This week has been a roller coaster of a stress. In order to regain and maintain perspective, it has been
really important to take steps to actively manage your stress levels. Here are a few things that I have found can make a big difference:
- Stay connected to friends and family who support you. Avoid isolation.
- Talk to a trusted financial advisor who is a competent expert, committed to your best interest and who can give you accurate information and perspective.
- Take extra good care of yourself.
- Eat really healthy food. Avoid excess sugar or alcohol.
- Walk or do some form of aerobic exercise every day, to move the adrenaline out of your body and reduce the cortisol caused by stress. This will have a calming effect and help restore perspective.
- Turn off CNN or any other station that is broadcasting non-stop reports or analysis of the crises. It sounds like it may be new information, but it is usually just a regurgitation of the old and has the effect of recycling the emotional drama.
- Pay attention to and manage your thoughts and where you place your attention. Avoid going down the path of catastrophe and worry.
- Read things that are inspiring and uplifting.
- Spend some time during each day in a practice that helps you reconnect with yourself as a 'centered' calm being. This can be through meditation, or by simply repeating a word that you choose that is affirming like love, or relax, or by taking a series of deep, relaxing breaths and slowly, gently letting them out.
- Go to bed a little earlier, to get a full night of restorative sleep.
5 comments:
I really like your using numbers & bullet points to make your message even clearer.
Your suggestions are great. I'd add one idea - to consider before going to bed to do something relaxing (i.e., no TV or worrying), like meditating or resting quietly.
Thanks for the suggestion Beth.
You are right. Meditation or some form of relaxing, deep breathing really helps in stress reduction.
I have added your suggestion.
>>>Avoid going down the path of catastrophe and worry.<<<
How? What if my brain jumps back on that worry train (often pulling into the station right about the time my head hits the pillow).
Even doing all these things you mention, sometimes I seem to slip right back into catastrophe and worry. Should I cycle through the suggestions again?
Turning off the news has been the most helpful, thanks for that suggestion.
Rachel
http://whynotrachel.wordpress.com
Rachel, thanks for the comment about my suggestion to avoid going down the path of catastrophe and worry.
You asked: How? What if my brain jumps back on that worry train (often pulling into the station right about the time my head hits the pillow).
I literally have to watch what I am thinking. If I don't do this and the train leaves the station, I may not even know it. If I don't regulate my thoughts, then usually, I become aware of how I am feeling- awful! So I back track to see what thought caused the feeling. I have to look for the thought patterns that are running in my head. And then literally change tracks. I tell myself that there is nothing that I can do about my object of worry tonight. I have learned that if I do follow the worry thoughts and try to solve the problem, I will just go aound in an endless loop, causing the worry to escalate. As an alternative, I conciously pick another topic to think about, visualize an image that is pleasing and calming or repeat a calming matra.
When all else fails, I eat a few water crackers. They are carbohydrate and the brain usually falls asleep with carbs.
So "awful" is my touchstone to knowing my thoughts has gone train jumper on me. Cause you're right sometimes I don't even notice when it has left the station.
I like the idea of reminding my brain that worring right then, as I try to sleep does nothing to help me. "Worry is not preparation" as one good friend once said to me.
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