At this time, in this year, many of our customers are dealing with high levels of stress. With that in mind, I have compiled a list of 10 helpful tips that may assist in easing some of your stress.
1. Try to live one day at a time - Do not increase today’s anxieties by adding tomorrow’s to them. Quite often things do not turn out the way we may fear they will.
2. Identify what stresses you and note your thoughts, feelings and behavior. Can you eliminate those things or reduce their impact? If you can’t eliminate them, can you change your perspective? Can you change thoughts like “I HAVE to...” into something more positive like “I GET to…”?
3. Treat yourself kindly - Do not make harsh or unrealistic demands on yourselves. Don't belittle or malign yourself!
4. Set priorities - This will help you focus on the important things and it will reveal which ones you can put off, delegate, or even eliminate.
5. Develop healthful habits - Rest, sleep, spirituality, exercise, eat nutritious food, enjoy nature etc
6. Try to be organised - Make a practical schedule, and make every effort to stick to it. Identify and correct any attitudes that cause you to procrastinate.
7. Do not be a perfectionist - be modest and avoid setting unrealistically high standards for yourself or others. Keeping a sense of humour will relieve stressful situations and brighten the mood.
8. Keep technology in its place - avoid unnecessarily checking emails, texts and social media.
9. Be forgiving - In the Journal of Health Psychology, Loren Toussaint states that “stress degrades [health] and forgiveness protects health.”
10. Get support - Ask for help. Can you delegate a task or share the workload? Talk things over with an understanding friend. Getting professional help is not an admission of failure.
