In today’s modern world, nearly everyone seems to be stressed out in their daily lives. Both spouses are working to make ends meet, often long days – particularly in today’s environment where employers have the upper hand. With the remaining hours of the day there are endless chores, duties, activities, and obligations that consume those precious remaining hours.
Stress is experienced often, by most people, and is mostly unavoidable in a busy life. Anxiety is a result of stress, and is usually a tenseness about an upcoming deadline or something coming up in the future.
You’ve probably heard it before, but stress can and WILL affect your health negatively. Your heart rate, blood pressure, muscles, and emotions are all subjected to stress and can lead to headache, upset stomach, insomnia, and may even lead to illness or aggravate an existing or underlying health problem.
Here are some home remedies to help reduce stress…
HOW TO CONTROL STRESS
Get enough sleep
Sleep deprivation is unfortunately all too common these days. Long days and stressful worries will result in a poor night’s sleep. One of the most effective remedies for stress is to get enough sleep. Even one extra hour will make a big difference. Just go to bed a little earlier. Some people find that reading can help ease into sleep. Avoid sugars, caffeine, alcohol, or heavy foods during the evening in order to have a better chance of a restful night’s sleep.
Do physical activity
Exercise will improve your mood, your blood flow, and help you to think more clearly. A simple walk each day will do wonders to help battle stress. During your walk, you will probably discover that you are resolving some of the issues in your mind as you exercise.
Break up big tasks
Break up responsibilities into smaller pieces. You will be surprised at the effectiveness of visualizing and doing just one task at a time, instead of constantly thinking of the overall big project. This can make a HUGE difference in your outlook (and success)!
Be practical
Don’t take on more than you should. Be realistic about your expectations. Learn to say no. Do things that you can reasonably achieve. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Delegate.
Limit caffeine
While caffeine in coffee, tea or soda may seem like a beneficial supplement to get you going, it will actually increase your stress levels. As with everything, moderation is the rule.
Make time for yourself
Get away from your normal surroundings once in a while. This is more helpful than you may think, even though you’ll convince yourself you don’t have time for it. It is far too easy to be stuck in a constant routine. A purposeful change of scenery will be refreshing. Do something fun for yourself.
Learn to calm down
There are many methods you can learn which will lead to relaxation. Closing your eyes for ten seconds while breathing deeply and slowly, while thinking of your favorite place in the world, can be just the thing you need. Getting a massage, doing Yoga, and learning meditation will all help to achieve a relaxed state.
Get yourself a mini-Dachshund
Our little ‘Sampson’ (pictured above) is the biggest stress reliever ever. For you dog owners out there, you know what I mean. They are always so happy to see you and to be around you… How can you not melt away some stress when you’re playing with them or they’re comfortable on your lap…
You only have one life to live, and as each day ticks by, it’s a day that you will never get back. Take a step back from an overly busy life of stress and anxiety, and enjoy it – smell the roses…
What are some of your remedies to reduce stress?
Managing stress under ordinary circumstances is an interesting statement. As a matter of fact, the reason that non-preppers are stressed is the manner in which postmodern people live. For preppers that is compounded by the juxtaposition of postmodern life in addition to an increased awareness of the wrongness of postmodern life. Be that as it may, managing stress will be even more important in a disaster or post-collapse. What things you have now, mostly shiny toys, that distract your attention to postmodern life, will not assuage your anxiety under disaster conditions. Heated milk seems to offer some measure of comfort. While scientists dispute that the amount of tryptophan in it is sufficient for relaxation, experience and history proves otherwise. In addition, while cocoa contains levels of stimulants within it, my experience and history is that soothing conversation while consuming hot chocolate brings on relaxation and sleepiness as well. Hard work will generally lead to more relaxation, and for men especially, we are genetically coded (it seems) to do hard work, and so much of postmodern stress is the result of a lack of physical labor. For that reason, when camping I think you’ll notice that sitting around firelight and consuming… Read more »
okay, here is one more…and am not being “nasty”, it is a fact of life.
if you are in a position of “close contact”, with someone who is basically a “stress drama queen” (can be either gender)
you need to “look mildly interested” (or sometimes not), nod, mmm and question “so, what do you want/plan to do about that?”
quit getting sucked in to experiencing THEIR drama / stress
some folks are genuine champions at this, and somehow, it seems to “relieve” them, if they can stir another up to the “same”..
don’t.
Not being nasty either.
Why not trade a problem child for a future round draft pick?
What Me Worry — some situations aren’t tradeable..
however, not to be dense,
but what does
“trade a problem child for a future round draft pick” mean?
All situations are tradeable. Unless you are a slave. Then *you* are the trade item.
I meant that she(?) could be replaced. You could trade in an older partner, if that, for two twenty year olds.
I went through one of these things many years ago. Had to piss off the little woman enough to get her to break it off.
Our dreams no longer coincided.
I have known plenty who love to draw you in to their drama. I agree one thousand percent, don’t get caught up in that BS.
It is better for your health to stay away from people who bring you down in that way. They feed off of others. Don’t let it be you!
Having worked with human dynamics within community while still having a modicum of OPSEC, let me explain why we all will have to adjust how we handle human relationships now, during survival situations, or even during sustained collapse conditions. It is absolutely true that some people need to “suck it up”. The hardships that we face today in some ways are minimal compared to the pioneers or those who lived in tribal society. However, displace one of our ancestors into today’s postmodern world, and they’d be shocked and severely stressed too. They would not cope well by today’s lack of morality or disbelief in God, or tolerance to things so foreign to them as to be anathema. Postmodern humanity lives in a perpetual state of stress. The prevailing medical answer is to medicate it, since generic Fluoxetine Hcl (Prozac) is cheaper and faster than actually dealing with the problem. When humans suffer sustained and perceived stress, then they have cortisol coursing through their system. Their body/mind/soul, the amalgam of what makes us human, reacts to stress as DANGER. We enter into a sympathetic psychological reactions to ward off that danger. As the “danger” continues, the body/mind/soul reactions are not effective… Read more »
My comment is short and simple advice. I don’t need to write a book. Just take the time to smell the roses. Life is not easy. Learn to appreciate the cards you are dealt. Find the good. Slow down. You are in control of you.
Thank-you Simple. A few years ago when I was teaching in a highly stressful situation, plus I was working on my masters degree, plus my beloved father was slowing coming to the end of his life & I was a couple provinces away, I developed high blood pressure. I didn’t want to go on BP pills but the Dr. said to go on the pills for 1 month & if I could bring the BP down by then she would take me off them. She gave me a few ideas & I chose some of my own. One month later she could not believe how I had changed the BP & wanted to know how I did it so she could help her other clients. This is what I did: As soon as I got home from school I went for a walk trying to go faster or farther each day. Then I came home & lay on the couch listening to either classical music or sounds of nature recordings. I fixed my diet by cooking from scratch, told my prof that I needed to finish my project book quickly even if the mark was lower than I wanted. These… Read more »
Marijuana? Don’t remember ever being stressed after a bong hit or two. Legal for social use in small quantities here. Bad OPSEC perhaps. Don’t go shopping after using. A gallon of Mustard and several pounds of Jerky takes a while to consume. Been there, done that.