Reduce Your Stress

Relax!

If you find that you have just too much to deal with in your life, then STOP LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE. Begin dealing with the issues in your life one little piece at a time and on a time schedule that you are able to handle. Although it is sometimes hard to put worrisome issues out of your mind, it is also very necessary, and extremely important to not take on more than you are able to deal with.

If a change in lifestyle is the only way to reduce your stress levels then make that life altering change.

Put the kettle on, brew a hot relaxing cup of tea, crawl into the bath and just vegetate for an hour. Things always look a little nicer after a nice hot bath.

Just relax any way that you can. Reduce those annoying stress factors that are haunting your world.

Be happy. This is one of the fastest and easiest ways to relax. Just smile and smile often. When you put that silly little grin on your face your brain does a wonderful thing and it releases something known as "endorphins". These endorphins give you a nice warm fuzzy feeling of "well being" and can actually reduce feelings of physical or emotional pain. In other words, even if you are not in a good mood when you start to smile, you will be when you finish smiling. Try it. The more that you smile the better you will feel.

Smiles are also contagious so pass them around. When you run into someone (even a stranger), smile, you'll be amazed how many people will smile back. Better news yet, their brains will then be releasing endorphins and, they too will be experiencing that fuzzy warm feeling of well being.

It doesn't take a lot of time or energy. Do something nice for yourself and your little corner of the world. Smile.

Laugh. You may have heard the saying that, "Laughter is the best medicine". Well this may be true. Laughter is another one of those things, like smiling, that just makes you feel good. It is also, believe it or not, a great form of exercise with all the same great variety of health benefits for your body that exercise will give it.

Find any reason that you can to laugh and even if your laugh is not all that whole hearted at first, don't be discouraged, just do it. The more that you practice laughing, the more often that you will suddenly find yourself bursting into a really good belly laugh, and with laughter comes that funny little grin that spreads across your face. With that smile comes endorphins and, well you know where I am going with this one, it just makes you feel good so do it.

Dancing is another one of those wonderful things that releases a flood of endorphins into your body. Dancing is not only a great form of exercise but it can also be adjusted to match a number of physical skill levels. As you dance your body seems to almost automatically adjust to your current health level. Haven't anyone to dance with? Grab the broom, and put on an old time waltz, but don't forget to draw the blinds first so they aren't carting you away.

Do a few basic changes to your current routine and you'll be amazed just how much better you will suddenly begin to feel!

Being assertive will actually reduce your stress levels. If you are not an assertive person you may feel powerless to control things in your life. If you are not content with how things are, it can definitely lead to feelings of frustration and anger, which will definitely lead to additional stress in your life. You need to reduce this as much as possible, and you do this by taking control of your life, you become an assertive person.

Envision a swinging pendulum on a clock. The starting point or center is where the pendulum lies before it swings left, then back to the center, and then to the right. To the left is the passive person, in the center stands the assertive person, and to the right is the aggressive person.

Passive: The "Passive person" does not stand up for their personal rights, this individual is submissive, and allows others to bully or coerce them into doing things that they may not want to. The passive person may also on occasion swing into the realm of an aggressive person in an attempt to achieve their rights, thereby swinging too far right on the pendulum, and becoming a passive - aggressive individual.

Aggressive: The "Aggressive person" attempts to improve their circumstances by taking away the rights of other people. They may be a bully using violence or threats to get their way. They attempt to dominate others with no respect to the feelings or rights of the other person. These tactics actually work against them because the aggressive individual usually winds up alienating others from them.

The "Assertive person" stands up for their rights without infringing on the rights of others. They speak out for ,and demand their right to achieve their wants and needs, without ever becoming aggressive towards other people. This person may choose on occasion to be passive, but this is by choice, and not because they are forced to. They do not swing into aggressive behavior because they know that this would infringe on another person's rights.

Assertive: Being an assertive person is where ideally we as humans should strive to be in the many relationships within our lives. Although the pendulum swings either direction it should be our goal to sit as close to the center as possible on most issues within our life. We may choose to allow a little old lady to shuffle her way into a checkout line up ahead of us (passive behavior) but we do not ever want to bean her over the head with our handbag for doing it (aggressive behavior).

Keep in mind that becoming an assertive person, alike most other things in life, takes practice. When you are first learning to be assertive you may swing wildly to either side of the pendulum. It's okay, as you become more assertive and much like the pendulum on a clock swings, it will balance out. You will slowly stray less from the center as you become more visibly able to see which range of the pendulum your emotions and actions are at. Again self control and learning are the keys to success.

Only you can change who you now are. Keep working at it and practice will make it perfect. You will become an assertive individual. To find Online Assertiveness programs simply Google "assertiveness training". There are hundreds of Internet sites which deal with this topic,but try to use Government, Educational, or Medical sites whenever possible when dealing with this topic.

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