Stress can, indeed, be a brat.  Annoying, irritating and disruptive, stress causes many nagging symptoms that negatively impact our emotional and physical well-being.

When you think of stress as A BRAT, you will have at your fingertips a handy acronym to stop that brat in its tracks.  The next time you find yourself suffering from stress and anxiety, follow these five steps:

A:          Acknowledge that you are stressed.  Simply stopping for a moment and realizing, “I am just feeling stressed right now” takes the edge off the anxiety symptoms.  Also, acknowledge the reason you are feeling stressed.  For example:  “I am stressed because I am running late for my appointment,” or “I am anxious about the meeting.”

B:          Breathe.  Take 3 deep breaths, breathing in through your nose for a count of 4, and out through your mouth for a count of 8.  In order to breathe correctly, try not to take heaving breaths through your chest.  Rather, breathe from your stomach.  Think of your stomach like a balloon:  When you breathe in, your stomach should protrude, like you are filling up a balloon.  When you breathe out, your stomach should “deflate:”  Focus on your belly button inching its way back to your spine.

R:          Relax.  Make a conscious effort to relax any muscles that are tense.  Focus on your jaw, shoulders, and stomach, as these muscles often tense up during periods of stress.

A:          Adjust your thoughts to more positive, soothing ones.  For example, instead of thinking, “I’m running late and they will be upset,” change that thought to “It’s not the end of the world that I am running late.  Everything and everyone will be okay.”

T:           Think about something else.  If you are in the car, turn on the radio and listen to music or a talk radio show.  If you’re at home, do something to take your mind away from the stress-producing event.  Call a friend, do a crossword puzzle, or look through a magazine or catalogue.

Following these five steps will stop an episode of stress in its tracks and allow you to move on with your day.  Remember that stress can be A BRAT —  and you’ll have all you need to keep that brat at bay!

Technorati Tags: Stop Stress

In today’s busy society, stress is a part of life. Juggling home, work and family; dealing with financial burdens; caring for young children; even planning for holidays and vacations are just some of the things that can lead to stress and overwhelm.

Here are 20 simple tips to keep stress from invading your life and affecting your health. Practice one or two at a time, then add more. You will feel better in no time!

1. Eat a balanced diet. Three small meals and two snacks a day will keep your blood sugar level and help you manage stress.

2. Limit sugar, caffeine and alcohol.

3. Get to sleep before midnight.

4. Exercise regularly – even a 20-minute walk will help relieve feelings of stress.

5. Don’t worry about what other people think of you.

6. Avoid comparing yourself or your work to others.

7. Focus on your positive characteristics.

8. Change your negative thoughts to positive ones: For example,

9. Make sure your goals are realistic, then break them down into small tasks. Baby steps!

10. Watch out for perfectionism. Remember that nobody is perfect.

11. Use humor: making a joke when you feel stressed will lighten the atmosphere and reduce tension.

12. Laugh. Watch a comedian on TV, a funny movie , or a humorous video on the internet. Read the comics. Keep a joke book handy. Laughter is a great stress-reliever (and it burns calories, too!)

13. Smile, even if you don’t feel like it. Just the act of using your smile muscles will make you feel happier and less tense.

14. Practice meditation and yoga.

15. Call a friend or family member. Focusing on others helps us get our minds off of ourselves, and puts things into perspective.

16. Treat yourself to a massage

17. Take a hot shower or bath

18. Take time out for yourself each day to rest, read and reflect.

19. Keep a gratitude journal: Each morning or night, list 5 things you are thankful for. If you have trouble thinking of things, focus on the simple things: clean water to drink, a bed to sleep in, the sunshine, birds singing.

20. Listen to fun music with uplifting lyrics – and dance if you can!

Technorati Tags: relieve stress, stress, stress tips

There is not a single person who doesn’t feel stressed out. But it is all in the thinking that we feel the level of stress is increasing, and sometimes we worry on things which are not real. There is a saying that imaginations create demons which are more dangerous than reality itself. By thinking and worrying too much about something, we are stressing our minds. We must learn how to exercise control over our thinking, and we will experience less stress. We need stress in small quantities to keep ourselves attentive to solve issues and problems, business and family needs. Most of the time we induce stress on ourselves for no reasons, and this is preventable.

Stress is a silent killer, and being too anxious is not good for health and your social status. People often torture themselves with thoughts and feelings. Self induced stress can be avoided by utilizing your time working out ways to tackle problems rather than thinking about it.

If you do not plan well in advance, you may get into trouble or fall short of achieving what you had set out for. We may find ourselves in the middle of nowhere if we travel to an unknown place for the first time without a set of clear instructions or a map or guide. If planned and organized properly, we could save time, money and unwanted stresses.

Another reason for stressing out in our daily lives is not organizing the desks, work place, closet, home, etc. These things if properly organized could save a lot of time and stress. If your desk is organized, you won’t have to look for a pen amidst papers and files; you could just pick it up from the pen stand or pen holder.

It is very common not to find your car keys on the key stand. The previous night you could have left it in your pockets and put the clothes in cleaners. Taking time out and organizing your self and your surroundings will help you in preventing the self induced stress.

A poor mind set will not help you overcome self induced stress. Learn to forgive yourself when you make a mistake, after all you are just a human being, and are bound to make mistakes. You cannot be flawless all the time. Learning from mistakes will help you preventing from inducing stresses on yourself.

Here are ways to avoid self induced stress

1. Eliminate stress inducing from your mind

Self induced stress is something that you bring it from your choice. It has nothing to do with the outside world. You can fix the problem. Set your mind to overcome the issue, you can eliminate self induced stress from your life.

2. Look at the brighter picture

Learn to take positives from mistakes and correct what can be corrected.

3. Combat self induced pressure

Laugh it out and forget those things which you cannot solve. Take a break and find peace. Keep yourself occupied with things that you like to do.

Stresses are not easy to avoid, but trying to avoid them will definitely reduce stresses in your life.

Technorati Tags: avoid stress, Self Induced stress

The response to pressure from out side world causes strain to us physically, mentally and emotionally. This strain is termed as stress. When stressed out, our bodies react by releasing chemicals into blood which could induce more energy and strength. The most common reaction to stress is losing temper, getting irritated, tension, lack of concentration, headaches, increased hear beats, etc. Stresses are not always bad to have; we would like have stresses because it adds excitement and spice to a dull life. But over stressing can be harmful physically and emotionally. Many relations are hampered due to stresses, and not knowing how to exercise control over such situations. Stress is a way your body responds to any kind of demand, due to good or bad experiences. Let’s take a look at few overload situations people come across almost everyday of their lives.

• Husband and wife working full time, while their parents are dependent on their help for shopping due to health conditions.
• You are running hand to mouth over expenses and you are denied a hike in pay. You hardly seem to make ends meet and barely save some money.
• Divorced parents sharing the custody of child arguing with each other on matters concerning the children. These arguments tend to arise out of nowhere and more frequently.
• Ever increasing competition at work makes you feel pressure and for survival you work day in and day out. You may take up more work than you can handle. Working very early, staying up too late to complete your job. Taking time to recheck work to correct the mistakes, etc.

Types of stresses

1. Survival stress

It is a common response to fight dangers or run away from it, depending on the situation. When you feel that someone is trying to hit you, you’d react by hitting him before he hits you, or you’ll get clear and avoid getting hit. There is a sudden burst of energy in you enabling you to survive this physical danger.

2. Internal stress

You must have come across a crossroad in your life where you would have felt that you are not capable of handling certain situations, or you start worrying for no reason at all. This kind of stress is very difficult to understand and manage. This happens when we put ourselves in stressful situations and start worrying about things irrelevant to the issue.

3. Environmental stress

Responding to the situations which surround you is natural. For example, when passing by a noisy area, we tend to close our ears. We react differently to noise, crowds pressure from family, friends and work. Identifying environmental stress and getting a control over them will help reduce stress level to a great deal.

4. Stress due to fatigue and overwork

Working hard throughout the day takes a heavy toll on the body. One of the common reasons for such stress is the inability to manage time properly. Find ways to relax when you are uncomfortable, and stressed out.

Technorati Tags: stress, What is stress

Stress is there in every aspect of life, but being stressed out or not is in our hands. We don’t have control over what will happen to us, but what we can control is how we react to those situations. But that doesn’t mean we have to laugh out everything. The more stressed out we are, we become prone to cold, flu and other diseases.

Today when recession has hit us badly, we are fighting our ways to live and trying to spend as little as possible. A simple lifestyle is way to relieve stress, and nowadays it has become essential for monetary reasons. But when simple lifestyle is not an option open for people, they feel stressful and deprived. Taking up simple living due to economic needs can also be stressful to those who are not used to this type of living. Here are a few tips on relieving stress.

Get the right attitude

The most important aspect of living a simple life and reduce stress is to change the attitude. Try to be happy with what you have and what you get, rather than thinking on what you’d like to have, or what you wanted to get. Being content with what you have will give you fulfillment and reduce stress.

Cut Back

Do not make unwanted expenses and try to remove those things which you feel that you haven’t used, and aren’t likely to use it any more. Getting rid of unwanted stuff from your house, may also bring in stuff which you felt you lacked. Here are a few points on how you can cut back on your expenses.

• Are you passionate about books? Instead of buying books and stacking them at your home after you’ve read it, become a member at a library near your locality. The same goes with movie buffs. Renting movies and books will save you lot of money.
• Try to make use of offers while shopping. Buy toothpaste of 400 grams instead of 200 grams if you get a toothbrush free with it. Some stores have reward points on shopping for a certain value. If your bill is near a value close to getting you reward points, buy something else to reach that reward point. You can redeem these points for some exciting gifts later.
• Avoid eating out often, it is expensive. Plus you get to kill time on long weekends by cooking your own food.
• Pay your bills online. Third party commissions, late fees etc can be avoided by doing so.
• Save fuel by walking or biking to go to places which are not too far. This will help you in exercising and save money at the same time.
• Switch off lights and electrical appliances when not required. This will cut your electricity bill.

There are many other ways of finding things you want for less money. Sometimes we can find them free of cost. But the key is to know what is available where, at what price and how you can derive maximum gains from these resources.

Technorati Tags: Simple Living Tips, Stress Relief

When people are stressed out they tend to feel hungry.  Eating gives a feeling of comfort to many people, but they often don’t realize that eating can add to the stresses instead of minimizing them. Since eating gives a feeling of comfort, people also tend to overeat when under stress. The most common substance taken in during stress is caffeine, which is not only found in coffee, tea and soda. You can find caffeine in chocolates too. Caffeine adds to your stress by increasing heart beats and blood pressure. It is advised to cut back on caffeine. Limiting the intake of caffeine will reduce your stress. But do not just stop it abruptly; else you may suffer the ill effects of withdrawal. Do avoid it, reduce it gradually.

Alcohol is another substance people turn to for reducing stress. While alcohol gives a feeling of elation to your mind, the body is still under tremendous stress. Alcohol makes your body  produce adrenaline and this affects your immune system. While under increased stress, some people will use alcohol to help them fall asleep. While this may cause you to  feel  tired and sleepy initially, alcohol actually disrupts your natural sleep pattern and you wake up feeling more tired. Alcohol only adds to your worries, and increases stress.

Another common comfort food for stressed out people is sugar. There’s hardly anyone who wouldn’t enjoy some ice-cream or a candy bar after a long day at work or any other stressful activity. Sugar affects your adrenaline glands and may feel cause you to feel depressed, tired and irritated.

Fatty foods like sugar strain your cardiovascular system. You are leading your heart to more stress by eating such foods. You must also avoid salty food as this increases blood pressure. You will loose control over your emotions. If emotionally disturbed, you are likely to feel agitated later on with compound feelings.

One more disadvantage of eating all the above food is that when stressed out, these foods add to the weight on your body and start showing gradually. Many obesity cases are due to unhealthy eating during stressful situations.

Eating chocolates, fatty foods, sweets and salty foods are all harmful when I’m stressed out. So, what is it that I should eat I’m hungry and stressed?

To control your stress and avoid hunger pangs, take in fruits, vegetables and whole grain food. These will naturally assist you in fighting stress and are good for your health because they are rich with nutrients. These foods are fat free and you will not gain weight. Maximize the nutrients by eating them raw; you will loose vitamins and enzymes after cooking them.

Here are a few tips on eating habits which could reduce stress

1. Do not skip any meals. Try to have at least 3 meals a day, with healthy snacks in between.

2. Try to eat at the same time everyday.

3. While eating focus only on eating. Do not eat while you drive, walk or work. Finish your food and proceed to whatever you want to do.

4. Incorporate fruits, salads in your meals.

5. Drink plenty of water.

Technorati Tags: diet, Nutrition, stress