Living A Stress-Free Life

I remember as a child I rarely heard my parents curse. Although I am sure there were times they wanted to. My Dad was the one who always had to keep things fixed and running, like the lawnmower, the air conditioner or the car. He not only knew how to do all of the maintenance around the house, he had to do it. There was no such thing as calling a repairman. I remember one particular time when he was underneath the family vehicle trying to fix something when I heard “Durn.” I knew if Daddy said that word, it must be bad.

As an adult, I now understand the everyday stresses of life and I rarely hold back my frustrations as my Dad did. I guess I have come to realize that one of the toughest challenges in life’s journey is handling the things that are totally out of our control. Most of us probably learn the hard way that if we don’t deal with the things we can’t do anything about, our stress level is going to go through the roof. The causes of your stress could be finances, an unreasonable boss, friends or family arguments, or the car won’t start.

Somewhere about mid-life, and I won’t say how long ago that has been, I took a step back and began to realize that if I don’t control my everyday stress, it will control me and could cut my life a little shorter than it would have been. The sense of helplessness that we feel over situations that we cannot change probably tops the list of what defines stress for the normal person. Transitioning your life where there are fewer uncontrollable obstacles that keep you from being happy or stress-free takes work, but it is not an impossible task.

According to the American Psychological Association 2011 report, “Stress In America,” money continues to be a significant factor of stress for many people. Not having enough money for food, clothes or needed medicine rates good reasons to let it stress me. However, stressing over not having enough money for an unnecessary purchase or go out to to dinner as often as you might want is not reason enough to let money stress my life. Money is only a necessary tool in life. If you don’t use it correctly, it won’t do the necessary job for which it was intended. No matter how much money you make, not using that tool correctly will allow it to use you and regardless of your salary, you will never have enough to make ends meet.

Once you identify what stresses you on a daily basis, you can begin to work to tweak your lifestyle so that stress won’t continue to be a ruling factor in your happiness. Oxytocin is a hormone that lowers stress in the body, reducing blood pressure and causing you to be in a good mood. For a quick release of Oxytocin at any given time, try hugging someone or cuddle your pet. Either action will trigger the brain to take a deep breath and go “Awww.”…[Click Here To Continue Reading]