You are anxious, irritable, low, confused, entangled, and extremely pressured…. as rigorously as you’re trying to establish a balance, you feel literally bogged down, every bad thing around you has amplified!

YOU ARE STRESSED!

(Welcome to the club!)

Don’t worry, stress is almost universal.

Stats say every 3 out of 4 doctor visits are for stress-related ailments and stress is the basic cause of 60% of all human illness and disease.

So, none of us can claim to not know worry. Neither is it all-bad-and-no-good. Our left brain hemisphere worries to keep us safe. But then, on the flip side, life NEVER seems to pacify or calm down.

HOW do you stress-relieve yourself then ???

Good question! Because you really can’t.

I mean using all your ROUTINE patterns…

You might even think you’ll find some good to-dos here that’ll reduce your stress.

You won’t.

Because it’s sometimes the things we need to STOP DOING (i.e. the do-not dos) that make the rest fall into place.

Else, you’re gonna lose a lot of friends.

I know, ‘coz I have!

STRESS RELIEF: THE BIG TEN HINDERERS

Here are ten reasons which ALWAYS do and ALWAYS will result in STRESS. 

Are you guilty of any of the following?

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links.

1. YOU’RE NOT PREVENTIVE

Instead of making conscientious efforts to prevent issues (health, finance, relations etc related) from happening in the first place, you lazily live off of the bare necessary effort needed to be put in. You only get into your super-sonic mode when the problem befalls your head!

Action Plan:

1. Pronounce in detail what you want (to prevent, which you’re are vulnerable to e.g. if high blood pressure runs in your family).
2. Plan your preventive measure such that you can learn about and provide for the resources required, well before time.
3. Schedule your prevention based on:
   1.  time (e.g. start yoga/cardio 10 min daily)
   2. usage. (e.g. low sodium diet)
4. Document, monitor and review the measures regularly

Remember!

• Prevention IS better than cure because it is cost effective… especially when something has no cure!
• Nip the evil in the bud, that’s minimalism.
• Prevention is not a step or to-do, it is a process. Embed it into your routine likewise.
  

  Suggested

• 7 Habits – Read Habit 1 about Being Proactive
• This post I wrote about making time to read – the first half of this post has great tips for making time in general.

2. YOU AGONIZE INSTEAD OF ORGANIZE

If your surroundings look like a disaster, I promise you will feel like a disaster too. You’ve done enough to provide yourself a steady dose of stress.

End of the post for you!

…

Unless you want the…

Action Plan

1. Set aside 15 min daily for decluttering
2. Purge your surrounding of clutter one small corner/item per day
3. Live minimalist style – Don’t bring into your house anything unless you have no alternative.

Remember!

• A tidy room is a tidy mind. (Look around you right this minute and fix that mess before somebody comes in!)
• You never know what you have, until… you clean your room!
  

  Suggested

• Check Getting Things Done

3. YOU’RE A BLACKBELT IN DIS-INTEGRITY

You are so loose and ill-disciplined in your ways that you only set goals whenever your motivation somehow skyrockets, and most often don’t follow through with your plans to achieve your target.

Action Plan

1. Set a goal
2. Track progress visually (write!)
3. Partner up for accountability

Remember!

• You’ll never always remain motivated, you will need discipline (just enough) to finish a task.
• The more you’ll fulfill the commitments made to yourself, the more at peace and stronger you’ll be.
  

  Suggested

  • Book The 1 Thing

4. YOU DON’T PLAN IN WRITING

It’s magical!You could be super cool enough to do all the algebra or planning in your mind but the TRUE clarity, direction, solution and big picture as seen using a pen is unbeatable. You bet!

Action Plan

1. Clear focus
2. Be as specific as possible about what you want to get done
3. Chunk up your plan into gradual steps that’ll lead you there
4. Schedule each chunk
5. Go one step at a time

Remember!

• Reverse engineering from goal, down to right now’s to-do works
• If Plan A fails, you’re still left with 25 alphabets!
  

  Suggested Reading

  • The 1 Thing

5. YOU’RE NOT USING YOUR MINUTES WISELY

You are guilty of procrastinating, and pending work till you find ‘that perfect long hour’ when you’ll finish your chore but trust me, there’s no better time than NOW. And ‘Tomorrow never dies!’ If you’re not wise enough to break your tasks into bite-size chunks each of which takes minutes, instead of hours to complete, then you, my friend ought to join point # 2 folks. Unless you also need the…

Action Plan

1. Chunk up your task into smallest timed pieces (5 min?)
2. Start now with chunk 1
3. Keep focus on chunk 1 only
4. Complete and move on to the next
5. Repeat…till done!

Remember!

• The Secret to getting ahead is getting started now
• Don’t wait! The time will never be just right. Napolean Hill

And…

• Tomorrow never dies!
  

  Suggested

  • Eat That Frog

6. YOU’RE FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE – BUT THE FIRE DEPARTMENT USES WATER!

Mistakes are inevitable. But you’re mishandling your mistakes in two ways, by (a) repeating them (b) not learning from gurus about mistake prevention/reductions.

Action Plan

1. Step back and take note of which action of yours is constantly resulting in frustration- it’s most probably a mistake
2. Change your course of action temporarily by a/b testing
3. Stick to what eliminates or at best reduces your frustration
4. Look up what gurus do

Remember!

• To err is human, but to repeat the same one twice is a sin!
• Don’t make the same mistake twice, there’re so many new ones to make!

Suggested

Just watch this, pal:

7. YOU’RE NOT SIDESTEPPING NEGATIVE ENERGY:

You have to consciously stay away from anything that wastes your energy or at best brings your efforts to zero-sum value. 

Action Plan

• Train your mind to think positively
• Be creative enough to find the good in everything
• If there isn’t any, be super creative and make it serve you somehow

Remember!

• Cancel your subscription to other people’s issues.
• Hide from negative people. Doesn’t mean you hate them. It just means you love yourself.
  

  Suggested

  E-Squared

  

8. YOU’RE NOT ADOPTING THE ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

You don’t have the glass half full approach and you dwell on what it is in life that you don’t have instead of showing thankfulness for what’s there and for using it effectively.

Action Plan

1. Note at least one blessing down for today (Don’t say you can’t think of any… What about the breath you just took?)
2. Focus entirely on this one good thing/blessing
3. Perform gratitude. Don’t just be thankful in thought or words. Do something practically to demonstrate you’re consciously enjoying it. e.g. Go out and breathe deep. 

Remember!

• Performing Gratitude ( see # 3) is the quickest stress remedy
• Gratitude is the sign of NOBLE souls. Aesop
  

  Suggested

  • This article

9. YOU’RE NOT EATING YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS:

Ain’t no Anthelme Brillat-Savarin comin’ to tell ya’, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”

Action Plan

Eat/Drink at least 4 of the following stress busters each day:

• Bananas
• Broccoli
• Celery
• Cold Water Fish
• Dark Chocolate
• Eggs
• Green Tea
• Honey
• Kiwi
• Nuts and Seeds 
• Oatmeal
• Spinach
• Vegetable Soups
• Warm Milk

Remember!

• Quit the See-Food (-and-eat-it)Diet!
• Fast-Food is a misspell with an ‘s’!
• 7 Days without fruits and Veggies makes One Weak!
• Your food is either feeding or fighting disease.
  

  Suggested Reading

  •  Your grocery list – for a health-related audit!

10. YOU’RE NOT EXERCISING:

Do something rigorous (even 20 jumping jacks where ever you are right now) or physically challenging (beginner’s yoga) only for 10 min today and feel the difference. A ten min. investment won’t cost you a dime but the practice will surely teach you way beyond all the pins on Pinterest would. You can’t be THAT dumb to not even try something AND consider it ineffective!

Suggested Reading

• This

IT’S TIME TO STOP SABOTAGING YOUR PEACE

Let’s be honest, a lot of the stress in our life is manageable.
But it’s one thing to be knowledgeable and an altogether different thing to apply it to our lives and I think THIS is the core difference between losers and winners. 

Knowledge not put to practice stagnates over time and creates a rotten stressful feeling inside too. 

Also, if the implementation is key, then building momentum is the door. Natural success manifests itself when we are resilient in the face of challenges and stay glued to what we believe is right for us.
I’m guilty of some myself but I constantly remind myself to stay aware of my choices and their consequences.

Suggested

• This TED Talk about how your body language shapes who you are, will most definitely empower you in the face of stress.
• This article about symptoms, causes & effects of stress will increase your awareness of what it is you’re basically going through.

Want to remember this? Click this link or the image below to save this ‘Stress Relief’ post to your favorite Health-related Pinterest board.