Live Stress Free – 5 Simple Relaxation Tips

Everyone goes through times throughout the day where you just wish you could relax for even a couple of minutes.

You already know that rest helps your body re-energize, but sometimes you’re so busy and involved in the present moment that you just don’t  have the time to slow down.

Well, as luck would have it there are easy ways to relax, even during your most active days, that don’t involve a great deal of time or equipment.

Here are 5 Simple Relaxation Tips:

1. When you’re in line at the market: rather than stressing out because there aren’t enough cashiers and every line has 5 people with heaping carts of groceries, use that time to relax your body by taking a few deep breaths.

• Deep breathing helps increase the oxygen in your blood. Your blood then circulates that extra oxygen throughout your body helping your internal systems recharge.
• Taking five slow deep breaths will do the trick. The right technique is to breathe in and breathe out deeply through your nose and out your mouth.
• Not only will deep breathing help you relax, it’ll help to clear your mind, reduce brain fogginess, and you’ll feel a good deal more alert and prepared to take on the next project on your plate.
• Deep breathing can be done anyplace when you’re feeling stressed or just would like to clear your mind.

2. When you’re at work: It’s frequently difficult to find time to decompress at work. You may even get in trouble if you’re caught “relaxing.” Oh the horror! However, there are a few techniques you’ll be able to do while you’re at work to help create a sense of calmness that aren’t so conspicuous to other people.

• If your job requires you to sit at a computer all day, make it  a point you get up and move around for a couple of minutes every hour. This helps circulate the blood throughout your body. Just moving the blood flow will make you feel more alert and focused.
• While sitting at your desk, roll your head around, from side to side and from front to back with your eyes closed. This technique helps relieve neck tension, increasing blood flow to your brain, which is a natural and easy way to relax.
• If you’re on your feet all day, stretch out your back and sides by standing with your feet firmly on the floor, shoulder width apart, and twist your upper body, including your head, slowly from side to side. This will loosen up your back muscles and spine, releasing tension throughout your body.
• During a break or lunch period, go for a walk. Walking is a great way to clear-cut your mind and your body will benefit from the additional exercise also.

3. When you’re hurrying through a busy day: Take just a couple of minutes to daydream and escape the busyness of reality.

• Daydreaming permits your imagination to flow, causing instantaneous relief from the stress of the real life.
• Remember a place or experience that makes you feel happy or calm. Imagine how it smells, how the air feels, and who’s around.
• After five minutes of a calming daydream you’ll feel relaxed, reenergized and prepared to face the real world once again.

4. Wherever you’re at, smile: Smiling is proven to help relax and rejuvenate your body.

• When you’re out and about, smile at others around you.
• When you’re at work, smile at your colleagues. Not only will it help you relax, it’ll help relax them also.
• Smile at your children when you’re toting them around to all their different activities. This will create a peaceful environment you’ll all enjoy.

5. When the going gets tough, laugh: Laughter’s proven to be an instant stress reliever. Now I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to be seen as a crackpot, so laughing aloud when you’re in line at the store or sitting at your desk may not be the best time. When you can, get someone involved in your laughter with you.

• Tell a amusing joke or story to a co-worker (at an appropriate time, of course).
• Play a fun game or sing a silly song with your kids as you’re driving.
• Watch funny videos on YouTube.

Engaging in these simple, everyday relaxation techniques will help to sustain and strengthen you throughout your day. It’ll also make it easier to relax when you get home. Your friends, co-workers, and family will all appreciate the new, relaxed you!

Establish Momentum By Remaining Focused

When you focus totally on you work you’ll discover that you will build a momentum that allows you to complete your tasks easier, faster, and more effectively.

Strive to prevent any distractions that can disrupt this momentum. Set your telephone to voice mail, let everybody  know you’re inaccessible, and avoid looking at your e-mails until your  work is complete.

Although multitasking sounds great in theory, truthfully, attempting to do several activities at one time detracts from the quality of your work. It also takes you  longer to accomplished all the tasks than if you had focused on them one at a time.

At the start of each day,  make a task list of things that need to get done. Make a daily schedule, being certain to include adequate time for your priorities. Schedule some easy tasks first that you’ll be able to promptly accomplish and cross off your  list.

Doing easy projects first permits you  to rapidly build your  momentum. It makes it easy to get started on your  project and then move from one task to another very rapidly. Once you  get a running start like this, the momentum helps carry you  through the more difficult projects.

This day-to-day strategy is my formula for success. It helps me build momentum, be more productive, and do a effective job on each and every task. I can complete my project faster so I can move on to the more exciting parts of my day!

Today’s, plan is to remain on task by carefully creating a practicable schedule and then I follow it through to completion.

Your Self-Reflection Questions:

1. Do you create a daily schedule to help you stay on task?
2. Have you made it a point to eliminate your distractions when working?
3. Do you try to multitask or do you focus on each task separately?

Stress Causing Migraine Headaches Are More Common Then You Think

Stress can trigger tension type headaches. Those more intense headache are commonly known as migraine.  Migraines are usually experienced after stressful situation and the body is attempting to repair and detoxify. A migraine headache is a dull or throbbing pain usually on both sides of the head.  It’s a sneaky headache that just seems to strike when you least expect it, but often in times of extreme stress and anxiety.

Because it can hit without warning, it’s hard to find ways to prevent it.  Once it hits, it becomes a source of  constant  pain almost too much to bear.  Unfortunately, while stress itself is a trigger, a migraine only brings about even more stress!

Keep a headache journal in which you can  write down the date, time and place the migraine headache started. Also note what you were doing and how your mood was at the time the first pain wave hit.  As you compare notes, look for commonalities. Were you overtired, trying to do too much without adequate sleep?  Overexertion is a stressor that’s a common trigger for migraines.

Each migraine is unique and you may find that certain foods are more likely to help relieve or prolong the pain. Cut back on your caffeine intake in sodas and coffee.

Drink high quality fruit and vegetable juices for the nutritive value as well as the detox potential. Since you may not feel like eating during a migraine, at least you will get some quality nutrients from the juices.

Taking a nonsteroid anti-inflammatory (NASID) medication at the first indication of pain may be helpful.  Common over-the-counter NASIDs are ibuprofen, naproxen and acetaminophen. If this doesn’t help, and relaxation techniques are no match for your migraine, then stronger medications may be necessary from a physician.

Fluorescent lighting, which is common in offices and commercial buildings, can be another trigger to make migraines worse for some people. If you’re working in an office with this lighting, bring a small desk lamp that has a full spectrum light bulb. Turn off the overhead lights and use your desk lamp.

Room noises that you would normally ignore become like the sound of an army marching across your forehead when you have a migraine headache. If you can’t get away from the noise, put earplugs in your ear to muffle the noise.

There’s no foolproof way to prevent migraines but you can be prepared to apply the most comforting approaches that work for you.

Stress Free Living – How Do You Manage Your Stress

Living stress free means managing your life.  If you don’t manage stress, it will find a way to manage you. Stress can be very invasive in your life. It loves to be in the driver’s seat and you hand over the keys without fail on a regular basis because you feel defeated by it.

You might blaming the boss, the car mechanic or your spouse for your stress. You can’t control what other people do or say, but you can manage some of the smaller irritations in your world in order to reduce your stress.

Magazine Perfect Housekeeping – Unless you can afford a full time housekeeper, you need to accept that clean is good enough. Save the frantic furniture polishing and baseboard wiping for quarterly cleaning or preparing for a party. Remember that rooms in magazines look so great because no one lives there to mess them up.

You really can’t get rid of all of the stress in your life, if you did you wouldn’t be living. – you need to become adept at learning how to prevent unnecessary  stress from entering your life.

That means change – and for some, change itself is enough to cause immense periods of stress and anxiety.  Even though it may be damaging your physical and mental health, you’re  got to take back the reins of control in your life.

You can’t just sit and whine about the stress in your life – you have to actively work on reducing it.

Job Loss Survival Skills

Losing a job is so stressful that it can make anyone do things that are counterproductive.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  So first let’s talk about what not to do when facing a job loss crisis.

1. Borrow money from anyone and create more debt for yourself unless your facing a dire emergency.
2. Cancel your medical insurance because you “can’t afford” to pay for it. If you have just one illness requiring hospitalization or surgery it could literally wipe you and your family out permanently. An emergency room visit could cost you hundreds of dollars. 
3. Not let friends and family know that you’re looking for work and you’d appreciate their help. You never know when they see something in the paper that you didn’t notice or someone says something that they wouldn’t connect to your needing work unless you ask them to keep their eyes and ears open.
4. Neglect to  inform your creditors. Most will work with you. After all it’s far better for both of you to work together then to let everything go until it all comes crashing down around you.

It’s so important to be proactive.  There are some things you can do that will make a huge difference in your life.  Now Let’s look at some of your options:

Reduce monthly expenses. Take a serious look at some of the things you can live without for a while until you get back on your feet. Go through all of your bills and expenses and cut out the things that aren’t necessities. Be honest with yourself – just because you think you can’t live without your cable or cell phone, doesn’t mean it’s true. Some of the first places to look include: 

• Get rid of cable
• Phones – both cell and land line
• Cell texting or other data communications
• Make one trip a day instead of several
• Don’t Eat Out. Instead cook at home
• Turn off your air conditioner

With a little communication, research, and creativity, you can take advantage of your time off to learn a new skill or start a new venture with skills and passions you already have. Have some fun utilizing your creative ability while making the extra money you need to make ends meet.   These tough financial times don’t have to be devastating. Use these tips to take advantage of the resources available to you to reduce the negative impact on your life. You may even look back on this time as the lucky stroke that pushed you toward success in your new career!

Loving Your Life By Living Simply

Confucius once said, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

 If you make life complicated and fill it up with a bunch “stuff,” how can you ever focus on what matters most?

 Many of us are running around trying to squeeze everything we can out of life when, in fact, we’d be a whole lot happier and healthier if we savored the beauty of simplicity!

Here are some tips you can use today to simplify your life:

 1.      Clutter. When you eliminate the clutter around you, you’ll gain a deeper appreciation for the things are dearest to you.

•  Ask yourself: When was the last time I read the stack of books piled up on the floor? When did I last notice the details on one of those little trinkets I got while on vacation? When did I last wear the scarf lying on the closet floor? Give this stuff to someone who needs it!
• De-cluttering will give you an opportunity to enjoy the things that truly matter to you. Plus you’ll feel a sense of relief with an organized working and living space.

 2.      Food. Food is another aspect of your life that can be simplified in many ways. Instead of worrying about the next bite, enjoy the taste of the food that’s already in your mouth. Savor it. Let it all sink in and try to taste each flavor.

•  Also, consider the ingredients in your food. Take the time to use quality ingredients instead of processed or chemically enhanced foods. The end result will taste better, and your body and mind will thank you for the nourishment!

3.      Gadgets. Think of all the gizmos and gadgets in your life. Do you use them all? Do you even use half of them?

•  The more stuff we have to “connect” us, the more we become disconnected! Take the headphones out of your ears, turn off the car radio, and put down your cell phone. Instead of trying to be always connected, communicate with those around you. Nothing is more satisfying than a rewarding conversation or a family fun night!

4.      Thinking. A cluttered mind steers you away from what’s most important. The reality is that simple ideas are almost always better. By simplifying your thinking, you open your mind to new possibilities.

•  A simplified mind doesn’t mean you aren’t thinking, it just means that you’re choosing to focus on one thing with greater clarity.
•  When your attention is split in several directions, it’s awfully hard to make rational decisions. And if you’re dwelling in the past or worrying about the future, how can you live in the moment? Release distractions from your mind and you’ll not only feel better, but you’ll regain a sense of peace within you.

5.      Schedule. If you’re trying to jam a week into a single day, you’ll feel a tension that will tug you away from where you’re meant to be. Instead of wondering what’s next, savor the here and now.

•  Eliminate some of the clutter in your hectic schedule and do what’s best for you and your family, not everyone else.

Living life simply is extremely rewarding. When you do so, you eliminate many of the useless cares and are able to focus on what’s really important to you. Give it a try!

Stress Free Living Coping with Corporate Stress

Even if you love your job, they’ll be days where you are going to experience stress.  People allow stress to get the best of them, but you don’t have to.  You can learn to cope with corporate stress so you use the stress to move you forward instead of holding you back.

A Look At Corporate Stress

When you are stressed out about your work, you may feel like you are on an island all by yourself.  Of course, it isn’t the case at all.  Did you know that as many as a quarter of the people you work with right now feel as though the job is the biggest stressor in their life?  It is also thought that three quarters of employees feel as though they have more on-the-job stress than their parents ever did. 

Corporate stress is not something unique to you – everyone experiences it! Sometimes just knowing this is enough to help you get through to the other side so you can start feeling happy and healthy again.

Thankfully, there is something you can do to reduce corporate stress in your life.

Corporate On-The-Job Stress Solutions

Some solutions to corporate stress include:

• Letting the small things go, it probably doesn’t matter anyway
• Proactively balancing work and family life
• Creating a support network of friends and family, or even co-workers

Letting Things Go

The fact is, when you allow yourself to take a more relaxed and positive outlook on the world, it will suddenly become a lot more relaxed and positive.  When you choose to have a positive approach in life, you’ll likely find that the things that would have stressed you out before will now roll off your back.  It’s not that you won’t feel stress; it’s just that you will have a more positive way of interpreting things so that stress is not necessarily such a bad thing.

Finding Work-Life Balance

When work takes over our lives, that’s usually when we become stressed out at work and when we cannot cope well.  You should make sure that you engage in daily activities that do not involve work, even if this is simply reading a chapter of your favorite book or picking up the phone to call a friend.  When you allow your work life to consume you, stress will consume you too. In turn, you’ll become less efficient and effective at your job.

Relieve Work Stress with Quality Family Time

Make sure you spend time with your friends, family, or even your co-workers outside of work.  Don’t allow your home to become an office away from the office. That’s no good! Make sure you have a support network of friends and family members who will remind you that there are plenty of things to do that aren’t related to your work in any way.  It’s also helpful to have this support network so that when you are stressed out, you’ll have someone to turn to. Oftentimes a support system helps keep us grounded when we would otherwise be tightly wound with work-related stress.
 
It’s true that stress is a part of life, but that doesn’t mean it needs to consume us. Stress will come and go, but coping is something that needs to be ongoing so you can live a great life inside and outside of your professional life.

Stress Free Living De-Stressology Lesson – Keeping It Simple

This is such common advice you might think about ignoring it.  But if your ignoring it are you keeping it simple?

Simplifying your life means living uncluttered.  Get rid of that junk around the house.

When your home or office is overflowed with junk it tends to distract you and creative thinking goes right out the window.  Are you keeping stuff because you don’t “feel” like getting rid of it – procrastination.

Look around you and make a list of everything you don’t need and decide if it’s a throw away, give away or keep item.  Don’t take months completing this project.  30 minutes a day is all it takes and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see what you can get accomplished in two short weeks.

Stress Free Living De-Stressology Tip – Plan Ahead

Plan ahead- there are certain things in life that just happen. They are annoying and frustrating but that’s just the way it is. This may include a traffic jam on your way to work or a long line at the post office. If you are prepared for these things, then you will be able to handle these annoying situations a lot better. Give yourself an extra 20 minutes to get to work to allow for the rush hour traffic. It’s a lot better for your self-improvement to be sitting in your car thinking “good thing I planned ahead and left 20 minutes early” rather than honking the horn and swearing for being late.