Serenity Now
Feeling overwhelmed? Discover creative ways to tackle stress, from staying hydrated to visualizing your favorite vacation. Try laughter to distance yourself from problems and find relief in the moment. These simple techniques can help calm your mind and body. How do you manage stress? Share your tips in the comments below!
Feeling a little stressed? Welcome to the club. The question is not will you get stressed...it's how will you alleviate it? Here are some ideas that are different than the usual tips. Who knows? Maybe one of these will strike a chord with you and help to make some crucial changes.
Drink more water. When your hydration level drops by even 2 percent, your ability to do simple math and make decisions is disrupted, says Mike Collins, founder of the Perfect Workday, a Raleigh, N.C., company that focuses on workplace effectiveness. "The more hydrated you stay, the better you think." Try keeping a pint-sized container of water by your desk that you refill three or four times a day.
Keep vacation photos handy. Another way to escape from stressful thoughts is to keep vacation photos or postcards nearby. When you feel stressed, look at an image for a moment, close your eyes and try to imagine all the sensations you were feeling in that place--what you saw, smelled, felt, heard and tasted. This technique will calm you by focusing your attention on the physical sensations of your body as you visualize a particularly relaxing place. "Try to activate each of the five senses," says Margaret Wehrenberg, author of The 10 Best Ever Anxiety Management Techniques (WW Norton 2009). "It's literally the antithesis of stress for a minute."
Laugh out loud. Humor is the opposite of stress, according to John Morreall, president of Williamsburg, Va.-based Humorworks, which focuses on using humor in team-building exercises and other workplace activities. "In a stressful situation, you are emotionally engaged with some problem," he says. "When you laugh at a situation, you are distanced from the problem." To find relief in humor, Collins watches a YouTube video of a flash mob in Moscow dancing to "Puttin' on the Ritz." That never fails to make him laugh. For more go to: entrepreneur.com
What do you think of finding creative ways to escape stress? Do you think it takes too much time? What's your favorite way of conquering the stress beast? Leave a comment below!
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