Relax! Here’s How

Simple tips and tricks you can use to cope with the stresses of everyday life.

1. Identify productive and unproductive worry
First, determine whether your worries will help you find practical solutions to a dilemma. If “yes, my worries can be constructive,” write a to-do list with explicit steps to help solve the problem. If the answer is “no, my worries are not helping me,” use some of the techniques below to help deal with unproductive worries.

2. Keep an appointment with your worries
Write down your unproductive worries throughout the day and set aside a chunk of time, say 6 to 6:30 p.m., dedicated specifically to thinking about them. By 6, “you may find you’re not interested in those worries anymore,” Leahy says. “Many people find that what they thought they needed an answer to earlier, they don’t care about later in the day.”

3. Learn to accept uncertainty
Worriers have a hard time accepting they can never have complete control in their lives. Leahy says that quietly repeating a worry for 20 minutes (“I may never fall asleep” or “I could lose my job”) reduces its power. “Most people get bored by their worries and don’t even make it to 20 minutes,” he notes.

4. Be mindful
Mindfulness, a technique based on Buddhist teachings, preaches staying in the present moment and experiencing all emotions even when they are negative. Leahy explains there are ways to be mindful throughout your day, while deeply immersed in your favorite song or in conversation with friends. Try living in the now by practicing deep breathing. Let your body relax and the tension in your muscles melt away.

5. Reframe your worry
What happens if a worry comes true? Could you survive losing your job or being dumped? Reframing how you evaluate disappointments in life can take the sting out of failure, Leahy says. Create a positive spin by asking yourself what you have learned from your bad experiences. Make a list of things for which you are grateful.

6. Put worries in perspective
Examine past worries. Do you have a hard time remembering what they are? Very likely this means that those worries never came true or that you were able to cope and forget, Leahy says.


Source of Information : Scientific American Mind November-December 2009