Are you living a stressful life? Do you know what a stressful life looks like? Many times we go through daily life dealing with so many problems and situations that causes stress, we accept being stressed or we brush off stress until we have time to deal with it.
Although stress is a normal part of life, it’s not normal to experience it on a daily basis nor is it normal to suffer from it on a regular basis. Stress in high amounts on a consistent basis develops into chronic stress, which causes health issues and mental issues over the course of your life. Living a stressful life is not good and accepting a stressful life is not good or acceptable.
Signs of a stressful life
- Feeling like your life is out of control
- Eating on the run because you don’t have time to eat properly
- Skipping meals on a consistent basis because you don’t have time to eat
- Excessive eating to calm your nerves
- Being too exhausted to spend time with family and friends
- Feeling too tired to do things that are important to you and your family
- Having trouble sleeping or staying asleep
- Having trouble saying “no” even though you want to
- Excessive smoking and drinking to calm your nervous or to escape the problems
- Constantly getting sick because stress has weakened your immune system
- Constantly worrying or being fearful of the consequences of denying others access to your time and energy.
How to live with less stress
- Eat healthy foods including fruits and vegetables
- Make time to eat a proper meal at the table and eat slowly and enjoy the meal
- Talk about your feelings negative and positive. Don’t hold in negative feelings and emotions
- Surround yourself with people who support you in trying to live a stress free and healthy life
- Stay away from negative people and people who are magnets for problems and drama
- Get plenty of sleep (6-9 hours if possible)
- Find healthy ways to deal with your stress such as: yoga, walking, meditating, take up a new hobby
- Calm your mind when you feel a stressful situation coming on by using stress relieving techniques and relaxation techniques
- Manage your time and obligations effectively
- Learn to say “No” ( I struggled with this in my youth)
- Do not focus on things that are out of your control (you cannot control other people or their thoughts or their actions)
- Stop focusing on the past (I struggled with this)
- Stop over committing yourself to things you do not really want to do
- Do not take on more than you can physically and mentally handle
- Stop taking on other people’s problems (you cannot help others if you cannot help yourself)
- Take time for yourself (self-care is vital to a long and healthy life)
- Quit that job (if the job is causing you your health, if it’s causing you time with your family, is the pay and benefits really worth it?)
We are responsible for our own health and wellbeing. If we don’t take care of ourselves, who will? If we don’t treat our life and our time with respect and meaning, who will? We have an obligation to ourselves first then to others. We only have one life, let’s live it with as less stress as possible.