The best ways to decrease stress
According to an article from Washington Post short episodes of stress can invigorate, it’s the long-lasting ones that kill.
That is so true. There are two kinds of stress, good and bad. Good stress is short time pressure and will make you sharp and focused. Bad stress is long-lasting and when you don’t have the time to relax, to listen to your inside, listening to what your body tells you.
I like the way Stanford University professor Robert Sapolsky (from the article above) looks at it: “There’s a reason that we’ll pay money to go on a roller coaster and be terrified, for a brief period”.
Short time stressful situations is great, makes blood circulate better, improve your senses, stimulates your brain and make you remember better. In the long run though, it could be very harmful. Your body goes on overdrive and it tears down. According to studies from Robert Sapolsky sustained stress can damage the brain in the learning and memory area.
Not only that, it also increases blood pressure in the long run and can lead to heart disease. Mainly because the body stops doing its repair work because of the neurons shrivelling in one part of the brain and leaves the other parts growing neurons and trapping us in fear.
It is easy to believe you could just turn off stress in your life but according to Sapolsky it’s not possible. I am certainly a believer in changing yourself and your life through your thoughts, but there are limits for that too. If you have lots to do all the time with deadlines you simply can’t ignore the fact that it is affecting you. (If you have further interest in Sapolsky’s work, you can listen to two of his sterling lectures, available free, through the iTunes music-store.)
With this in mind, the problem is that many people create stress themselves through their minds, even when it’s not necessary. I believe that all the media attention on stress have influenced people in a negative way, leading people to think they have problem with stress when they don’t, simply messing with their heads. Knowing it’s psychological decreases the harmness of stress. If you know you are creating stress yourself you can also make it disappear.
There are a lot of practical ways to reduce your stress level. The following methods are a mix between what I have felt made a difference on me and what I have heard, through friends, made a difference on them:
1. Meditation has shown to work on some people. Give it a try.
2. For some people Yoga might work, being in control of your breath. I have never tried it myself but I’ve heard it has done wonders for some.
3. I also believe in exercising your body. Running, golfing or whatever sport makes your body create endorfines that releases the stress syndromes. Maybe some simple movements with your arms will help you loosen up. If you don’t feel like you have the time for this, which I bet you do, you can always walk or bicycling instead of taking the bus or car. Change the little stuff, it will make a lot of difference in the long run.
4. Discipline. Having discipline certainly helps to reduce stress. If you manage to do your work as soon as your get them you will feel much better afterwords. At least this is working wonders for me.
5. Social networking. Speaking to your friends during hard times is helping me a lot too. It gives you another perspective of things and cheers you up. If you feel stressful, hanging out with friends for a while lets your mind focus on other stuff.
6. Listening to music have also been helpful to me. It can be classical, hard rock or whatever that makes you calm and happy. Breaks are essential for being effective with your work. It doesn’t have to be music, you should do whatever makes you relax. Maybe wathing a movie does it for you, books, video games, sports etc.
7. Finding the right work. Working with stuff you are not interested in will always be painful. Chances you won’t do the work in time and being stressful is much higher with work you actually don’t like doing.
8. Set boundaries. Even if you have found a carrier that fits you, set boundaries. No healthy human being can work all the time and still feel good. You have to have time for other stuff in life, for a hobby, for travelling etc.
9. Be organized. If you have an organized working-place as well as home you will work and think better. You simply won’t feel like working in a place with papers, post-it’s etc all over the place. Who wants to sit down in a chair and start working when the desk is full of unorganized papers laying around?
I hope this has helped you. You are very welcome to leave a comment if you’d like. 
