Stress

We all have it. It appears in a variety of forms: getting stuck in traffic, being late to a meeting, messing up a meal, staring at a pile of bills, planning for the future, worrying about the evils of this world coming to our town. Stress can be all consuming. It can affect our health, our relationships and our overall sense of well being. Aside from selling all of our worldly possessions and taking a vow of silence in a Buddhist temple, what are we to do? How do we manage our myriad stress factors?

Step One: Breath. Breath 4 seconds in, hold 4 seconds, breath our 4 seconds, repeat until you feel better.

Step Two: Get organized. Having a plan written down can make a chaotic series of tasks and problems seem manageable. Break your day/week/month/year down and smaller tasks and start checking them off the list.


Step Three: Be grateful. Gratitude is not just for Thanksgiving anymore. We live in an amazing time and our problems often pale in comparison. If you have a home and family and food, you are doing pretty well. Smile and take stock of good things in your life.

Step Four: Take time for you. Schedule time to do things that you enjoy. Read, exercise, play an instrument, play with your kids, fly a kite. Whatever makes you happy, do that regularly and forget about the bad day you had or the big project looming on the horizon.

Step Five: Relate. We often think of ourselves and our problems as unique. We might be but our problems are not. Everyone alive has problems and most of them are similar.

Only you can choose how you respond to things when they pop up. Stress is your bodies' response to external stimulus; you get to choose whether or not you smile or frown.

Choose to smile.

Jack