self awareness

Best Ways to Reduce Stress

Wouldn’t it be nice to find tips to reduce stress? Recently, I came across something that seems to fit that bill quite nicely. It is simple and effective. And for this parent of a teenager I need both in my life. Not to mention any help I can get on how to control anxiety.

One of the best ways I know on how to prevent stress is to get centered. What does that mean? It means different things for different people. Everyone has different ways to get centered, and as soon as you can figure out what your way or ways are, you can start implementing this stress reducing technique.

Why do I have anxiety?

I believe that anxiety or stress comes from lives or parts of our lives that are out-of-control. It could be anything, money, children, lack of time freedom, and sickness are a few of the main areas that can become out of whack. Our world is complicated and we are required to run at breakneck speed to keep up. And as far as I can see it there is no way to get past that. Even living alone on a desert island, knowing what we know now, would be stressful.

So how to we reduce our stress?

In my opinion, you can’t reduce the stress. But you can learn to handle it. One way to do this is to get centered.

What does it mean to get centered?

It basically means to find a way to give yourself a sense of control over something in your life. It doesn’t have to be huge, trust me! It might not even be anything that is not in control, but just something you can have control over for that moment. It will do amazing things to your relieve your stress.

Centering Ideas

Figure out something that’s relaxing or soothing for you, and that gives you a sense of accomplishment when you get done. I have a couple of things I do to get centered - the main one is to mow the lawn. Now I know, most guys my age can hardly wait for their kids to get old enough to hand that job over to them, but as far as I’m concerned, they’ll never learn how to do it! Believe me, they’re not too bummed - they don’t get centered the same way I do. Anyway, I just love the feeling and the satisfaction of seeing that freshly mowed and edged lawn, with hardly a blade of grass out of place. It gets me centered.

I also feel immensely centered when I make the bed. That’s right - nice tight corners and smooth sheets and blankets tucked in snugly. It brings me right into center. My wife loves this one especially.

My wife’s method of how to prevent stress? To clean the sliding glass door. When she’s feeling out-of-control, she almost runs for the Windex and paper towels, and gets that baby so clean you could eat off of it. It’s her way of getting centered.

Separate those paper clips!

I know of a corporate bigwig who got centered by going through his paper clips and sorting the small ones from the large ones. When his secretary offered to do this mundane job for him, he politely declined. He knew this little secret kept him centered and at the top of his game!

That’s it! Told you it was simple. So the next time you can’t get a handle on things, figure out what you can do to get centered. And before you know it, you have your own ways of reducing stress.

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