3 Tips for When You're Too Stressed to Function
This article originally appeared on Yoganonymous.com.
Image via Vogue China
How do you get that tension weighing down on your forehead to ease up?
When you try all the breathing techniques, herbs, and aromatherapy practices in the world, and they still don't help your body's stress levels, it means it's time for a change. Acute stress can be cured with external solutions, but chronic stress is a whole different ball game.
Your personal health comes first, before your job, before your relationships, before your need to do and be more. So what's a stressed go-getter to do? Change your lifestyle with the underlying intention to permanently ban stress from your life.
3 Ways to Decrease Chronic Stress
1. Be assertive with your priorities
Be assertive with your time, and only say yes to things if you genuinely mean it. Grab a pad of post-it notes, and write out every activity you're involved in on an individual post-it. Arrange these post-its in a vertical line from highest priority to lowest priority.
Is there one activity that you can cut out? When it comes to your schedule, less is more. If you spread yourself too thin, you will be a master at nothing (and will most likely be unhappy with your overall progress). Once you decide cut things out, trust that you've made the right decision, and do not fill that space with anything. Remember: you're cutting things out to improve your focus, not to make room for new projects.
2. Use your affirmations
What drives you to engage in stressful situations? Is it money, obligation, or fear that you're not doing enough? Sit for a few minutes to give this sincere thought. Once you have your answer, develop an affirmation to reverse and correct your internal drive.
For example, if money is your primary driver that pushes you to engage in stressful situations, develop an affirmation like this: "I am a money magnet that attracts highly lucrative opportunities that bring me joy, fulfillment, and a deep sense of ease."
Repeat your affirmation at the beginning of the day, at the end of your day, and anytime you feel stress creeping into your life. If you need a little more help in this situation, connect with a crystal that helps reverse your primary stress driver as well. In this example, a helpful stone would be jade. Jade brings in financial abundance, and opportunity.
3. Revamp your schedule
If you suffer from chronic stress, it means you need to take it easy. This doesn't mean flee for a week on a relaxing vacation, or permanently quit your job—it means restructuring the way you work so that you work less, and accomplish more. For many of you, this means that you have to let go of control issues (ie. let others take responsibility for their own work and their own lives).
If you're doing it all for yourself, and then doing it all for others as well, you'll never feel relaxed and satisfied. Revamp your schedule so that you are placing yourself first. You're the master of your own destiny, just as every other human being is responsible for theirs. Releasing ownership of things that are not yours is a positive change, flow with it.
