Stress and anxiety are a part of life, even for those who are successful. In fact, stress may be even more of a problem for those who have been most successful. And it is precisely because they are driven to achieve that they put a lot of pressure on themselves and drive up their stress levels.
If this sounds familiar, you may be wondering what you can do to alleviate the stress in your life. There are techniques that people have discovered to work in this situation. They involve taking a step back and reorienting your thinking. It is a matter of focusing not only on the goals you are trying to achieve, but taking enjoyment in the journey to achieve those goals as well.
These techniques by themselves are nothing unusual, but together they just might be able to bring a major change to the way you are living.
One technique deals with your breathing. Before beginning your work, start by taking a few deep breaths. When this becomes part of your routine, increase the amount of time for the deep breathing to several minutes a day. If you are inclined, you can even go for a longer period of time. Doing this has a calming effect. It allows you to take a step back and look at things from a new perspective – and, most importantly, it helps you deal with stress.
Another way to deal with stress is by meditating. There are different ways to do this – by focusing on your breathing, or on different parts of your body, for example. But the key here is to block out all thoughts and emotions by focusing on just one thing. Studies have shown that meditating for just eight weeks can add to the grey matter in your brain in areas that control emotion and learning.
Listening is yet another technique to handle stress. This may sound a little odd at first, but by really focusing on what other people are saying, your relations with others are bound to improve – and become more satisfying. When people realize you are really listening to them, and really interested in what they have to say, they form a bond with you more quickly.
To relieve stress, you also need to question your own thoughts, especially negative ones. This comes from realizing that just having a thought doesn’t necessarily make it true. When you have a negative thought, you need to deliberately ask yourself whether it is true or not. And, if you are not sure whether it is true or not, forget about it.
But if you are going to do these things, it is also important to know that you need to start out doing just a little at time, and then gradually building up. If you try to do too much at once, you will only further increase your stress levels.
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