’
Also consider about themselves who are less fortunate than us. This does not mean you have to give away half of your salary amounts to charity organizations. You can volunteer, provide moral support to these people. Merely handing a signed cheque does not mean you are doing social work. Give them your valuable time and support system!
When your offer help to others, your body also shows favourable changes. You feel happy and satisfied that you helped someone.
9. How To Reduce Stress – Do Yoga and Meditation
‘I can’t think about anything. I just need some peace of mind. I want to go to a place to meditate and think about nothing.’
We should not ignore this important aspect. Learn to perform yoga, learn to meditate. Dedicate some time for yourself to think about life, think about this divine world.
10. Develop a Hobby Or a Passion
‘I like to sing but can’t find time for it. I always wanted to be a paintee when I was in school. I wish I could find some time for it.’
A hobby is something in which you spend your leisure time. While a passion is something for which you can go beyond limits. If you have any of these, then do invest time for it. You may never know that you will achieve your dream in life. It could be collecting oil coins or hiking, or rock climbing or even clicking photos.
Read something light and motivating before you go to bed. Listen to your favourite music. Watch good movies. Don’t miss the fun while reaching your daily targets.
11. Consult Someone
‘There is a big difference between your problems and mine. I really don’t understand how to deal with those problems.’
Our life is not always about routine problems. Sometimes, we are entangled into big problems, the solutions of which are hard to find. Seek support of your significant one, family, close friend or even a psychologist. Discuss your problem with them and sort it out well. If you find that there is no solution to the problem, then time is the only remedy for it. Be patient and calm. Do not take the toll alone. Always consult someone you trust or someone who is an expert.
Thus, we would finally say to beat the stress effectively and not just manage it. You have to adopt a new lifestyle, be simple and manage time. Identify the factors that make your stressed, angry or low. Deal with the factors one by one and learn how to reduce stress and enjoy life to the fullest!
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