Top 5 Tips to Reduce Stress and Increase Ease

Stress & Anxiety

When we suffer anxiety or worried thoughts we are either thinking about something upsetting from the past  or projecting forward to something we don't want to happen in the future.

Our brains, as amazingly powerful as they are....and they really are.....cannot tell the difference between something that is happening to us right now and something we are imagining is happening to us.

When we have worried or anxious thoughts we have a subconscious automatic physiological reaction in our body affecting our chemical makeup, producing the stress hormones, adrenalin and cortisol, that create that uncomfortable anxious feeling. If we are able to switch our thought process to a positive and confident thought (even if we are pretending/imagining) we are able to produce the feel good chemicals in our body, endorphins and serotonin, which in turn create the very comforting confident feeling.

In short we go from a "can't do" attitude where we over estimate any perceived danger we are in and under estimate our ability to deal with that danger,  to a "can do" attitude where we naturally reduce our perception of danger and increase our ability to deal with it too! The only thing that has changed about the situation we find ourselves in is our attitude.

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Top 5 Tips to Reduce Stress and Increase Ease

1. Become present in the current moment, look around you paying attention to your
   external environment.
2. Focus on what you want and how you would like to feel eg; "I want to go out with my friends and I would like to feel calm and confident".
3. Create 3 affirmations that feel right for you and get you focusing on positive thoughts, always state them in the now eg; "I am Calm, I am Confident, I am In Control".
4. Take 3 deeper breaths; on each breath in imagine you are breathing in relaxation and on each breath out imagine you are letting go of any anxiety saying your affirmation in your mind eg;                                                                                                                                                         Breath 1 ~ Breath in relaxation, breath out any anxiety saying "I am Calm"                              Breath 2 ~ Breath in relaxation, breath out any anxiety saying "I am Confident"                          Breath 3 ~ Breath in relaxation, breath out any anxiety saying "I am In Control".
5. Become aware of your internal environment again noticing you feel calmer and more at ease, squeeze your thumb and finger together at the tip on whatever is your dominant hand, to lock in these new feelings, creating an anchor you can use whenever you want to calm and soothe yourself quickly.

I hope you have found these tips helpful and remember, the more you consciously use these strategies the more it will become a subconscious behaviour to feel calm, confident and in control and the less you will notice feelings of anxiety.

Best wishes, Julie@Time2Shine