Stress is a little 6 letter word with a giant, kick your arse kind of impact on your life when it takes over your world! Stress can make you sweat, it can send panic through every fibre of your being, it can make you feel like throwing up, running away or cripple you on the spot! Stress or anxiety can affect every part of your life. It can be so severe that in manifests as a physical illness. You may vomit, be stuck on the toilet with severe stomach cramps, be unable to get out of bed, shake, feel dizzy, suffer muscle cramps, break out in a rash, and suffer back or neck pain. Thousands of people turn up at the doctors and hospitals everyday because they feel so sick and fear serious illness only to later realise these symptoms were caused by stress. The fact is though if you don’t get stress under control it can lead to illness, both physical and mental. I urge you if you are feeling any of these symptoms on a regular basis to get checked out and seek professional help.
Click to Tweet: Don’t let stress kick your arse. It’s time to look after you!
There are ways to help manage stress though, ways to make our lives a little easier and more relaxed. I’ll share with you some of the ways I keep calm in my busy life.
Mindfulness: Mindfulness is growing in popularity and for good reason, it is kind of a trend word right now. There are many great books and on-line programs that can guide you through it, but the basis of it is all about being present in the moment. If you are present in a moment you can not be thinking about the future and ‘all’ those things that you ‘need’ to do, or ‘should’ be doing. It also means you can not be thinking about the past, which means you can not worry about things that have happened or think about past regrets or hurts.
Being mindful is really about now, right now this moment. It is about fully experiencing all that is happening to you as it happens, and if your mind starts to wonder you simply guide yourself back to the moment you are in. So right now you should be in the moment, perhaps you can concentrate on these words, or be still and listen to what sounds you can hear, or concentrate on your breathing. You may think about how your body feels in the chair, or how something you’re eating feels in your mouth. The idea is to just let yourself be fully aware of right now. I find it relaxing because it stops me worrying about the things on my mental ‘to do list’, even if just for 5 minutes.
Breathing: OK yes we breathe all the time, but what I mean is thinking about my breath. It is along the same lines as being mindful. If I am stressed I can allow myself a 5 minute time out to just breathe. Whether I am lying down, sitting or standing I place my hands on my stomach and take slow deep breaths. Try it with me now, 1 . . . . 2 . . . .3 . . . . feel your stomach rise and fall, now imagine breathing in light and relaxation, as you breathe out let the tension and worries float away, take 3 more deep breaths. Now just be in the moment, breathing normally now, not to short, not to long. Listen to the sound of your breath and just let yourself relax.
Imagery: I love images, so looking at beautiful images and imaging myself there relaxes me. Here are a couple of my favourites, if you are a regular to my blog you will recognise these. Just relax and look at each one for a few moments, don’t rush it, imagine you are there and what it would feel like. Are you alone, or sharing it with someone you feel safe with. Imagine if it is still or is there a breeze, is it warm?
Saying NO! Yes that is right, one way to relieve stress is to not add too many things on your ‘to do list’. The more pressure we put on ourselves the more we stress, especially if our expectations of ourselves are unrealistically high. Learning to say no can be really hard at first especially if you are a people pleaser (like me), but when you learn to say it you will find it can become quite empowering. Be nice about it, and I am not talking about declining everything and everyone, but learn when you have taken on to much and say no to taking on any more.
Saying YES! Sometimes we say yes to everyone else and never ourselves. We feel selfish if we put ourselves ahead of anyone else, especially our family or closest friends. The truth is though if we don’t look after ourselves we burn out and become resentful and angry. No one needs a burnt out friend, spouse or parent. I know you have probably heard it said a thousand times, so let this be the time it sinks in, “you are no help to anyone unless you help yourself”! I wrote a post on saying yes to me, if you have trouble doing that then read this post.
Click to Tweet: Saying YES to me is necessary, I deserve to nurture & love my mind, soul & body!
Forgive: This might seem like a strange one to throw in here, but if you have ever held onto resentment or grudges you will know how much stress it can bring into your life. Staying mad at people or situations causes us a lot of stress, and the longer we hold onto those feelings the longer we allow those feelings to fester and grow. We may think staying mad at someone is reasonable given what they did, but the truth is it hurts us often much more than it hurts them. We need to let go of past hurts and betrayals. That is not saying excuse what someone has done, some things can never be OK, but forgive them for yourself, for your sake, you don’t ever have to see them again, but you need to let go of the hate in your heart so you can heal. The same goes for forgiving yourself, holding onto guilt isn’t going to change the fact that you made a bad decision, forgive yourself and move forward with good intentions and a clear heart.
Indulge: Make yourself a priority, nurture and respect yourself. Spend time finding out who you are and what you enjoy. Discover the ‘things’ that help you to decompress. For me it is writing (obviously), photography, singing, decorating, shopping (although I am trying to avoid this as we are downsizing houses soon), and coffee dates with the girls. Of course time with my family goes without saying. Find out what relaxes you and carve out some quality time for YOU.
Positive attitude: I set a challenge this week about attracting positivity in your life when I wrote a post about the Law of Attraction. A great way to de-stress is to have a positive attitude and surround yourself with positive people and situations.
Click to Tweet! Challenge yourself this week to have a positive attitude no matter what comes your way. Smile!
Thanks for joining me, love Mackenzie xx
Loading InLinkz ...
Please attach our button to your post and link back to us, and make sure you comment on the hosts posts, the post linked up before yours, and one other that grabs your attention. Sharing is caring. Thanks xx
Grab our button here.
A huge thank you to all of you who linked up last Friday, you amaze us and inspire us!
Here are this weeks prompts.
Friday, June 26 2015
What is your passion?
Tell us about your best friend.
How do you manage stress?
Reflect on the following quote. “It takes more than just a good looking body. You’ve got to have the heart and soul to go with it.” Epictetus
Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay
you are this weeks chosen Friday Reflections featured writer. As soon as Janine and I read it we were messaging one another saying how much we loved the words, the images, the whole piece was stunning. A must read for anyone and everyone.
13 comments
Hi Mackenzie great post and I needed to follow all of those points this week. My website has been giving me grief and I’m going into the 4th day. I’ll be posting though as I had written it before the site went crazy. Thanks for the lovely imagery in this post and the opportunity to link up with #FridayReflections
Yes you would need some stress relief. Thanks fro linking up and good luck with your site xx
Beautiful. I am totally for mindfulness and breathing (and all the rest).
Things for us into stress, but if we become stronger and centered, we can make.
Thank you so much for the opportunity of the link party.
Yes mindfulness can be a real help during times of stress, we will become stronger and rise above though.
Great piece this week. I’m trying to be more mindful and good to myself. I’m far too critical and unforgiving of myself.
Stress can be a real bugger. And it can creep in when you least expect it to.
Oh this is all so true! For me the best releases of stress are singing and getting outside – it may also explain why we can be found outside on all but the fiercest weather days, and usually singing!!
Singing is just so much fun whatever the weather!
Agree. Mindfullnesa and meditation helped me so much. Also, you can always seek the advice of a mental health professional if the fog isn’t lifting. When our bodies run on stress for too long we get in a danger zone. Great post x
Absolutely Ashleigh, mindfulness is an amazing tool for dealing with stress, but if stress or anxiety is getting too much people should always get professional help. Thanks for your comment xx
Stress can be a killer, can ruin your life, and is the plague of modern times. However, there is a positive side to stress. You get things done. If you can learn to harness your stress, it can actually be the trigger and the force to completing tasks in record time, ones you might otherwise take time over, or reject, or set aside, or go easy. This is another aspect of stress to explore. Personally, I know that if I hadn’t been stressed out/under stress, I wouldn’t have finished or achieved many things in my life including meeting deadlines and stressing myself to deliver projects on time. Always.
I agree with everything you listed 🙂
Hi Mackenzie. I’m not linking up this week, but I so appreciated the generosity you and Janine showered upon me last week, overwhelmed really as I’ve only just started sharing my writing within the past couple months. So, I wanted to stop by again and say hi. Such powerful stuff you write about. I struggle with mindfulness minute by minute. I’m an incredibly distracted person, my mind off into the past and future far too often. But I’m trying to change that a little. My children need me to be present. Oh that photo of the trees helped me breathe a little easier today. Right away I imagined myself on a blanket looking up at it. Keep up the great work here.
Sage advice!
Comments are closed.