Have you gone through difficult times and sometimes everything can feel too much and a little uncertain? If you have you are not alone.
We're living in a time where day to day life is more stressful, and its's easy to get caught up in the overwhelm and even doubt yourself. Maybe you feel this way now or know someone who is?
Whilst, being stressed and anxious may make you feel like you have limited control, it is important to be empowered and take back the control where we can.
Stress Busting Tip #1 How to regain a sense of control
If you are stressed the first thing to feeling better is to identify the cause, but this is hard when everything is overwhelming isn't it!
Often when we are stressed, it is because we have lost a sense of control. However, we have more things in our circle of control than we are aware of, we have just lost sight of those things and instead focus on things that might not serve us.
The first step is to acknowledge what is controllable and separate them from what is out of our control, the things we cannot directly change.
There is a good exercise to help you with this:
1- First, draw two circles on a piece of paper one inside of the other
2- In the middle circle, draw or write all the things you can control
3- In the second layer, draw the things you can out of your control
4- Think of one thing you can do to ease one of these worries and work from there. 5 - You must release the things which are not in your control.
Stress Busting Tip #2 Clearing
Often, stress will manifest when we carry over yesterday’s concerns into our present-day concerns. An accumulation will almost always end up in a high stress level. Therefore, we must be able to “dump” all our concerns from the previous day or days and concentrate wholly on your well-being today.
You may have heard the phrase, "don’t carry things with you from the past as you don’t live there anymore". Equally it is not helpful to be fearful or overly concerned about the future. We all need to be present in today and make yourself happy. We often think… “I will be happy when I am rich”, “I will be happy when I am in a relationship”, “I will be happy when I quit my job” “I will be happy when I lose weight” etc. Don’t wait to be happy, just be happy! STOP putting your happiness on hold.
Here’s some ways you can practice mindfulness and unload your burden:
-Speak with a friend- a problem shared is a problem halved.
-Write a list of what you need help and support with and assign them to different people.
-Tell your brain a different story, switch off from the news and switch on to relaxation
-Be kind to yourself, often we are really hard on ourselves and will have a narrative running in our heads which is not helpful and can be things we would never say to anyone else. So, give yourself a break! # Be Kind starts with you internally.
Does that sound too simple? If it does, it is because it is simple!
Resolve right now to release every thought from yesterday and be only mindful of the here and now… this thought only...this breath...this moment. Take in three very deep breaths and slowly release each one. At the same time feel each and every concern, each and every problem, and each and every unresolved moment, begin to dissolve. You can deal with them at a later time. For now, you are only to be in this very moment. As you breathe out, think about breathing out the negativity, releasing, clearing all the negative energy, in order to raise your vibration and energy levels you need to firstly start with what you are telling yourself. At the same time feel each and every concern, each and every problem, and each and every unresolved moment, begin to dissolve. You can deal with them at a later time. For now, you are only to be in this very moment. As you breathe out, think about breathing out the negativity, releasing, clearing all the negative energy, in order to raise your vibration and energy levels you need to firstly start with what you are telling yourself.
Now relax and go to your inner quiet place.
Go deep inside to a place where you feel that you are at peace and then just relax and breathe in deeply and enjoy the feeling of being at one and at peace within yourself. Go deeper into a totally relaxed state where you are aware of your transformation taking place.
You know and trust you are constantly growing. Use this special time and place to be calm. Free your mind and body of all worry, all regret, all disappointment, all anger and grief.
Recognise these negative emotions are not serving you. Have faith that you are learning to act with total confidents, you are happy and self-assured. You are perfect just the way you are!
It has been scientifically proven that Mediation is a good form of relaxation and has many benefits, here are a few:
It reduces stress
Controls Anxiety
Enhances Self-awareness
Improves sleep
Stress Busting Tip #3 Visualisation and Gratitude
Next, think of one particular act, such as walking in the fresh air, gardening, yoga, and do that one simple thing, which ever one is aligned to you. All the while, your mind is quiet and calm, and you are in your own special place within. We all have strategies in place for everything we do from getting up in the morning, brushing our teeth etc, we use the same patterns, if you change what you are doing and interrupt this pattern you have a perfect chance of sustaining change.
Practice this act of quiet and calm each day and you will see that you will accomplish so much more. At the first sign of being stressed, go back to this mindful, quiet place and start all over again until you have reached your inner place of calm.
Know that you are grateful and write down things you are grateful for, you can use a journal, paper or even an envelope it does not matter. It the act of physically writing it down which is where the magic begins. We start to appreciate more, and it is hard for truly grateful people to be stressed, that is why it is important to move your energy level. What happened today to make you feel good? what made you laugh? what did you enjoy? did you help someone? and what made you proud? Always try and reflect before bedtime all those positive things in your life which you appreciate.
Stress Busting Tip #4 Healthy Living
The very best thing that you can do for yourself is to eat, drink and rest – to support your health! Stress can easily be brought on by not doing these things properly.
Limit the amount of salt, sugar, caffeine and alcohol in your diet. Drink plenty of clean, pure water each day and do at least moderate exercise. This will breathe new life into your skin, hair and will nourish all of your vital organs.
Get active and move, exercise increases endorphins which will raise your energy levels and help you to emotionally feel better. When you don’t get enough sleep for your body each night, you are only setting yourself up for additional stress. If you struggle with sleep we have a free sleep meditation on our website, check it out @amandabrenkley.com.
Take time to breathe properly! Take deep belly breathes to send pure oxygen to all of your body. Laugh and then laugh some more. It is food for the soul! Spend time doing the things that please you most. Engage in healthy and fulfilling relationships and work on problems that would erode the closeness that you have with someone special. Give yourself permission to do something which makes you feel great!
When we are content and living a balanced life, everyday stresses seem to pale in comparison. We are better equipped to deal with the unexpected.
If this resonates with you, feel free to join us on one of our well-being retreats. These have a holistic approach and focus on gentle exercise, mindset and nutrition. In peaceful, beautiful surroundings, where you get to truly focus on yourself. To find out more about our retreats or for more support on managing stress and living life empowered, in control and confident you can have a 20-minute consultation, to book email amanda@amandabrenkley.com
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