Here are some examples of ways to manage or reduce emotional stress:
1. Get up fifteen minutes earlier in the morning. The inevitable morning
mishaps will be less stressful.
2. Don’t rely on your memory. Write down your appointments.
3. Procrastination is stressful. Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do
today.
4. Plan ahead. Keep an “emergency shelf,” stamps, paper, etc.
5. Don’t put up with things that don’t work; get them fixed or throw them
away!
6. Be prepared to wait; take a book or make to-do lists.
7. Count your blessings!
8. Turn “needs” into preferences. Our basic needs are food, water and
keeping warm. Everything else is a preference. Don’t get attached to
preferences.
9. Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
10. Forget about counting to 10. Count to 1000.
11. Surround yourself with positive people.
12. Don’t put it down – put it away!
13. Become more flexible; laugh at yourself.
14. Accentuate the positive; use positive language.
15. Take care of the todays the best you can, and the yesterdays and
tomorrows will take care of themselves.
16. Do one thing at a time.
17. Learn to delegate tasks.
18. Forgive. Forgive. Forgive.
19. Learn to say NO when you don’t really want to do something or it isn’t
beneficial to you or to someone else.
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20. Learn to spend your time and energy doing important thi ngs, handling
major problems rather than small unimportant things. PICK YOUR
BATTLES!
21. Spend ten minutes every day doing something you really want to do, such
as having some fun, meditating, pampering yourself.
22. Slow down by walking more slowly, talking more slowly, and/or breathing
more slowly and deeply.
23. Turn off the radio or TV and work where it’s quiet.
24. Plant something, and watch it grow.
25. When you have tough problems, think about the pros and cons before you
go to sleep, then sleep and wake up and decide.
26. When you’ve been sitting for a long time, stand up and stretch slowly.
27. Don’t spend whole evenings watching TV. Experience your own life – not
watch others.
28. When something worries you, talk it out. Don’t bottle it up inside.
29. When things go wrong, escape from the problem for a little while. Play a
game with a child, take a walk, talk to a friend (but not about the problem).
30. If you feel anger or frustration, cool off by doing something physical.
31. Close your eyes and give yourself a neck massage. Find the parts that are
the most tense and concentrate on them while you rub.
32. Close your eyes and listen to soft music on the radio or the stereo. Don’t
think about anything but the music. Let yourself sink into the chair.
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