STRESS MANAGEMENT IDEAS

1. You do not have to be a victim of stress. In any unsatisfactory situation you have choices: Improve it, Wear it, or Get out. Improve it: means fixing the problem. Wear it: means accepting what you can’t change and stop complaining. Getting out: is sometimes the only way to fix the problem.

2. If you’re always running late, then allow more time. It’s relaxing to be early.

3. Happy people are less stressed. When you are happy, it’s usually as a result of what you’re thinking about. Make a habit of absorbing good news and limit your exposure to bad news. There are good things happening in the world, in our country and community and our lives.

4. Mix with happy people. Funny ones too if you can find them.

5. Laughter helps us forget about ourselves, our problems, and fears and allows us to lose ourselves momentarily. Here’s a true story told to us by a Grade one school teacher:
“A child came to school one morning and told her teacher ‘Mummy’s going into hospital today to have an operation so she can’t have any more children.’ As the teacher acknowledged this, the child went on to say ‘Yes, she’s having her legs tied.’”

6. Controlling your breathing is an instant stress reducer. Try this: Sit comfortably with your eyes closed. As you breathe in, think to yourself “cool in” then as you breathe out, think “warm out”. (The air is different. Have you noticed this before?) Repeat this several times and relax your body as your exhale. This works in the middle of the night if your mind is racing and you can’t sleep. “Cool in” and “Warm out” becomes your mantra and can exclude the worry thoughts.

7. Become involved in something bigger than yourself. It helps to keep things in perspective and gets your mind off yourself.

8. If you’ve taken on too much in your life, financially, emotionally or time-wise, then take stock and see what you can let go. This may mean learning to say ‘No’ more often.

9. We all make mistakes. If you make a mistake, get out of it as quickly as possible. Don’t wait around to make sure.

10. “Pain is inevitable, misery is optional.” What a useful way to look at things. It reminds us that we may not have much choice over the pain in our life, but we can choose how we want to live with it. As humans we have an exceptional ability to come through tough times – quickly too.

11. Next time you pass a mirror, give yourself a wave and a smile. This is a great idea if you’ve just had dealing with a difficult person.

12. Are you in a good mood? The way you feel, or your state of mind, changes your biology. When you’re in a good mood, you’ll be less stressed. Consider these mood lifters; music, dancing, singing, playing with a pet, observing nature, colours, distraction, water therapy, pampering yourself, massage etc.

13. How about some new thoughts. Reality can get a bit much sometimes and we need a good dose of fiction to lose ourselves.

14. Boost your sense of humour. Make a habit of collecting humour which appeals to you and use it to amuse yourself and other people. Don’t leave your sense of humour to chance.

Here you go:
Q.What did the dirt say when it rained? A. If this keeps up, my name’s mud.
Q. What’s the best thing to take when you’re run down? A. The license number of the car that hit you.
Q. What do frogs wear on their feet in summer? A. Open toad shoes.

15. Make a commitment to improve your physical health. Do one thing you’ve been putting off: reducing caffeine intake, joining a gym, eating five different vegetables in a day or having a health check. When you're fitter you can withstand stress better and recover from it quicker.

16. Get lost in a magic shop, toy shop or $2 shop and see what wacky stuff you can find. When you feel yourself getting stressed at work, put on your propeller hat. It’s a reminder not to take yourself too seriously – a BIG cause of stress!

17. Be thankful. Before you go to sleep each night, do you think about our SIX OF THE BEST exercise.

18. Join the fun of Shayne’s FAMOUS FRIDAY FUNNIES. Our complimentary email service offers the best humour from the net each week. No attachments. Just send us your email address.

19. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Living in this world of unprecedented change with uncertainty and new challenges can be exhausting. Most people expect too much of themselves. Just getting out of bed in the morning some days can be enormously satisfying!

20. Be happy now. Leave the ‘Happiness Waiting Room’ and find reasons to be happy right now. Examples may include: You’re alive. You have a roof over your head. You probably live in a great country. Get plenty of food to eat each day. Have friends, family, a job and your health. A little money perhaps. The list goes on. Too often we’re so busy waiting to be happy some time in the future that we fail to see the reasons to be happy right now.

FOR MORE IDEAS ON LIVING LIFE WELL, STRESS REDUCING IDEAS AND LASHINGS OF STORIES, JOKES, ONE-LINERS AND AMUSING BITS AND PIECES, READ OUR BOOK "YOU WON’T DIE LAUGHING!"

And now a humour break.....

The workplace of the future will have two employees: a man and a dog.
The man will be there to feed the dog.
The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the computers.

Half an hour before the start of the morning, an employee calls his supervisor to say he won't be coming in today.
Employee: "I'm having a vision problem."
Supervisor: "Sounds bad. What's wrong?"
Employee: "I just can't see myself at work today."

I have learned that if you upset your wife she nags you.....
If you upset her even more you get the silent treatment.
Don't you think it's worth the extra effort?

An English professor announced to the class; "There are two words I don't allow in my class. One is gross and the other is cool."
From the back of the room a voice called out, "Yeah? So, what are the words?"

I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are eating too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day.

The nice part about living in a small town: When you don't know what you're doing, someone else always does.

FOR MORE IDEAS ON LIVING LIFE WELL, STRESS REDUCING IDEAS AND LASHINGS OF STORIES, JOKES, ONE-LINERS AND AMUSING BITS AND PIECES, READ OUR BOOK "YOU WON’T DIE LAUGHING!"