BEDN | National Stress Awareness Day

How do you deal with stress? Or maybe you don't? #BEDN

Here in the USA our Nat'l Stress Awareness day is April 14, 2014. So, it's past for the year. However, the UK's is today, November 6th, 2013.

So much stress! Everything is hurry up, I want it now. The traffic is at an all time high for traffic jams and accidents. Also, factor in road rage. That actually scares me, road rage.

All jokes aside. Stress is a major factor in health issues today. You can do a Google search for stress or anything related to it and find millions of pages of information. You can find oodles of books published about it and how to manage it.

As the subtitle above questions: How do you deal with stress? Or maybe you don't? While each person is different and different things help different people, the biggest thing to remember is, "Just Breathe!"

A major factor is that we're not breathing properly and our bodies aren't getting the proper amount of oxygen to the brain and out to our organs, etc.

Here's one method:

You can, however, practice techniques like controlled-breathing exercises when you feel your stress levels soaring. The following exercise in breathing can be done for as little as three to five minutes at a time and is an effective way to halt escalating feelings of anger, tension, and frustration.

Controlled-breathing exercise:

1. Sit upright in a comfortable position.
2. Focus on your present state and existence (this is often termed being "mindful"). Block out intrusive thoughts. You may close your eyes if you wish.
3. Pay attention to your breathing. Inhale slowly through the nose, taking several seconds.
4. Exhale through the mouth, trying to make the exhalation phase last twice as long as the inhalation.
5. Continue this mindful breathing for three to five minutes.

Read more here...

I use a number of relief methods, breathing like listed above is one. I remove myself from the stressful environment. I change the activity to break up the stress. This may only take about 5 minutes. The thing to remember is to take a break from whatever is feeding your stress. If you must, delegate tasks to alleviate stress. It's ok. You do not have to do everything by yourself. That's why we have teams, like in the work place, or even in the family. If you have a number of people in the family, give a task to one of the other family members. It took me a long time to figure all this out. I wasn't one to ask for help. I thought I just had to deal with it and get it done, on my own. With that attitude, something is going to not be completed or just done hurriedly and wrong, causing it to have to be done over. More work. I discovered team work gets it all done and saves time.

Don't stress it! Delegate it.

Happy National Stress Awareness Day, UK!