Lower Stress and Live Happier
Studies show that 50% of happiness is innate (the way we were born- cup half full/cup half empty person), 10% depends on our circumstances, and 40% depends on our attitude and activities.
THIS IS GREAT NEWS!
That means that our attitude and our activities (the things we can control) are four times more powerful in determining our overall happiness than our circumstances.
So what CAN we do to increase our happiness? What can we control?
Today we are going to discuss increasing our overall happiness and joy by decreasing one of the largest happiness destroyers…..
STRESS
We may not be able to control the stressful events that happen in our lives, but we can learn the tools to better cope with our situation.
When we are under stress our sympathetic nervous system is activated. The sympathetic nervous system is designed to help us in a life or death situation. This nervous system activates our body’s rapid automatic response to danger. A flood of hormones make our body more alert, increase our heart rate, and send extra blood to our muscles so that we are ready to fight or run.
This response can be helpful in the case of an emergency, but it was not designed to be chronically activated. Chronic activation of this system steals our peace, our happiness, and our health as it tears down our body.
In stressful times, we need to remember that 40%. (The part we can control)
The purpose of this article is to give you practical tools to reduce the stress that may be stealing your happiness. These tips can help calm down your sympathetic nervous system and activate your parasympathetic system which is your rest and restore system.
For a limited time, I am giving away FREE digital copies of my book , The Snowball Effect: How to Build Positive Momentum in Your Life. GET IT HERE NOW!
Tips to Lower Stress and Live Happier
- Protect your mindset internally.Pay attention to your self-talk. Do you give yourself messages of doom and gloom. This is so horrible. I am miserable. This is unfair. Nothing ever goes right. I will always feel like this. It will never get better. Notice if you have negative thoughts like these and change them into more positive hopeful thoughts. I will get through this. This, too, shall pass. I will
use this as a way to grow and refine myself. What can I learn through this? How can this help me live with greater gratitude? I can use this to grow spiritually, physically, and mentally. I will not allow this to destroy my peace. I will give this to my higher power. Encourage yourself in much the same way that you would calm, encourage, and comfort a small child. You may not believe it at first, but if you say it to yourself enough, you will begin to believe it. When you begin to believe it, your nervous system will stop sending out stress hormones and you will feel greater peace. - Protect your mindset externally.
- To lower stress and live happier, limit the news. The news gets ratings by inciting emotion. Many times that emotion is fear which activates the sympathetic nervous system.
- Be mindful of what you are putting into your brain. Your brain holds on to that stuff. Stay away from negative people and social media. Avoid suspenseful books and movies- as they activate stress hormones. Listen to inspiring music. Watch uplifting and funny movies. Follow positive blogs. Listen to educational and uplifting podcasts. What you put into your brain will have a profound impact on your health and happiness.
For a limited time, I am giving away FREE digital copies of my book , The Snowball Effect: How to Build Positive Momentum in Your Life. GET IT HERE NOW!
- Look for the Seed of Opportunity.
- In every hardship, there is a seed of opportunity if we are willing to look for it. We often do not see the good that can come out of our hardship until much later, but it is there. Look back at other difficult times in your life (even if they were not nearly as difficult as what you are going through now) and see the good that has come from it. How can you use this as an opportunity for good? Can you better help others because of what you have been through? This is not to say that you would not give anything to reverse what you have been through. (You do not have control over that) It is just saying that you can better heal if you turn your hardships into opportunities.
Allow Your Struggles to Refine You.
- You have a choice to let your circumstances defeat you or help you to grow. This is similar to looking for the seed of opportunity. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer that had spread to my lymph nodes, I focused on growth. I cleaned up my diet, exercised more regularly, distanced myself from negative people, read devotionals, and worked really hard on my spiritual growth. If you are going through a stressful time, what can you do to work on yourself physically, spiritually, and mentally and emotionally? Get out a sheet of paper and write down these four categories. What can you put in each section? Be specific. Here are some examples: Walk for one hour each day. Stay present and notice things in nature during this walk. Read daily affirmations or devotionals. Educate yourself on something of interest through books or video. As you put different actions into the four categories, you will see that many things belong in more than one category. For instance taking a walk while intentionally noticing nature can help physically, emotionally, spiritually, and even mentally.
- Practice Deep Breathing
- Use your breath to relax your sympathetic nervous system several times throughout the day. Take a slow really deep breath in through your nose on the count of four, hold for four seconds, and then take a long powerful exhale through the mouth on the count of four.
- Do a Body Scan
- Sit in a comfortable position and lightly close your eyes. Start with the top of your head. What do you feel? Do you feel tension? Go down to your shoulders, your arms, and then down to the tips of your fingers. What do you feel? Tightness? Tension? Then go down your mid-section and eventually you will reach your toes. Do this slowly. It should take five or ten minutes to complete. You can start a body scan at the top of your head or you can start with your toes and end with your head. This will help you check in with you body and notice where you hold tension. It can help you to relax certain areas.
I hope this list helps. These tools and techniques are evidenced based and have not only helped many of my counseling clients, but they have helped me.
Give them a try and let me know what you think or let me know some of the things that have worked for you! We can help each other! Kristin
Want to Dive Deeper as you lower stress and live happier? For a limited time, I am giving away FREE digital copies of my book , The Snowball Effect: How to Build Positive Momentum in Your Life. GET IT HERE NOW!
Leave a Reply