What the pounding of chronic stress does is it can shorten lives, wreak havoc on the body and mind, which results in burnout and an early demise. It’s one of the key hazards of a busy life which can take a toll, for those who are attempting to keep busy in the world.
This burnout process can creep up on you, and will one day show its consequences with poor health.
The stress begins to accumulate, which deters you from doing normal everyday things you enjoy doing, such as eating properly or getting adequate sleep.
The biggest warning signs most report as a consequence of stress, is the quality of their basic human functioning begins to decline.
These actions continue to worsen as one becomes busier, and ultimately becomes a habit of neglect. So the “panic” button needs to set off, by recognizing the symptoms.
What’s then needed is finding ways to relieve the stress more effectively before it becomes too late, by mindfully taking time out during your hectic day.
Begin To Savor Things More
To savor something involves mindfully engaging in behaviors, which heightens the effects of positive emotions or events. Various types of savoring includes:
• Looking forward to some type of positive event
• Prolonging or intensifying an enjoyable experience, or
• Reliving, rekindling past positive feelings or moments
These could be previous pleasant experiences from work or home, or when you’re looking forward to that dinner party.
Take a moment to think about the tastes and smells of the restaurant, you’ll be attending this evening.
Garbage In Garbage Out
Release stress in the brain by taking the mental garbage out. Consciously flush out all the nonproductive thoughts and emotions, which builds up during the day.
Remove the anger and the anxiety you feel towards others, missing a deadline, or the frustrations of the long daily commute.
The worst case scenario is believing things won’t improve, won’t get any better, until you force them out of your head.
The most effective way is to physically write them down, as they’ll look completely different on paper.
Certain Trigger Keywords For Reaching Goals
Research has shown once you begin using certain “trigger” keywords in your vocabulary, if you need to get certain things done or to relax, repeat these keywords.
Using simple words such as “if” and “then” does is activates and motivates your brain to get something done.
This works if you’re wanting to make a certain action become a habit.
For instance, if you’re wanting to go to the gym more often then set a routine. All you need to repeat to yourself is. “If it’s Monday or (Wednesday) morning, “then” I’m going to the gym.”
Once you repeat these words, the conditioning becomes automatic, placing the action on autopilot.
Then if you think you don’t have enough time and don’t feel like going to the gym, this Monday or Wednesday morning. It won’t matter as your mind is already set to go to the gym regardless.
Playing Mental Games With Your Mind
Our brains are hardwired to take notice, seek out, retrieve, and remember every negative event in our life. The brain will present them to us, thinking it’s protecting us from danger.
This is known as the negativity bias, and is persistently active.
If you’re having an extremely bad day, the odds are your brain is busily retrieving and will replay all the previous stressful events in your life. Even if the stress has passed.
What you need to do is put a stop to this by temporarily switching the channel of what your brain is thinking.
What doing so does is you can focus on the immediate task at hand, thus playing a mental game with yourself.
These are easy brain activities which can help you from not getting distracted.
Try simple mind tricks such as counting backwards starting from 1000. Or create a sentence where every word starts with the same letter.
For instance, “Almost all animals are awesome,” then use the next letter B. “Big boys buy big boats.” You can also do this if you have trouble falling asleep.
The 4-7-8 Breathing Technique
This is one of the most effective meditation techniques which takes less than 20 seconds to do. Most don’t have enough time to meditate, so they don’t bother trying.
The 4-7-8 breathing technique, is the easiest method of meditation which will completely relax you.
Begin by sitting and relaxing in a chair, lie on the floor, or lay in bed.
• Breathe in deeply through your nose for “4” seconds
• Hold your breath for “7” seconds
• Then exhale in and out of the mouth for “8” seconds
Continue to repeat this several times to relax and reduce stress.
Go Hug Someone
Hugs are proven to be a stress reliever, so much so it’s now earned its own day of recognition. Some now celebrate “Give Someone A Hug Day,” on January 21.
Hugs work because what they do is release the chemical oxytocin, which is a hormone that activates social behavior, which contributes towards trust, relaxation, and compassion.
Spend Time With A Pet
Companies, schools, institutions, and old age homes are all now recognizing the therapeutic impact of having pets around. How petting them has a huge effect on reducing stress.
Some symptoms of stress includes, your panic attacks increases, the heart rate becomes rapid which causes anxiety. As a result, it forces the brain to trigger the “panic” response.
To relieve this, what’s found effective is spending more time with a pet, which has proven to actually save you from a breakdown.
What petting, playing, walking your dog does is it increases your levels of dopamine and serotonin, activating a calming effect.