Article by Jo Ann Joy on 10 Real Ways to De-Stress

Despite people telling us “To stop and smell the flowers,” we are still over-stressed. We deal with stress in unhealthy ways like overeating or being sleep deprived. Well, there are better ways to de-stress, and they are easier than you may think. The first and most important thing to remember that reduces stress is finding ways to feel more in control of your circumstances. The following are some ways you can can more more control and, thereby, feel less stressed:

1. At the end of each day, prepare for the next day. Make a to-do list of all the things you must do the next day and clean your work area.

2. Prepare healthy snacks at least twice a week and always keep snacks with you. Do not “feed” your stress with cookies or ice cream, because they will not help.

3. Make good use of all spare minutes that come up each day. If you find you have 5-10 minutes to spare, put more staples in your stapler, shred paper, or some other simple activity.

4. Listen to music, especially smooth jazz. Listen to relaxing music in your car, at work, at home, and anywhere else that you can. Music can be very soothing.

5. Take good care of yourself. This means get plenty of restful sleep, go to the dentist regularly, workout at least 30 minutes on at least four days each week, drink plenty of water, and take weekend naps if you need them.

6. Make shopping and errand lists. If you keep a list of the groceries you need and the errands you have to run, you will save yourself the stress of forgetting something. You will also save yourself the stress of having to make several unnecessary trips and wasting time, because you did not plan ahead.

7. Keep a simple budget so that you will always know where you are financially, and money shortages will not sneak up on you.

8. Do not spend all evening and all weekend on the cell phone or reading and writing emails that relate to your job. If you need to do extra work, schedule one hour each evening and a few hours each weekend to do work-related activities. Realize that your “downtime” is just as important as your work.

9. Be sure that you have one or two good friends that you can confide in who understand and are supportive.

10. When things do not work out well, try to imagine what is the worst thing that can happen. If you do that, you will realize that there are solutions to even the worst problem.