Relaxing is the "pressure relief valve" of life
and living!
Stress management
and relaxation aren't just "nice things to do" or luxuries.
They are vital to understand and actively do
if you want to improve your health and energy levels!
I say this from hard-won
experience. Several years ago, overwhelming amounts of
unhandled stress landed me in the hospital more than once.
I did not have a very good stress management and relaxation
routine in my life at the time, so "everything blew up"
and affected my health in a very negative way.
Fortunately, I've since
handled the sources of stress that had affected me back
then, and have improved my ability to identify sources
of stress better and faster. I've developed my own personal
stress management and relaxation activities and I keep
my life balanced much better now.
Stress is most certainly
a mental and a physical phenomena. Understanding
precisely what stress is, how
stress affects our health and lifestyle (negative and
positive!) and
basic steps to managing stress is the first step to
getting good results from stress management and relaxation
activities.
The things that
cause us to feel stressed out are unique to each one of
us. What one person gets "stressed out" about
might not be stressful at all to another. Each person's
ability to handle stress is different, including the amount
of stress one can deal with at one time. These things
are not "fixed" at all, you can improve your
ability to manage things that create stress in your life.
Just as things
that are stressful to us are individual, so are the things
that we consider relaxing and enjoyable. For
example, if I listen to some great classic rock music,
it is an immediate stress buster for me. But someone else
might actually get stressed out by classic rock music
and listening to country music would get them to that
happy,, stress-free feeling.
So although I may give
you some ideas for stress management and relaxation activities,
only you can determine what things are relaxing
and enjoyable for you personally.
Activities that
are enjoyable and relaxing are vital to incorporate into
our lives to effectively balance out and counteract stress.
Stress is a part of life and it will only seem "stress-free"
if you do enough enjoyable, pleasurable, relaxing activities
on a regular basis to outweigh those things that create
stress for you.
Things that create
stress and things that create relaxation are like the
"yin and yang" of life; the negative and the positive.
Life is a constant interplay of these two factors. If
there is more unhandled stress than pleasurable activities,
health and happiness suffers.
So although I am not saying
that increasing the amount of time you spend enjoying
life will eliminate stress, I am saying that
it is an extremely effective way to manage stress.
If you let stress accumulate
in your life without managing it, the stress will grow
and multiply "like rabbits" and you very well
could find yourself in a hospital bed like I did. And
that sure creates even more stress that is more challenging
to recover from.
In the article about how
stress affects lifestyle, I suggest taking the time
to really look at the things in your life that create
a feeling of stress for you.
The next step is to start
listing activities that make you feel good, happy and
relaxed, whether you're currently doing some
of them or not. Just look and find those things that make
you smile, give you a good feeling or create the feeling
of excitement, like the prospect of a good game of golf
or a nice, relaxing massage! It could be as simple as
taking the time to walk around your yard with a cup of
coffee or sending a funny card to a friend.
Comedy can be a
great way to alleviate stress!
How do you feel
after watching this??
I've observed that some
folks have a hard time with this and it usually boils
down to some idea that enjoying themselves is bad or "immature."
That's a perfect example of mental stress!!! Does the
idea that you shouldn't enjoy your life really make sense
to you?
Your list of things that
you enjoy doing will continue to grow as you focus more
on the positive things in life and less on the stressful
things. Start incorporating more and more of these things
into your daily and weekly routine because your health
and happiness truly depend on it!
With effective
stress management and relaxation activities, you'll find
that your life gets easier, you can solve problems better,
it's more fun and enjoyable and you will say "Life is
good!" a lot more often. A less stressful, more
enjoyable life is something you can personally do a lot
to achieve. It is your life after all... go for
it!
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