4 Easy Ways to Beat Stress
After finally pinning down stress and debunking the many myths about it, let us cut to chase and list down ways you can beat and drag stress down:
Know your stressors. Identifying what causes you to feel stress is undeniably the most important step in any stress management plan as it pins down what exactly you need to prevent if not eliminate. Your goal: to know exactly what drags your spirit and stresses you out during the day.
All you need to accomplish this task is a reflective, focused mind and a few minutes. Make a list of what you will discover. Now, reflect on what happened yesterday. What occurrences stressed you out? Were there any particular activity, person, and even things that cause stress in your life? Then, ask yourself these questions: can I prevent them or, better yet, eliminate them from my life? If possible, weed them out.
If you can’t totally scrub them off, find ways to make them less stressful.
This process can be easy, especially since we always remember best the not-so good things that happen in the course of our lives. But preventing and eliminating them isn’t. You may hesitate to take a number of activities since you have been used to doing them. But you need to. You owe it to yourself.
Become a time manager. And an efficient one at that. Procrastinating or delaying things we know should be done will make matters worse. Things when left unattended will always pile up, making it less manageable and conquerable than it was before. Allowing things to pile up will only stress you and drag your spirits down.
Find the time to do things now. Take care of stuff as soon as you can. Clear your desk. Clean your inbox. But as you do, be sure that you take your time. No rush. Cleaning up should not only be about clearing up, it must also help clear your mind of unnecessary thoughts that has bogged you down for some time. Make the habit of cleaning up an engaging, mind-clearing activity. You will soon see things clearer.
Stop multitasking. It is easy for you to multitask. And you think that you’re even good at it. But the truth is your brain cannot multitask. It is another stress myth that we need to debunk for the sake of our sanity.
Doing and actually accomplishing multiple tasks at the same time may seem productive, but it actually slows you down. The truth is your brain can focus on one thing at a time. Yes, you can walk and talk at the same time; yes, a pianist can play with both right and left hand, but what we are talking about is the brain’s ability to focus and stay focused. Experience tells us that we can’t let our brain wander if we want to get something done.
To complete a task, one which yields a result we can truly be proud of and be happy about, you must learn to single-task.
Think simple. Life, if we just take time to see it, is simple. The very principles and values we live by are by themselves uncomplicated. The world minus the ‘wants’ and ‘must-haves’ is and remains to be simple.
If you are focused on living a less stressful life (stress-free is almost impossible), you need to deal with a lot of detoxing, decluttering, and simplifying. And the process isn’t a one-time task. Simplifying life is a continuous process; it may take some of your time but the efforts you put in are really worth it.
Start by knowing your priorities, the things you are happy to commit your time and resources to. Then, simplify your routine with them in mind. Learn to use your time wisely; decide on the things you want to do and be happy doing. As a result, you will have more time and energy to devote to things that matter most — and experience less stress in the process.
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