Has stress gotten the best of you lately?
The facts of life go like this: Not everything is fair (except perhaps, love and war.) The only thing that will stay consistent is change. And most of all, stress will happen and when it does, accept it, cope with it, and if you want to live a healthy, happy life, find a way to look for the opportunity in it.
Yes, believe it or not, stress can be a good thing.
Its only when we avoid it, when it piles up and blocks our energy level, enthusiasm and passion for life; and affects our productivity that it can be a negative. But when you attitude is positive, the stress level in your life can be a positive thing, as well.
Whether you have tight deadlines that seem impossible to meet, or you dont know how youll ever pay off your debt and outstanding bills each month, weve got the solution. Here are three of the best stress coping strategies to beat stress hands down. Use them. And when you do, you may see that your overall happiness, peace of mind and perspective on life drastically changes as well!
Step One Put Your Day Dreaming to Good Use!
When you daydream, you arent just wasting your work day away with frivolous thoughts of fantasy. Youre actually sending out thoughts of peace, joy and happiness to the Universe. So what does that mean when all you day dream about is your tense conversation with your boss about your performance, or the angst youre feeling over those late bills you cant pay off until your next paycheck?
What youre actually doing is causing a chain effect for those stressful emotions and circumstances to continue. So why not use your day dreaming for a good cause, in order to diminish the pressure in your life?
It can be done, and in an easy way. Start to become aware of your stress induced, negative thoughts as they pop up. If you find yourself obsessing over how youll possibly pay off your outstanding student loan for example, switch the thought to something positive. Imagine the scenario to be an ideal one, where you are paying your each and every bill even before the due date.
Envision your bank account with more money than its ever seen. Act as if your imagination is a movie, and imagine as many details as possible about how youd like everything to pan out. As you do, youll create feelings of joy, love and happiness which will open you up for good in your life, not anxiety. As a result, stress wont be the starring role of your movie. Happiness will.
Step Two Accomplish Your Hardest Tasks First
Sometimes, unforeseen circumstances cause us the biggest stress of all, such as getting into a car accident during Monday morning traffic, or our significant other ending the relationship (without so much as a warning). However, the majority of our stress accumulates when we have control over events in our life, but choose to ignore it, wait it out, or just avoid it altogether.
Beat stress successfully by accomplishing your hardest task first, or in other words, the task that is the primary source of your stress. Whether its filling out paperwork for your sons enrollment to preschool, or taking that first step to quit smoking (once and for all!) youll feel better, accomplish more, and have the confidence to complete everything else in your life as well without delay.
Step Three End Your Day With a Pat on the Back
Stress comes in all shapes and sizes, but when you make the choice to end each day surrendering to the notion that you did the very best you could, and send out thoughts of gratitude for all you have in your life, youll sleep like a baby, and wake up feeling fulfilled. Right before going to bed at night, refrain from dwelling on the many tasks that you have to deal with tomorrow.
Focus on today, right now in the moment, and all that you accomplished, made progress in, and took steps in to meet your goal. When you take a moment to give thanks to yourself, youll replace thoughts of anxiety and stress with feelings of self-love and appreciation. And as you do, youll learn that controlling your thoughts is half the battle to eliminating stress, anyhow!