Managing Our Stress While The Demands of Life Grow

Today, was the restart of a healthy exercise I used to practice. Many of you who have known me for sometime remember that I used to write. A LOT.

I making a commitment over the next month to reading a personal development article each day. A few times a week I will write a reflection of the article. My hope is this exercise helps you and me become more present and successful beings.

To kick this exercise off, I read "The Busy Person's Guide to Reducing Stress" by Leo Babauta. 

I hope you find use in my writing and it inspires even a small positive change in your world. Have a happy hump day. A weekend full of adventure is not too far away.

As demands in life change and grow, our stress often follows. This is not healthy and means it is time for a change. Some small shift needs to occur. But what? Something must drive our stress to a lower level, because it is one of the biggest causes of disease (dis-ease); an uncomfortable life.

Here are some things we can start doing today to better manage the demands life throws at us. Each of these were inspired by Leo, but include my own piece of authenticity.

• Be Present with One Task: I use Asana to manage my work and day-to-day demands. This helps me organize the thousands of moving parts involved in each project. It also means that I, like you have an ever-growing to-do list. We can start each day by focusing on one important task, then moving to the next one, rather than getting frustrated with task switching and deadlines, that are often unrealistic. Be present when you want to be happier and healthier.
• Let Go Of The Need to Control: The need to control things is a constant battle. We, humans, want to control our little worlds. Our friends, family, work, how much money we earn, what we eat, how we feel, what we do with our time and our lives. What if we let go of the need and desire to control things and just let the world be? Embrace the chaos of life with open arms and believe that everything will work out as it should. Everything always has and I believe it always will.
• Smile and Stay Positive: We can change our happiness one smile at a time. We cannot control the outcome of events or emotions that other people are feeling, but we can choose to stay positive and maintain a smile in some of the worst of situations. This is hard, sometimes impossible, but I guarantee that sharing a smile with another human being will make us feel better. It activates neural intelligence messaging systems in our minds that make our whole body feel better. Try it for 30 days. I did and the results were nothing short from amazing.
• Practice Gratitude: While not all days are beautiful, there is beauty in each day. We can find something to appreciate in our lives each day, whether it is the shoes on our feet, roof over our head or something much more. Start a gratitude journal like I did years ago. If anything it is a great tool to look back on during your darker days.
• Create Healthy Habits as We Flow Through Each Day: Change your life with one healthy habit at a time. Writing, running, hiking, skiing, sleeping more, drinking tea, practicing yoga.... you see where I am going. Healthy habits are hard to build especially when we are stressed. The sad thing, many of us resort to unhealthy habits for stress management; drinking, drug use, oversleeping, overeating. This just results in more stress, disease and unhappiness.

I hope one of these ideas helps make your day a little better than it would have been had you not read this article.

If you found this article useful please like it, share it and send me a comment. It may sound ridiculous, but your kudos help inspire my path and desire to continue helping others live better lives. Thanks for reading.

Summit as friends!
Scott

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