Calm down.
Don't worry.
Don't hurry.
Trust the process."
- Alexandra Stoddard
One of the best lessons you can learn in life is to master how to remain calm.
Our ability to remain calm and to be able to manage our emotions when we are under pressure is a wonderful skill to have. This skill is a direct link to how well we will perform.
It's known that top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.
We all know how stress can wreak havoc both on a person's physical and also mental health. I am talking about prolonged stress. If the stress doesn't last for a long period of time.....it is harmless.
Remember that it's important to keep stress under control as much as possible.
Stress will unfortunately increase a person's risk of developing heart disease, depression, obesity and it will also decrease our cognitive performance.
Most of our stress in actually under our own control and today I will share a few comping strategies that can help you reduce your stress level and make sure that the stress doesn't get prolonged and that it won't affect your physical and mental health.
Breathe
One of the easiest ways of reducing stress is just to simply breathe. Practice of being in the moment will make your brain focus entire on the task at hand.
When you feel stressed, take a couple of minutes and simply focus on your breathing. Turn off all distractions and find a quiet place and focus on how it feels to breathe in and out. It's sounds simple but in the beginning your mind might wander, but all your need to do then is to simply bring your thoughts back to your breathing. The goal is to be able to spend the entire time on your breathing. Start with one minute and as you get better at focusing entirely on your breathing, then you can add another minute or two.
Gratitude
Take time to focus on what you are grateful for in your life. This will automatically improve your mood. Cultivating the habit of gratitude will give you more energy. You will feel a sense of well-being and it will elevate your mood.
Learn to develop and attitude of gratitude.
Disconnect
When you make yourself constantly available to others, you are exposing yourself to a lot of stress. Force yourself offline and turn off your phone once in a while. Doing this will give your body a break from a constant barrage of stressors.
How about starting with disconnecting one day a week?
Or turning off you email after 7pm to give yourself a chance to re-charge your body and your mind?
As you get more comfortable with disconnecting, your co-workers begin to accept the time you spend off line and off the phone and then you can gradually expand the amount of time that you spend away from technology.
Technology is suppose to make our lives easier.....not more difficult.
Sleep
When you sleep your brain is recharging. It sorts through all the day's memories and then it stores and discards them so that you can wake up the next morning feeling alert and clear-headed.
Sleep deprivation raises stress hormone levels on their own, even without any other stressors being present.
Make sure that you take enough time to get a decent night's sleep in order to keep the stress away and getting things under control.
Negative Self- Talk
Stop all negative self-talk, right away. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are not facts.....they are just thoughts. Stop believing all your negative and pessimistic thoughts.
Make a list of your negative thoughts. Right down what you are thinking in the moment will allow you to later when you are more clear-headed to examine and evaluate what you wrote down.
Ask yourself.....is this really true? You can also show what you wrote down to a trusted friend and ask them if they agree.
Stay Positive
Positive thoughts will make you re-focus your attention on what is working in your life. This is easy to do when things are going well in your life and it might be a little more difficult when things are falling apart or going poorly and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts.
We must give our wandering brains a little help by consciously select something positive to think about.
Pay Attention To What You Eat And Drink
Too much caffeine can put your body in the "fight-or-flight" response by triggering the release of the hormone adrenaline.
Pay attention to what you put in your body. You want to fuel your body with things that will give you long lasting energy, not just a quick fix.
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