Self Care Tips from The Sages’ Sanctuary — Day 6
Stress Kills Happiness — Easy Ways To Destress
It’s hard to be happy when you’re stressed. I don’t have to tell you that. I’m sure you’ve experienced it yourself. Think back on high stress situations like missing a flight to go on vacation, or when you were planning your wedding and things got overwhelming and started to fall apart. Hopefully you were able to recover and enjoy your time doing whatever you were doing, but chances are that you weren’t too happy while you were stressed out. Stress sucks the happiness and joy right out of us.
The thing is that one way to increase our happiness and our quality of life is to de-stress. Not only is it good for the soul, it’s also good for our overall health and wellbeing to reduce the stress in our lives. Here are some simple things you can do to de-stress.
Get Enough Sleep
An easy way to stress less is to make sure you get a good seven to eight hours of sleep at night. When we don’t sleep well, and don’t sleep enough, our bodies are in a constant state of stress, trying to make up for the lack of sleep. Sleep helps us relax and gives our mind time to process everything that’s been happening. Stop burning the midnight oil and get some sleep. You’ll get more done when you’re fresh and rested and you’ll be less stressed out.
Insomnia is really common now in Covid times as everyone lives with a heightened sense of anxiety and threat. Be gentle with yourself and understand that part of you is scared at the moment and create a supportive routine before bedtime to help you relax. Even if you don’t sleep wonderfully you will at least have had some rest for your body.
Move Around And Get Some Exercise
Without doubt, the best stress reliever is exercise. Start moving around and burn that stress right out of your system. If you can get outside to workout, even better. The fresh air and sunshine will do wonders. Go for a run, or even just a short walk whenever you’re feeling stressed. For best results, some kind of exercise regularly is best. Walking and yoga are particularly good and don’t cost money to do. With yoga routines you can easily learn a sequence such as the Sun Salutation and set an intention of doing 10 salutation (or less or more) as one routine.
Take Some “Me” Time
There are times in our lives when we have to spend a lot of focus and attention on others. Maybe you are raising a toddler, or maybe you’re working hard to get a new company off the ground. At busy times like these that take a lot of our attention and time, it’s easy to forget about ourselves, or put our own personal needs last. Make an effort to spend at least a little bit of “me” time each day. It doesn’t have to be much. Even ten minutes spent relaxing and doing something completely for you can be a great way to decompress and de-stress.
My favourite is Journalling and my second favourite is watching the birds come to the birdfeeder each evening after I’ve filled it. What is yours?
Practice Meditation
Let’s wrap this up with one last technique that can keep stress at bay. Try meditating. Again, you don’t have to spend a lot of time on this. Sitting quietly going through a guided meditation once a day can do wonders. Once you get in the habit of practicing meditation daily, and get better at just listening with quiet attention and not worrying about your chattering mind it, you can draw on the techniques you’ve learned whenever you encounter a particularly stressful situation. You can spend a minute or two in meditation, even at the most stressful time and allow your mind to relax as you focus for a minute on the rhythm of your breath. Trust me, this will come in very handy when life throws you a curveball, or when you’re feeling completely overwhelmed.
It took me a long time to understand that the goal of meditation isn’t to stop the chattering mind — that is literally impossible. The goal is just to quieten down your systems a bit, regularly. Don’t stress about there being a right way to do it. Just sit quietly and make it easier for yourself by listening to a soothing guided visualisation or meditation.
Watch out for the Sages’ Wisdom tips every Friday as we make Fridays the start of our Self care weekends. By the way you can reach out to us anytime. :)
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This is a series for people who support other people such as coaches and therapists, pastors and carers.
People who are passionate about their work and their clients but struggling to find a way to feel as positive as they want to in our Covid world.
People who have realised that they need support too.
This is a time when most of us are scared. Nothing is known or predictable and we need to call on reserves of creativity, energy and hope to get by and get on no matter what.
We can do that — but we need to do it together. This is not a time to be a Lone Ranger, coping and getting by on your own. It is a time to reach out and ask for help, get help and give help — the foundations for flourishing and thriving.
Need More Happiness, Freedom and Flourishing? Join Our Free Webinars and the Community who Understands and Cares…
If you want quick and straightforward steps to build your levels of happiness and energy join us for these free webinars. They give you a step by step roadmaps to move forward, take care of yourselves and others and find the nourishment that exists in life — no matter what is happening.
They, on their own will have an immediate effect on your mood and your outlook on life and work. Get off the hamster wheel and take some time for yourself with the webinars, learn, act and refresh, learn, act and refresh — that’s the way to start flourishing and thriving.
Join the list and be the first to know when we are live or a new webinar goes up.
“Just imagine if the next 5 years is like the last 5 years? How are you going to flourish and thrive every day?”
The Sages Sanctuary specialises in helping you do this. We are dedicated to giving people who help people support, care and nourishment as the foundations for flourishing and thriving in life.
“Yes please, I’d love to find out more …..”
