How To Fight Stress | Tips for Fighting Stress

With all the negative connotations attached to the word “stress”, it is certainly hard to see it in a positive light. However, not all stress is bad. Some amount of stress is necessary to lead a normal life and for some people, it is a reminder that makes them do their best.

An important lesson to be learned here is that stress can be controlled and made to work FOR you, instead of AGAINST you. There are a number of people for whom stress is as much a part of life as air, water and food but they are not moved by it.

These people manage their stress in such a way that it helps boost their performance. Apparently, they kind of lack all the symptoms of stress. And these are exactly the people must look for.

These people can be called Natural Stress Managers. They have stress management techniques down to an art. The good part is that you can learn and copy from them. Observe and notice around you – which person keeps his or her cool when in a jam-packed bus? Which person has a go-easy, no-panic attitude even in stressful situations? Which person around you seems to be the happiest in the world with no tensions whatsoever?

Those people are the natural stress managers whom you can learn a lot from.

We humans learn best by example and observation. After you’ve identified these people, observe them. See what they do and also, see what they do DIFFERENTLY. How is your behavior and their behavior different in the same situation both are facing? What is it that makes them keep cool and calm while others around them are losing temper on small things?

When you do that, you’ll observe some key characteristics common to all of them. They do not panic, they are generally optimistic, they NEVER think or react negatively, they never “create a scene” in a public situation and they never let their anger take over their senses.

This is important. These are the exact characteristics you need to copy to reduce stress easily. Copy them and make them a habit. There is no better way than this to learn stress management.

If you have to, ASK them. Let them know you are looking for stress relievers and tell them how calm they look to you. Everyone likes heart-felt flattery. Then ask them if they’re willing to help you reduce stress.

And when they tell you how to, be a good listener and take mental notes of every word they speak and every technique they tell you about. Then go home and practice them daily. You will your stress go away within days and you’ll be managing stress like a pro!

If you had to find a single best, one-size-fits-all solution to reduce stress, it has to be laughter. Laughter is the purest form of human expression that transcends all ages, castes, creeds, religions and other differences.

Time and again, research has shown that laughter is the best medicine. It lowers your blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, and boosts your immune system. These, as you might know, are characteristics of a stress free body. Laughter is a natural killer of stress because it loosens the body and makes you feel carefree.

The most important thing that laughter does to you is causing movement. It makes you shake, move and giggle. This helps relax the body and releases endorphins – the natural painkillers in the body. Combine this with the greater intake and use of oxygen in the body and you have the perfect recipe for relaxation and stress reduction.

Stress and anxiety can easily be cured through laughter. And you don’t even have to laugh loudly, even a smile works wonders. When you get up in the morning, make it a habit to smile a big grin that brighten ups your face. Think of nothing, just smile. Now, get out of your bed and start your day. You’ll never feel stressed throughout the day.

People often ask how to relieve stress and look for some magic pill that can help cure them. We often overlook the magic pill that’s in use since we were born – laughter. Laughter will not only help you manage stress, it will make you a happy and gleeful person overall – someone people would love to hang out with.

I usually read up a joke book and laugh at even the stupidest joke inside it just to get my mind off stress. You may rent some comedy movies (there’s a whole plethora of them) or join a laughter club or even start one yourself. You can visit a comic show or just hang out with friends cracking jokes. The key is to take a break from the normal thought processes of the brain and find inner peace.

So laugh – louder and more often because it will make you feel light, alive and healthy. And you’ll not even know where the stress went all of a sudden. Make it a point to laugh at least three times daily until it takes the form of a habit. Remember, the world’s only free medicine is laughter so use it plenty.

Let’s face it – stress is here to stay. Stress is an inseparable part of our busy lives today and the faster we accept that fact, the easier it would be to manage personal stress.

Before we look at some stress management techniques, it is important to understand that there is no “one-size-fits-all” method of stress management. Each one of us is different and hence, you need to discover what works best for you. Nonetheless, it is always advisable to learn about the various options so that you can choose the best one for you.

Many successful people in the world have one thing in common. They do not look at stress as something to be “wary” of. They like to look at it in a positive manner, as a reaction of their body to the hard work they put it to. So when they feel stress, they take it as a sign that their body needs rest.

This simple change in mindset can have very positive effects on you. Once you start seeing stress in a positive light, taking it as a mere sign, you will notice that your stress level goes to a very low point. Acknowledge the fact that stress is really good. No one, not even a top athelete, can be without it.

Negativity is bad for your health. If you find yourself surrounded by negative people all the time, chances are that their negativity has a very bad affect on you as well. This, in turn, can lead to stress very easily. Get rid of these people. Try to make friends people who are very positive, optimistic and overall, having a happy-go-lucky attitude towards life.

If it isn’t possible to cut yourself off from negative people around you (say, someone in your family), try and find a way to block their negativity from getting to you.

Out of the many ways to relieve stress, a physical stress management technique that works wonders is heavy breathing. If you can develop a habit to practice heavy breathing daily, you will feel very relaxed and stress free. Begin by inhaling for a count of 7-8 and then breathe out for a count of 10-11. This lowers your heart rate and makes you feel more normal as you do it repeatedly.

Get rid of negative thoughts. The biggest symptoms of stress is lingering negativity. It is a sure sign that you are either already stressed out or are going to be so soon. It’s easy to detect these thoughts too. Have you ever found yourself thinking on these lines “What if this happens?…what would I do if things went this way…?….what if what if what if…?”

Get rid of the what-ifs. You are doing yourself a huge disservice by worrying without reason. Even if you have all the reasons to think otherwise, worrying doesn’t really help solve a problem. Make a commitment to yourself that you won’t worry and will stay positive.

Those were some of the ways to relieve stress easily. Keep in mind that no matter how stressed out you feel, there is always a way out. If you find your stress too overwhelming to handle yourself, it would be good to meet your doctor or physician.

Stress is a part of our life. Every person is stressed in one way or the other and to various degrees. The problem of stress seems to have spread like an epidemic in the world today and everyone is under its attack.

Given the current economic recession, stress has only increased the world over.

What’s the way out? The best way to help reduce stress and relax is to weed out negative thinking and stay happy and positive all the time. Here are five quick stress relievers that you can use to fight stress:

1. Exercise

This is one of the best ways to help you relax. If you’re stressed or tensed, exercising is a great way to let off the steam. You don’t need to go to the gym either, you can even do with playing games such as table tennis, badminton or squash etc. Playing games early in the morning also does wonders for your motivation and keeps your charged up all day.

2. Healthy Diet

A high intake of Vitamin C in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grain cereals keeps you healthy and fit while reducing your stress to the minimum. You may want to eat chocolate cakes, ice cream or addictive stimulants like caffeine but you must AVOID them because they will only add to your stress.

3. Laugh Out Loud

Laughter is probably the best medicine in the world. It relieves stress, increases blood flow and helps release chemicals that can kill stress in minutes. You can buy or rent some funny movies or go out for a comedy show. In any case, make laughter a part of your daily laugh. It makes your world bright and stress free.

4. Deep Breathing

There are a lot of ways to practice deep breating. One of the more popular methods is alternative nostril breating. To do this, close the right nostril with your thumb and breathe in through the left one. Now close the left nostril with the middle finger, and breathe out through the right nostril. Immediately breathe in again through that same (right) nostril, and exhale through the left. You can do this anywhere and everywhere. It is a very quick way to relieve stress.

5. Smell the Roses

Keep a positive and happy attitude all the time. Go out there and enjoy life, visit the places you’ve always wanted to. The key is to break away from your daily routine and try new things that keep your attention diverted.

Have you ever felt the urge to completely break free from the daily routine of life? Have you ever wished you could block out all the noise around you and feel calm and peaceful?

I SO feel you!

When I was severely stressed, I used to think of ways that I could simply separate myself from everything going around me and think of nothing at all. It felt as if I was tied in some chains that weren’t allowing me to break free at all.

I wanted relief. I wanted to break those chains. I wanted to rest and feel normal for a bit. And so I set upon the mission of finding a way that could
help me achieve what I wanted so passionately. I took time to study a lot of methods and techniques to relieve stress and in fact, tried each and everyone of them out and see if they worked.

Most of them DID work, although partly. I was still unsatisfied. And then I came across this wonderful technique that gave me exactly what I wanted. The technique helped me completely forget that I was even stressed at all and made me realize how powerful I actually am.

This wonderful technique is called – Meditation. And no, I don’t mean meditation in a religious or spiritual sense. Certainly not. I mean meditation as a way to relax your mind and body, to help block out the surrounding noise, make your mind free of any thoughts and feel the quite and calm inside your mind.

Meditation is one technique I could go on and on talking about but the most important thing about it is that it is EASY, can be done ANYWHERE and can be done by ANYONE.

Surprised? I know, because I was too. When I first started meditating, I was blown away by its simplicity. The fact that it was so easy a process to
perform – DAILY – and the way it helped relieve me of my stress was no less than AMAZING.

If you’re looking for a method to fight stress effectively, meditation is the way to go because it can literally KILL any stress you may have.

And meditation is simple to learn as well. Join a local Yoga club or run a search on Google. You’ll come across many techniques of meditation that will literally kill your stress in no time at all.

Have you ever caught a bad flu? A fever?
Cough and cold?

I bet you have. Everyone does at one time  or the other.

Do you remember what you did once you caught the disease? You had to keep in mind that you keep yourself clean all the time. You had to be aware that you don’t go too close to people, lest you pass the disease on. You also had to take several precautions regarding you eat or drink and overall be more conscious and careful about yourself.

Did you know? Stress is VERY similar to a contagious disease. It spreads just like cold and fever do. When you meet people who are negative, that negativity passes on to you. And that negativity breeds STRESS.

Have you ever been around a sad person or a person who likes to be negative all the time? If yes, you must know that “gloomy-guilty” feeling that
such people have around them, right? That is the disease of stress and negativity spreading themselves.

If you feel these negative vibrations that make you feel sad, you must become careful immediately and take control of your mind and body – FAST!

Why? Because stress may just be round the corner. If you are around negative people, try to get away. If possible, try to completely BLOCK them out, at least for the time being. Stop listening to sad music or reading about mis-happenings in the world because it will only add to your stress.

The BIGGEST truth I realized about stress is that it spreads from one person to another in the form of negativity and the faster you start taking precautions, the better it is.

Once you realize you are stressed, you just  need to fight back and relax yourself IMMEDIATELY.

Here’s a simple motto to go by:
Keep away from the negative, take in all that’s positive.