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April Healthy Habit:
Reduce Your Stress
“Do YOU feel stressed?”
Stress is your body’s response to many of life’s pressures. Stress can cause lots of awful things to happen to your body:
Headaches, Muscle tension and stiffness, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, dizziness, exhaustion, insomnia, rapid heart beat, irritability, depression, and much more…
Follow the following tips to eliminate stress and reduce your stress level:
- Identify the stressors in your life
- Make a list of things that cause you to feel stressed/ anxious
- Cope with stress in a positive way
- Make a list of things that make you feel calm and happy.
- Don’t choose damaging ways of dealing with stress such as: smoking, drinking, drugs, overeating, under-eating, withdrawing from friends and family, procrastinating, taking out stress on others, sleeping too much, etc.
- Avoid unnecessary stress
- Make a list of the things you must get done and eliminate extras.
- Learn to say, “No,” because you can’t do everything
- If possible, avoid people who stress you out
- Alter and adapt to your stressors, and ACCEPT THE THINGS YOU CANNOT CHANGE
- Figure out ways to manage the situation such as: communication, better time management, learning how to compromise, assertiveness, adjusting your standards, focusing on the positive, and don’t try to control the uncontrollable
- Live a healthy lifestyle which includes R&R
- Eat a balanced diet
- Exercise regularly
- Reduce your caffeine intake
- Get enough sleep
- Plan time for Rest and Relaxation such as: listening to music, taking a long bath, play with a pet, spend time with a friend, get a massage, spend time outside, write in a journal, drink a mug of hot tea and curl up with a book, etc.