10 Ways to Reduce Stress
Posted on December 05, 2011 by Debbie Luxton, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Is "STRESS" ranking HIGH for you these days? Here's help! 10 Ways to Reduce Stress
10 Ways to Reduce Stress
1.) Take a walk in the fresh air ~ Don’t listen to the voice (the “lying” voice) that says, “you don’t have time to take a walk!”. This is simply not true. Your world is not going to explode because you get outside for 15 minutes.
2.) Read scripture ~ One line of scripture or a paragraph. Personally, I suggest one line asking God to speak to you on how that one line of truth relates to your life right now. Just open your bible and let your eyes fall on a line of scripture.
3.) Stand up and stretch ~ Get out of your chair, stand and reach your hands as high as you can while going up on your tippy toes. Next, bend over and put your hands as far down as you can; flat on the floor if possible. Lean and stretch as far as you can to your left; then right.
4.) Pray for someone ~ We all know someone who needs prayer. Praying for others takes the focus off of us and it feels good to lift others up.
5.) Grab a drink ~ Water, tea, coffee (not late in the afternoon), soda. Get out of your chair and go to the cafeteria, local store, vending machine on another floor (from the one your office is on) or any location that takes you on a little journey from your work location.
6.) Meditate ~ Read and meditate on your daily devotional. If you don’t have a daily devotional, get online and search for “daily devotions”. Many sites will come up. Pick one that jumps out at you.
7.) Do a “drive by” (stopping in unexpectedly) ~ walk or take your car to see a friend or colleague. Could be someone you work with often, but I don’t recommend this due to the likelihood you will get into a conversation about work or someone at work; neither are good for relieving stress. A friend you don’t see often or someone you would like to get to know better is best.
8.) Make a gratitude list ~ Just for the past week. What things, especially the little ones, were you thankful for at the time, but they fell right off your gratitude radar? Quite often as you give this some thought you will have things come to mind that you forgot to give thanks for. That’s good for your soul!
9.) Call a relative ~ someone you really love and appreciate, but don’t get much time with. Let them know you haven’t forgotten about them. It will do you good to hear the pleasure in their voice and the return of their love to you.
10.) Look at serenity pictures ~ We all have our dream locations; the place we would retreat too if we could. Search the location or the scenery to quickly find pictures that you can look at and remember why it brings you joy. For instance, mine is the mountains. I’m not particular – any mountains will do. So, I search for “pictures of mountains” and grab one right away to spend a little daydream time with!
If you picked out 4 of these 10 Ways to Reduce Stress to do each day, spending 15 minutes on each, you would spend an hour relieving your stress! Not bad. Most of us waste at least an hour worrying, spinning our wheels, sitting in unhealthy emotions or stuck because of stress. Start with 2 and build up to 4. Mix them up. You can even double dip if you want and do a couple of them while on the phone!
To your serenity,
Coach Deb
