A Dozen Natural Ways to Relieve Chronic Stress and Anxiety

Is your life full of stress and anxiety? In our world they can be tough to avoid. Soon you can be experiencing from chronic stress and anxiety which are major detriments to a healthy life.

Why are you experiencing all this stress and anxiety? It’s because if you are like most people your life just keeps getting more full of things to do and more hectic. As things keep getting piled on your plate you have difficulty keeping up with all of them and your life begins to wobble out of balance. As your responsibilities increase your time shrinks. The real question should be how is it possible not to get stressed out?

Well the quick answer is that it’s not possible to avoid getting a least a little stressed out. The good news is that it’s okay to be a little stressed and anxious about things, it’s only human. It’s when you let the stress become chronic that it can become dangerous to your health.

One of the simplest things you can do when you feel anxiety building is asking yourself, “Why am I worrying?”

Here’s what you need to know, stress and anxiety are almost something that you are doing to yourself. They are fueled by your lack of faith in you, a low level of self esteem and allowing outside pressures to build inside of you. If you are feeling stressed out, try some of the following these 12 natural stress relief tips to help lift that weight from your shoulders:

1. Use deep breathing relaxation – What’s the opposite of stresses? It’s relaxed. So if you are feeling stressed, take a moment to sit back, relax, and take some nice long deep breaths. This is knows as deep breathing relaxation. By bringing those breaths way down to the pit of your stomach you’ll begin to put body into a relaxed state and the stress will disappear.

2. Get up off the couch and exercise! -Just getting up and doing some exercise will go a long way toward relieving stress. Sitting around and thinking about what is causing you to be stressed out won’t do you any good at all. Get up, get off the couch and go some exercise. This will help you improve your physiology and start you feeling happier and healthier again.

3. Reduce the caffeine and energy drinks. While there’s nothing wrong with cup or two of coffee in the morning drinking them all day to keep you awake just isn’t good for you. If you have to reach for coffee or other energy drinks to give you that little burst of energy to get you though the day there’s something wrong and this can actually stress you out even more. These are only band aids that will actually hurt you in the long run. That leads us to tip number 4…

4. Go to bed in time to get a good night’s sleep – Don’t stay up half the night trying to get stuff done. Of all the things you can do to reduce your stress, this one might do you the most good. Sometimes when you are stressed or anxious, getting a good night’s sleep can seem to be next to impossible. Remember, there’s nothing you can do about it if you are exhausted so let it go. You just might find in the morning that things just might have found the solution and things don’t look as bad.

5. Do what you can and let the rest go – I realize that this is easier said than done, but whatever it is that is troubling you, I can almost guarantee you that it is probably less important than your health. Learn to do your best and then let things go. Also, try to put a positive spin on everything that happens to you. A lot of times things that seemed negative at the time actually resolve themselves positively.

6. Tell your problems to a trusted confidant – Nobody is an island. You need to get those problems off your chest. If you have what seem to be major problems, keeping your problems inside will only make things worse. Just having someone listen to your problems can make a world of difference. Also, getting an objective opinion from someone you trust on an issue that is plaguing you could be the best decision you ever made.

7. Write your problems down – If you don’t want to talk about your problems to someone, try writing them down to get them off your chest. Write down exactly what it is and how it is affecting you. Also write down what you’d like to happen. Another way to go about this is to write down what’s bothering you right before you go to bed on a slip of paper. Then ask God to handle it for you over night and see what happens in the morning.

8. Meditation – One of the best natural ways to relieve stress is meditation. Now you don’t have to practice like the Buddhist Monk you saw on TV. Just find a place where you can close your eyes and let the world go away for a while. Other meditation practices include Tai Chi, Qigong and Yoga. These types of activities can help relieve stress and anxiety and improve your heart health.

9. Take active steps to build your self esteem – Not feeling good about yourself will make you feel anxious and stressed. If you don’t feel good about yourself or your abilities take active steps to build your self esteem like reading books about positive thinking, such as Norman Vincent Peale’s “The Power of Positive Thinking” or “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz. Listen to audio recordings by Tony Robbins or Jack Canfield or anyone else that inspires you. Attend live events. Through this process you can learn to believe in yourself.

10. Listen to soothing music – When I’m stressed I like to listen to jazz. Maybe you like classical music. Nothing soothes the soul like slow rhythmic music. Put on a comforting CD or listen to an MP3, lean back in your favorite chair and relax.

11. Get and stay organized – Do you want to get stressed fast? Then don’t plan your day. The opposite is also true. Planning your day is one of the best ways to relieve stress. Good organization is a wonderful method of reducing and relieving stress. It’ll put things in order which will help to prevent you from being stressed out when the tasks begin piling up.

12. Take some time off to do absolutely nothing – This one can be a real life saver and is one of the easiest natural stress relief tips there is. Just spend some alone time, meditate on life, think about all the good things life has given you, and put things back into perspective. Thank God for your life and your blessings.

Here’s one last thing. Stop pressuring yourself to be perfect at everything. Start redefining failure as feedback and accept this feedback happily as it comes along. Not only will you start learning from your mistakes it will go a long way toward removing unnecessary stress from your busy life.