“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” – Unknown
I was talking with a client about meditation exercises the other day. He told me that he schedules 40 minutes every morning for meditation exercises and then it’s off to the gym. In fact it’s exactly 40 minutes and his meditation time is complete, whether the meditation exercises are complete or not. He told me if he tried to meditate longer it actually stresses him out because that’s all the time it has in his schedule. That’s kind of funny, getting stressed out about taking too much time to meditate.
I told him the good news is that he at least takes the time to meditate. Only, maybe he should give himself a little slack in his very crowded schedule. We’re all like my client, well almost. Most people don’t take the time to meditate every day but we all really need to take the time to relax. When you don’t, you end up getting stressed out and it can even make you sick.
William James once said, “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” Your ability to choose one thought over another comes as a result of you being able to relax.
While there are many methods to help you to relax, in our fast paced society we often look for the newest fad or the newest medical solution. The problem with this approach is that drugs are addicting and the newest methods can often cost you a pretty penny. But there are also many methods that can help you relieve your stress and anxiety that cost absolutely nothing and they are so easy to do.
Here is a list of 10 ideas to relieve your stress and anxiety that will cost you absolutely nothing:
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” – the Buddha
Each year millions of Americans go to their doctors for stress and anxiety relief. As a result doctors around the country regularly prescribe medications such as Prozac and Zoloft to these patients. In some states where medical marijuana is legal, doctors prescribe smoking pot as a method of counteracting everyday stress. Medical marijuana enthusiasts tout using pot because it is a “natural” drug and therefore “better” for you than pharmaceuticals. Although I don’t have any quarrel with medical marijuana, I’m not so sure about that. Although these medications can mask the symptoms you experience, they do little to relieve the causes of the stress and anxiety you experience regularly.
The simple facts are that stress and anxiety will always be part of your life. Using drugs to numb your mind from reality in order to live in society seems to me to be more of an escape than anything else. So what can you do? Recent studies have shown that yoga and meditation just might do the trick.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Stefan Hofmann, a psychology professor at Boston University, reviewed 39 studies on the practice of yoga and meditation. He concluded that this type of therapy both relieved stress and anxiety while improving mood. Although it doesn’t work for everyone – and what does – MRI scans of patients’ brains actually showed shifts in their mental activity.
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Do you find that your negative emotions get the better of you? Does the stress of everyday life get you down? Do you find yourself tense and anxious? Does this happen to you a lot? If you find that stress and anxiety are bottling up inside of you there are ways to relieve them so they don’t cause you any harm.
One method you can use to relieve your stress and anxiety is by expressing your gratitude. This can help you to control of your thoughts and feelings. By expressing your gratitude you are refocus your thoughts on the good things in your life. This can help you to relieve your stress and anxiety and achieve more happiness in your life.
Right this moment you might be saying “I really don’t have a lot to be thankful for right now.” While this may be true try asking, “If I did have something to be thankful for what could it be? Who matters in my life? What good is going on in my life right now?” Even though your life may not be going as planned, there still are many things to be grateful for, if you look for them.
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Even though I try not to, I live a fairly fast paced life. You probably live a fast paced life too. In fact, from my experience with my clients I’d almost bet on it. The problem with fast paced lives is they bring us lots of stress. As a result many people are beginning to believe that being under stress is their ordinary way of life. Almost everyone will tell you that they’re ‘stressed out’ on a regular basis.
There are plenty of reasons for you to be stressed out. From finances to family, stress comes at us from every direction. But all this stress just isn’t healthy. This means if you want to stay healthy you need to learn how to relieve your stress and anxiety.
So what can you do to deal with stress? First you need to identify the type and sources of your stress. You also need to assess the frequency and severity of the stress you regularly experience, as well as your personality type.
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Stress, stress and more stress. It is a part of everyone’s life and it seems to come from everywhere. You name it work, relationships, and even hobbies can cause anxiety and tension in your life. Regardless of the source of your stress, you can overcome it and find more peace.
Many people schedule too much in their lives and this can be a tremendous source of stress. This can also make you feel as if you’ll never get anything done. If you’re finding that you’re always too busy a few small changes can make a big difference. More importantly, they can help you to take back control of your life.
Here are five natural ways to relieve your everyday stress:
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It’s completely normal for you to feel stressed and anxious from time to time. Everyone does. It’s when your stress and anxiety become overwhelming that you may be tempted to seek solace in prescription medication, alcohol, or even recreational drugs. The problem with using these “quick fixes” to relieve your anxiety and stress is that they don’t get to the root of your problems. Over time, they can cause problems all their own.
There are methods you can use to relieve your stress and anxiety that have nothing to do with taking pharmaceuticals or mind-altering drugs. Your fears and worries can be overcome and transformed into peace and calm with a couple of simple, natural methods. These are prayer and meditation. Let’s take a look at how these can be used to relieve your daily stress and its accompanying anxiety.
What’s the Best Method, Prayer or Meditation?
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“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.” – Chinese Proverb
Stress is a do it yourself process. In other words the stress you are experiencing is a result of what you are actually doing to yourself. The reason you experience stress is a combination of the demands you daily put on yourself and not taking the time to allow yourself to relieve the root causes of your stress and their resulting anxiety.
I don’t know if modern life is any more hectic than any other time in history. I have a hallucination that our ancestors had just as many things to stress out about but maybe not at the rate we do. Today we are always plugged in and forever rushing about, trying to accomplish just one more thing. Because of our modern conveniences it is easy to focus on trying to accomplish too many things every day. This can cause your stress level to rise and result in confusion, anxiety, and annoyance. This stress can be hard on your mind, body and spirit. The good news is there are some excellent natural ways to relieve stress that can bring peace and calm to your body and soul.
In fact, you can overcome the issues that cause your stress with a few simple techniques!
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“Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.” – Mark Twain
As the old adage goes, laughter truly is the best medicine. A healthy daily dose of laughter is an excellent method to relieve your stress and anxiety. Laughter can replace your stressful, anxious feelings with a sense of joy that gives you the strength to overcome the obstacles you face. When you laugh with your family and friends you also enhance your relationships.
In addition, laughter is one of the world’s greatest health secrets. Enjoying silly moments and funny jokes is a great method for overcoming the stress in your life and can help you feel more relaxed and less tense. Less stress means less pressure on your body’s systems. Studies have shown that laughter may even promote a healing response within your body.
When you experience intense emotions, laughter can be a powerful tool to work your way through them. Having a healthy sense of humor gives you an emotional distraction for your worries and creates a fresh perspective on you’re the events in your life. Laughter is also one of the quickest and most effective ways to combat strong feelings of anger and frustration.
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The one constant in life is change. In fact, change is happening around us, in us, through us, and about us all the time. Some changes will be good, some bad, and some won’t make any difference at all. Some changes you like, some you hate, and others just don’t matter.
Changes you like you’ll deal with easily. You’ll probably look forward to them. But what about the changes in life that aren’t so great? How do you handle those?
Let’s take a look at the stress and anxiety caused by some of these common changes and the best stress coping skills to deal with them.
Job Loss
Right now job loss is on the forefront of almost every American’s mind. This type of change can produce a lit of anxiety and be very stressful, if you allow it to be. However, there are ways to look at the situation so job loss doesn’t have to be so stressful.
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There are times for everyone during the day when the neck gets a little tight or the head hurts a little or you just feel a little anxious and stressed out. These are the times when you want to just close your eyes and relax, if you only had the time. You know that a just a little down time would help, but you have a deadline. You need to get things done now. What should you do, stay anxious and stressed out and feel crummy?
Don’t worry, there are some simple ways to relieve the stress and anxiety you experiencing. There are ways to slow down relax, no matter how busy you are. The best thing about these ways to relieve your anxiety and stress is that they don’t take a lot of time or equipment.
Here are 5 common scenarios that can increase your stress and anxiety and some natural methods of dealing with them:
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