Live Smarter

Fortify Yourself Against Stress

Stress relief

We are in one of the most stressful season of our lives right now. You thought COVID was bad? Heck, COVID gave us the chance to get reacquainted with being home. Yes, it contributed to a new laziness and social breakdown, but it was a cakewalk compared to what we’re dealing with now –

  • Wars
  • Hurricanes, mudslides, earthquakes, wildfires,
  • Financial pressure
  • Uncertainty
  • Nasty election spewing
  • The possibility of a bully dictator and/or civil war
  • Moral dilemma
  • Shootings and crime
  • Fear of speaking your mind
  • Winter coming
  • Holidays coming

It is crazy! Total mental chaos day in and day out.

While we can’t change the world, we can do things that buffer our response to the world –

  1. Create Your Own Peace

A clean house is calming. It just is. When things are in order, we feel calmer and more in control. Don’t do it for appearance, do it for your sanity. Its the ultimate in self care.

I love looking out my patio doors, when they’re clean. Its beautiful and calming. But when they’re dirty – it causes me stress.

However, the prospect of actually cleaning house is stressful. That’s why I created the Clean Freak Cleaning System. In the Clean Freak Handbook I give you everything you need to know to keep your home clean in minutes a day. Its really easy once you get in the groove.

One more thing – you don’t need to go tik-tok overboard. I personally don’t feel the need for my pantry and linen closet to be showcases. Just functional. I think a lot of the social media stuff causes unnecessary stress.

2. Eat well.

Your body, and your mind require a multitude of nutrients to function their best.

I’m not saying you have to eat salmon and tofu, but you need to eat healthier to have the energy and the ability to think straight.

Think about how you feel after eating a good home cooked meal compared to how lethargic you feel after fast food.

Yeah, yeah, I know. My daughter wasn’t buying it either – until one night we had both worked overtime and we were beat. We had a corgi that required a couple mile walk every day. So we ate a salad, and chicken, and I don’t remember what else. After dinner we cleaned up, and we had plenty of energy to walk the dog. My daughter was amazed. She’s eaten pretty healthy ever since.

There are hundreds for fast, easy, great tasting recipes here for you. I’m sure you’ll find a few you like. Try the experiment for yourself.

3. Reset your priorities

Are you over scheduling? These days that doesn’t seem to be the case. What really eats at our free time is that stupid phone. You can waste hours before you know it.

If its over scheduling, or over scrolling, you’ve got to reprioritize your time for your sanity.

Make time for fun. Not netflix or insta. Put the phone down and talk to people – face to face. We need human contact to thrive. We need activity that is not work. Its all part of a balanced and healthy life.

Please stop using your phone as a social outlet

Make it a point to be pleasant, even when you don’t feel like it. People don’t want to be around people who are rude, always down, always complaining, etc. Do you?

We all need to be better at getting along. The world is being torn apart. Its devastating.

4. Don’t isolate

This was in a newsletter this morning –

“Many people react to discouragement by pulling back from others and wanting to be alone. They begin to isolate themselves which is exactly the opposite of what they should do! Far too many people fail to realize that their God-friends are often led by the Holy Spirit to be a source of encouragement and reminder of God’s love.

But because they fail to recognize this, they isolate and think wrong hopeless thoughts.

Even though it’s they who are isolating, they also feel abandoned by others not reading their mind and somehow knowing to come and encourage them out of it. These kinds of imaginations do happen and they lead you to offense—being upset and mad at people and God and feeling abandoned.

God and friends are not the problem. They are the solution!”

We do that, don’t we? I know I have.

5. Avoid negativity as much as you can. Avoid negative people.

Watch one hour of news a day. I think its important that we know what’s going on, but we don’t need to tune in for hours a day.

6. Breathe

Did you know that most of us don’t breathe correctly? We all breathe too shallow. Practice 4-8 breathing. Breathe in through your nose for a count of four, and exhale through your mouth for a count of eight. We actually don’t exhale enough which means that we are not expelling carbon dioxide.

Deep breathing also helps reduce your stress response.

7. Exercise

Exercise also helps limit your stress response. It also makes you stronger. It improves your heart and lungs. It helps your brain process better.

It could be walking, dancing, tennis, … it doesn’t have to be soul sucking workouts. Just get your body moving 30 minute a day. You will feel so much better!

8. Sleep Routine

On of the reasons we have trouble sleeping is our minds are mulling over our problems, the world problems, the guilt for all the things we didn’t do today, what’s going to happen tomorrow…

The way to settle this down is with a good sleep routine –

  • turn the screens off an hour before bed,
  • take a warm shower,
  • journal, read bible, pray, turn your worries over to God

I hate to admit this, but by the time I’m halfway through praying for my friends, and family, and neighbors, and all the world problems…I’m falling asleep. I barely get in my own requests.

Practice makes perfect –

These things don’t really come naturally. We have to set our minds to improving our life. Print out this little checklist and keep it with you. Put a copy on your nightstand, and in your medicine cabinet, and other places you look regularly.

_____ Clean House

_____ Eat Well

_____ Reset Priorities

_____ Don’t Isolate

_____ Avoid Negativity

_____ Breathe

_____ Sleep Routine

_____ Practice MIndfulness

Resources –

Clean Freak Handbook

Beat Depression Handbook

Fast and easy recipes

Mindset

Nutrition for Depression

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