Ways to Reduce Stress and Live Longer

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Stress affects every area of your life and those under a lot of stress often find troubles with things like their health, job, education and personal relationships. It is important to get your stress under control or else you can experience problems in all aspects of your life. While the traditional relaxation techniques can be and are beneficial for reducing stress, there are also a number of other things you want to do to help yourself. These are relatively simple and go a long way in helping you to live a better life.

Make Sure to Get Enough Sleep

This is probably the most important step in getting your stress levels under control. Sleep plays such a crucial role in determining your ability to cope with things and when you cope with things well, it is a lot easier to be a happier person with less stress. Ideally, you want to get approximately eight hours of sleep per night and you want to make sure that you are getting good sleep on a regular basis. This will give you the energy that you need to better deal with things as they occur, resulting in less stress.

Enhance Your Spirituality

Being a more spiritual person allows you to become more in tune with who you are so that you are less likely to be caught off guard. You will be a more grounded person and more in touch with your feelings and coping skills. This makes it easier to deal with negative events as they occur without becoming overwhelmed.

Maintain Relationships with Those You Love

It is important to be surrounded by people who love you and support you. Make sure that you are taking time on a regular basis to surround yourself with these people and work to nurture all of the relationships that are important to you. Have lunch with some friends, have dinner with your family and call someone who lives far away. A few hours a week is often adequate to help you stay connected with those who are important to you so that you can nurture those relationships and find comfort in knowing that people care.

Get Exercise on a Regular Basis

Exercise plays a crucial role in your physical and mental health. During times of acute stress, even just 10 to 15 minutes of exercise can help you to work off the nervous energy that is occurring. Make sure that your exercise most days of the week so that you can keep your stress levels under control. You want to do a mixture of exercises so that you improve your cardiovascular fitness, strength and flexibility. When you use exercise, you are getting a rush of feel good brain chemicals to reduce stress and increase happiness.

Put the Electronics Away

When you are relaxing, find ways to do it where you do not need to use any electronic devices. Avoid things like watching too much television or using video games or similar things. Read a paperback book, go for a walk in the park or do something else that requires that you unplug for a while. If you can do this just a couple hours a week, you will find that you have less stress and that you are naturally happier. Just make sure that you schedule this time in and try to do it at least twice a week to get the full benefits.

Make Sure to Eat a Healthy Diet

What you eat has a lot to do with your ability to cope with things. When you eat a healthy diet, you have the nutrients and energy that you need to cope with negative things as they occur. You also want to avoid eating until you are full since this can make you feel tired and sluggish. Focus on healthy foods with the occasional treat of the right portion sizes.

Start working on incorporating all of these into your weekly routine so that you naturally start reducing your stress levels without putting a lot of effort into it. As you continue to do these things, you will find that you are naturally in a better mood and that when negative things happen, you are less likely to get really down. Just remember that reducing your stress takes lifelong effort and that once you get it under control, you need to work to keep it on a low level so that you can avoid the negative stress-related problems.

References:

http://www.selfhelpdaily.com/things-that-help-you-live-longer/