Stress Relief Game Plan: Reduce Lifestyle Stress

Stress relief techniques can quickly help you reduce the tension you feel from your stressful days. However, another important piece of an effective stress management game plan is to eliminate some of the stress in your lifestyle so that you experience less stress that you need relief from. Once you’ve assessed your lifestyle and personality to see which areas may be causing you additional unnecessary stress, and found some effective tension taming techniques to relieve tension you’re feeling right now, it’s important to reduce lifestyle stress. The following resources can help you simplify your life and develop strategies from preventing excessive stress before it even becomes a problem!

• Maintain a Simple, Organized Home: You would be surprised by how much unnecessary stress comes from living and working in a cluttered, disorganized environment! Taking the time to create a serene, organized atmosphere will provide more of a payoff than you probably realize, and is well worth the effort! Here is some information on how and why clutter stresses you, simple strategies to create a simple and organized home, and how to maintain that order once you’ve created it. Before you know it, your home will be a sanctuary from stress rather than a cause of it!
• Become More Assertive: Learning the skill of assertiveness can help you reduce stress in many ways. It can help you keep relationships strong so you can benefit from social support and handle conflict more peacefully. Even more importantly, it can help you more easily maintain healthy boundaries so you’re not taking on more than you can handle because you’re not able to say no. Assess your current conflict resolution style and, if necessary, take a quick course in assertiveness so you can reduce stress on several fronts at once.
• Practice Optimistic Thinking and Positive Self Talk: You may not be aware of how much your thoughts influence your stress level, but how you view the world and even how you talk to yourself can color your world and significantly affect the level of stress you experience in a given situation or day. Fortunately, you can alter your internal dialogue and view of the world so that you experience less stress in everyday situations and during crises. Surround yourself with positive energy and develop positive self-talk habits--and lower your stress level!
• Find Ways to Reduce Job Stress: Because we spend so much time at work, stress you experience on the job can make up a large percentage of your overall stress level and, if you’re experiencing a lot of workplace stress, it can affect your health and other areas of your life. If your job is causing you stress, you can follow these simple strategies in finding greater satisfaction in your current job, and assessing whether or not it’s time for a change. Also, this quiz can help you assess your risk for burnout, and you’ll find more job stress resources in The Burnout Section.
• Find More Time in Your Schedule
These days, many of us have schedules that are packed to the hilt! Sadly, much of time our busy schedules don’t include all that we need to be happy (i.e. time alone, time for exercise, time for friendships), or even reflect our values and personalities. These resources can help you assess your schedule, see if you’re too busy or imbalanced with how you spend your time, and find more time in your schedule so the level of stress you experience can go down, and you’ll have time to incorporate into your lifestyle the activities that really fulfill you. First, take the ‘Are You Overscheduled?’ quiz to see if you’re too busy. Then read this article on finding time by increasing your energy levels (there are links to additional articles that provide creative ideas to help with this). Finally, you can find more resources for time management, saying “no” and keeping your schedule freer in the Time Management and Organization Section.

Read The Whole Stress Management Game Plan:

• Step 1: Understand Stress: The Basics You Need To Know
• Step 2: Assess Your Situation
• Step 3: Stop Tension Right Now
• Step 4: Reduce Lifestyle Stress
• Step 5: Maintain Healthy Habits

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