I first published this is 2009. It may be worth revisiting...
12 Ways to De-Stress Your Life
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Here are 12 ways to de-stress your life...
1. Get more physically active. If your doctor okay's strenuous activity,
get out and work up a sweat. Digging in your garden for a few hours is a
real stress-buster. Go for a hike in the woods, pick a steep hill.
Remember what you used to love doing, or always wanted to do, and begin
today. Dust off your old bike. Buy an inexpensive kayak and learn to
paddle. Choose outdoor activities whenever you can. When you are limited
by weather or time, choose aerobic dancing to compelling music that
captures your whole being. Or just workout until you are tired. But
whatever you choose, focus on your activity. Don't talk, watch TV, or
think about anything except what you are doing at the instant.
2. Spend time alone in nature. Who can stress while walking barefoot on a
lonely expanse of sand, watching the seabirds soar and dive, and
listening to the waves break and the wind rustle through the beach
grass. Combine physical activity with time spent alone in nature by
hiking, paddling, or biking.
3. Release your attachments. Stress is caused by the fear that we will
lose what we value. We stress because we fear that we will lose our
health, our job, our home, our spouse or friends. We stress that we will
have less tomorrow than we had yesterday.
By releasing your attachment to your possessions and your attachment to
your relationships, you can eliminate most of the stress in your life.
Make a daily practice of visualizing your life without those things you
most value. Visualize yourself without a car, a computer, a cell phone,
and recognize that those things do not define the true value of your
life. If you are in a highly troubled relationship and fear that the
other person may leave you, visualize your life without that person, and
accept that your happiness in life comes from within, and not from any
other person.
4. Simplify your life. Once you have released your attachments to your
possessions, consider releasing those things physically as well. Search
through your home for things you have not used in a year. Consider which
of those items could be given away without loss to your happiness.
Perhaps you want to ask yourself about the true value to your life of
other possessions as well. What do you own that creates happiness and
what creates stress? Would downsizing de-stress your life?
5. Reduce your obligations. Some people keep to themselves. Others
thoroughly enjoy being president of their kid's school PTA and
volunteering to drive seven girls to scout camp. But many others suffer
with too many self-imposed obligations. If you don't enjoy a
responsibility, and it isn't truly crucial, just say NO. Focus your
volunteering on those activities that give you great joy and
satisfaction.
6. Learn to love your job, or get a job you love. This idea for
de-stressing your life is the most difficult one for many people. If
your reaction is that you simply must continue with a job you hate for
the sake of your family, think again. Your family loves and cherishes
you for far more than the paycheck you bring home. If taking a
different, more personally rewarding, job would make you a happier and
more pleasant person, don't you think your family would appreciate the
change? Turn the tables and ask yourself if you would want your spouse
to work at a job they hated in order to bring home a few more dollars
each week? Trust that they would make the same choice for you. Love
and honor yourself enough to choose a career that brings satisfaction as
well as a paycheck.
7. Begin a project you love. Give yourself a little time each day to
work on something creative that you love doing and that makes you feel
good about yourself. Knit a scarf. Play the piano. Take up woodcarving.
8. Know that you are not responsible for the whole world. If you are
going to make a difference, take up a cause. Campaign for the candidate
of your choice, volunteer in your local soup kitchen, write a big check
to Doctors Without Borders. But then turn off the eleven o'clock news.
Worrying about the state of the world, or the economy, or crime in your
community, or the health of your Aunt Judy in Des Moines, or whether
your adult child's marriage is going to fail, is a waste of your time
and causes much unnecessary stress.
9. Give your time to others. It's hard to worry so much about yourself
when you give your time to help those less fortunate. Consider becoming a
community volunteer.
10. Forgive everyone, especially yourself, for everything that has ever
been done or been left undone. Your anger and hatred hurt you.
Forgiveness is the salve that removes the sting of past injuries.
Resentments and regrets do not cure the past, but unconditional
forgiveness does.
11. Have gratitude for everything that has ever happened or not
happened. All of your life is part of a grand plan. You wouldn't be who
you are today if you had missed out on any of your experiences.
12. View life as an adventure. Everything changes. The inherent nature
of life is constant change. To fear change is to fear life itself. Once
you accept that whatever you hate about your life will change soon, and
that whatever you love about your life will also change, you can view
all of life as the adventure that it is, and end your stress.
