If you are entertaining guests remember, perfection is just in the head, neither your family nor your friends care how clean your house is. Spending 3 hours a day to clean up your house is just time away from your loved ones. Worrying if your Christmas tree is not postcard perfect is another stressful factor. Just ask yourself this, what would you remember 10 years from now? How amazing your Christmas tree looks, or the 2 hours you spent with your loved ones decorating it. Just take it easy, and leave the cleanups for the next year. Remember the holiday decorations you see in magazines is done by 100’s of set designers. Do not compare!

If you need help around the house, why not start by delegating tasks to people around you. This will reduce the overall pressure on you and get things done at the same time. I’m sure you wouldn’t want your husband to sit and watch TV all day. Let him do the last minute groceries or gift buying.

If you are working over the holiday season, remember to have strict schedules. For example, have a very simple timetable. When working,don’t let the holidays disturb you and when you aren’t working, don’t let work get in on the fun. If you have to keep 4 hours a day to work, do that. Whatever you are doing, put in 100% of your concentration into it. This will ensure that you have fun and get done with your work and most of it lesser stress because of work.

If you are stressed because you aren’t with your family or loved ones. Or if you are missing that special someone in your life then remember this simple advice, if you stress too much about what you are missing from your life, you might miss the great things you do have. So instead of worrying about how you aren’t with you loved ones, why not have the best holiday with the people who are around you. Why not throw a party for all your friends who aren’t with family?

A few other things to consider to prevent being over stressed
- Eat cautiously, eat smaller portions of food. Holidays are a great time to put on those few extra pounds, which is why “losing weight” is the top new year resolution. Instead this year, why don’t you consider eating less and losing weight?
- If shopping for gifts makes you crazy, then just sit back and shop online. Sites like amazon and ebay have great deals and they will definitely deliver before Christmas.
- If you are cooking for family, remove one dish from your planned menu, no one would notice or know the difference, and it will barely hamper the feast. But it would help relieve a bit of stress.

Remember this is the longest holiday you get each year, don’t let the holiday stress you out, instead use this time to relax, enjoy and have a great holiday.

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Whether you are employed, you are in transition to your own business, you just started off on your entrepreneurial journey, you have been in it for a while and you have an established business, you deal with stress every day (sometimes every minute)

Yes, sometimes, especially at the beginning of your business journey, stress is good. It drives you to work long hours, you get things done, you push forward. Then, after a while, the long hours, the endless emails and phone calls get to you. You find that the passion is leaving you, find yourself wondering why you got started in the first place. You lost your work/life balance.

You know that stress got to you if you frequently wake up tired or with a headache. Eventually this pain and fatigue drains your energy that you need for your business or job and your life. Unfortunately, you can’t spend a day in company with others without hearing somebody complain about just these symptoms. Yes, I have been there and so have my clients. As matter of fact, there has not been a time in history where the level of stress has been greater than it is now, in our automated, fast-changing world of internet, emails, cell phones, instant messaging, and black berries.

Yet, living with too much stress for too long, results in behaviors that are opposite to the ones you need to exceed at what you desire most. Stress creates adrenaline, it allows for spontaneous, reflexive responses it enables you to react to stimuli. An effective business leader does the opposite. He/she acts based on careful thinking and analysis and calm decision-making. Pro-active behavior rather than reactive behavior.

My clients come to me for two reasons:

a) they want to grow a thriving business while they want to create a rich life and

b) they find that they work harder and longer hours for less return.

You might identify with that. Have you started feeling overwhelmed, tired, stressed, short-tempered and maybe even burned out? Are you coming home feeling worn out, short tempered and irritated? Your productivity is down. You know that you can’t create a rich life, nor be successful over long term if you let overwhelm and long-term stress run your life.

Any career success, independent of your ultimate goal is not worth the ills that prolonged stress can bring on. My clients tell me that they can’t sleep at night because they have so much to do, their stomachs hurt because they have to choose between picking up their kids from school and working that extra hour. Especially my women entrepreneur clients tell me how tired they are at night because they work two shifts, one at work, the second one as a mom and home manager.

Yet, what I also hear sometimes is a kind of pride of staying “so” busy, of juggling it all precariously high in the air. That to me, is great for a few short days because you have to meet a deadline or you are getting ready for some out-of town travel but over long term, this “heroic” and “stoic” pursuit of too many things at the same time, is certainly detrimental to your health and to your business.

When we confuse busyness with productivity, which is exactly what happens when we squeeze too much into one day, we actually lower our productivity, do it less well and have a lot less fun in the process. The most amazing part of learning how to manage stress in an easy-to-implement way is that you find yourself in your optimal learning and performance zone much more often than before.

Every time you practice any of the eight strategies I am teaching in my stress-busting audio course, you’ll find that your blood is returning to your brain as each technique is signaling to the body that the fearful, stress-inducing situation is over and the calm has returned. Research shows that we have a specific zone in which we work most productivily. Whatever time we spend outside of that zone because of stress and overwhelm or because we are multi-tasking or we are being distracted, is time spent in mediocrity.

In my book, ”The Art Of Succeeding By Design” and its accompanying audio guide to enjoying your success stress-free, you will find that having a plan to succeed AND having proven stress-managing tools are the keys to accelerating your business and career while allowing you to slow down to life!

The technique I am teaching you today through this article (and the many other techniques I teach in my audio course) are the result of years of personal research of stress studies, my graduate studies in occupational therapy at USC, years of professional experience helping chronically ill patients reduce their fear and stress to facilitate healing and recovery and of course, my years of coaching entrepreneurs living very similar lives to yours.
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Ok, onto strategy number One then: In my book, the first chapter talked about creating a vision for your life and business that is compelling to you. That you should align that vision with your values and passion, that this will help you jump out of bed every morning and take on the world. That this vision will help you overcome any obstacle that might be thrown onto your business path. That this vision will help you stay focused and on track. Whether you are employed or have started on your entrepreneurial path, I hope you have created a very exciting vision for yourself.

With that excitement comes though another challenge and that is: How do you keep your excitement in check and don’t let it turn into a run-away train of late nights and weekends in front of the computer? I know that the excitement for my work, for helping business owners, for making a difference, for the privilege of using my creativity is the most exciting project I have ever undertaken but after a while, it also caused me to get a tight stomach or had my heart beat a bit faster. Have you noticed how your body reacts to your excitement? This energy is good but it needs to be channeled and used only when you ask for it.

Here is then a great and very powerful way to channel that energy. It can help you be more productive and reduce the wear and tear that this sense of excitement can have on your body. It simply has to do with breathing. Yes, you might be laughing (that would be good) but keep paying attention. When we feel stressed, our breathing becomes shallower. We start breathing faster and less deeply and ultimately only use 20% of the oxygen in our lungs.

The result is two-fold:

1) you only circulate a very limited amount of oxygen in your body

2) your body goes into defense mode because of shallower breathing signals danger.

So, what is there to do? Simple, stop your work for just a few seconds and start breathing deeply by inhaling slowly with a rise of your belly. Put your hand on your belly and feel it rise up and lower down. Breathe deeply, fully and slowly for about 10 seconds. That signals to the body that “the coast is clear”, the danger has passed and you can then reenter your high-productivity zone, that zone where you can think clearly and act rationally.

Easy, yes? Ok, let’s practice it right now: With your hands on your belly, breath in, take a deep long breath; watch your hands as they rise up with you breathe in. Then watch your hands as they lower with your out-breath. Let the air out of your belly without losing your relaxation. Take another deep breath, and let it out, and one more, IN and OUT.

Now, how do you feel? Like the air cleared, like sanity returned, like a fresh breath of spring air entered your room? It’s good, it’s it? So, remember, every time you start feeling overwhelmed with your to-do list, when you feel angry, when you are starting to worry about your business or career success, you have to deal with kids who don’t want to cooperate, in traffic while late to a meeting, any time, you feel like it, take a few deep, calm, slow breaths and feel peace reenter your life!

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Medical Impact of Chronic Stressors
Often work related stress tends to become chronic as it becomes an indispensable part of people’s life. In turn it leads to less productivity, efficiency, thereby leading to more stress as it becomes a vicious cycle. There can be a number of health related issues that come sooner than we realize such as insomnia, back problems, fatigue and lack of concentration. In some cases it could be severe as if affects circulation of blood vessels and can have long-term effects.
As a mode of defense mechanism, the body in itself tries to prepare in response to a stress situation by involving almost all the organs such as the hear, lungs, immune system, reflexes, the brain and the power of perception etc. It is a complicated, and yet efficient as well as intriguing mechanism, which takes a toll on our bodies in due course of time.

It also puts the effected, under a long-term threat of a heart disorder, breakdown or even stroke, which can even, be fatal. The sooner in life we encounter these mild effects, the more likely we are to see its crippling effects later on. Slowly affecting the hormonal balance, it also has secondary effects such as encouraging people to pursue unhealthy lifestyles such as adopting comfort food for the “feel good” factor or indulge I smoking and drinking. Overall, it’s just the chain of events that makes stress a multi-organ, multi-factorial disorder.

Women have been seen to be more susceptible to stress, which could partly be due to the hormones and partly because of the many different physical cycles that they go through such as pregnancy, lactation and bearing the load of being a full time mother.
To summarize, it can only be stated without a doubt, that too much stress over a period of time, makes you prone to numerous health problems. It could be due to one major event in life or the buildup of multiple factors over a period of time. But more than likely, one would be suffering from a health issue, in one way or the other.

Some of the noticeable changes that can occur in our body due to stress are:
Hypertension, palpitation or heavy breathing, increased perspiration, fatigue, insomnia, body weakness, lack of interest, lack of appetite to name a few. Also, stress puts us at risk for constant headaches, depression, migraine, backaches, suicidal tendencies, stomach ulcers and digestive disorders, alcohol and drug abuse and not to forget, heart attack and stroke. We might want to look for signs early on which could be mild allergies, asthma, colds and infections that come on too often and in general a depressed immune system.
We have to learn to deal with stress as a part of our routine before it switches gears and becomes disabling. There are more than many ways to relieve stress on a daily level, and it’s never too late to start. You deserve living in a healthy and contended environment after all.

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Let’s face it, times like these financial pressure on every one is high, whether you are enjoying a great 6 figure salary or struggling to make those bill payments. Without knowing or realizing, these financial situations can add a great deal of stress to you, both mentally and physically. So here are few great tips to help you sort your budget in order, and few to help you be stress free.

-          See where you are spending the most and decide if that is absolutely required. Websites like mint.com offer free financial tools, budgeting software and trackers where you can see where your money is being spent. You can also chose to get text alerts if you spend over your preset limits. This way you can cut down on the $5 café mocha or the fourth $8 long island iced tea. Remember small things add up, and which is why you would need to see where you spend most of your money over a long duration.

-          Sign up for your company’s 401(k) and other retirement plans. Longer life expectancies and higher inflation rates make it absolutely necessary to start saving early. A 401(k) account is great as most employers match contributions, thereby instantly doubling your money and this amount being invested will reap you bigger rewards when you are old. Even 100-200$ a month can really add up. An estimate showed that if you put 6% of your income when you are 25 years old, you can walk away with a million dollars when you are 60.

-          If you have huge debts, then call a debt consolidator who can reduce your debt and make it a lower monthly payment for you.

-          Live within your means, its known that the most financially stressed people are those who are living beyond their means, that means if your salary doesn’t support a 500k house and a 50k car, then don’t buy it. A 200k house and a simple car to get you around stress free is so much more better. Scale down, many local websites let you swap your houses with others looking to upgrade. Doing this could reduce your mortgage payments.

-          Save up at least 6 months expenses in a high interest paying savings account. An emergency fund is always good for such times where each day you hear about layoffs.  If you aren’t living paycheck to paycheck, then you will be less stressed about all those bills.

-          Analyze your bills, see where you can save, simple things like removing HD from your cable, or choosing a lower speed internet connection can help. Here are a few things that helped me cut down on my monthly bills

o   Switched to a lower cost phone plan

o   Disconnected my landline as my cell sufficed.

o   Removed HD and unnecessary channels on my cable.

o   Shopped at grocery stores giving my fuel discounts.

o   Used credit card reward points for paying for a meal or two to restaurants.

o   Changed my internet from a 16mbps plan to a 4mbps, the cost is almost half while I don’t even notice the speed difference.

o   Carry lunch to office, at least once more than you do now.

o   Switched insurance carriers to lower my rate.

These simple things, and much more can easily help you reduce your bills and though it might just add up to $100, remember, that 100$ when put consistently into a savings plan can become a million dollars when you retire.

All these tips being said, the mail point is this, money comes and goes, we all live our life just once, we have to enjoy it. Worrying about money, or how your stocks aren’t doing well does not help you. We have to plan better, stay on top of our finances and most importantly, live within our means. A sound financial plan is good, a one you can follow without cutting too many corners is great. So use the tools available, and set out a simple plan, stick to it and see the stress disappear.

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Its absolutely fine to not be the perfect one. Many of us often stretch ourselves beyond the bounds of our level and hurt our ability to be a good mom or a parent. Its not just hard on yourself, but your family too. There might be times when your son despises you for missing his soccer game, but you had an important presentation at work right? There would be a next time. Its important to let things go and not be hard on self. You might want to read bedtime stories to your kids while your kitchen remains a mess for a while. Its important to lighten the mood and its ok to be a slacker at times as well. At the end of the day, you want to be a good mom, there is no such thing as the “super-mom”.

No matter how much your envy the family next door, only you can be the best judge for your children and the kind of exposure you need to provide them. Its not healthy to over burden your kids with 7 days of classes after school, be it skating or swimming or some music lessons. This over scheduling has never worked wonders for anyone. Learn to space out time with them and decide what’s healthy and most interests them. At the same time, make space for some family time or an activity they love to do, even if it involves nothing constructive or challenging. Do not let the pressures from the society, dictate your decisions and at the same time do not make their days monotonous. Its best to give them a variety to enjoy and experience, and its not always bad to allow a couple of hours in a week with their Nintendo wii.

While your kids are on it, it’s crucial that you don’t get lost in taking care of them as the only goal. Take some time off, give yourself a break, take a walk, watch your favorite show or just call some friends over. May be they have children whom your kids would love playing with too. It’s all about everyone being happy and neither getting stressed in the process. Talk to your husband; also spend time as a couple. If growing up healthy is important for kids, it’s as important for the mother to provide them a healthy environment, and it only starts in your own mind.

Assign duties; make your relationship more interactive. Award them for helping you set the table or making dinner. Involve your kids and make-work and play more fun. Don’t hesitate to become a kid yourself if you need to. Get rid of your inhibitions and think like you did when you were at their age. At times it helps to laugh like a child and enjoy like an innocent. You could be your child’s best friend and who wouldn’t want that?

Finally, don’t forget who you as a person, even before you are a wife, a mother or an employee. Your individuality would govern the way you are to your family. You won’t want to get lost in fulfilling your duties. Take up old hobbies and things you have always loved doing. Join piano classes if that’s what you enjoy doing or learn a language you have always wanted to speak. You have been blessed with a life which you rather celebrate and enjoy every moment of it. And the take home lesson is, the world starts from you. To be a good mom, you need to be good to yourself. In the eyes of your child, you already are “the super mom”

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Here are a few quick tips to tackle the so-called homework struggle:

1. Focus on the method and not the end result. In other words, you should be discussing or helping your child in understanding and guiding how he approaches a problem, manages his time or makes use of his best resources. Instead of making sure the homework is finished on time, you should encourage the child to take responsibility and judge his week points and help him in finding a solution.

2. Try to understand what goes on in your child’s mind. His worries, concerns and fears. Is he afraid of being mocked upon by his classmates or is he just struggling with a subject. Does he want to be the first to get the work done or is does he prioritize being the best. It is important to get involved in a friendly manner and encourage your child to discuss his issues. Only then will you be able to help him in the true sense.

3. Give them a fair chance and be open to discussions. You should have the time and patience to hear out your child and not convey any strong feeling or disagreement. This would only discourage them and they might lose interest further.

4. Comfort your children and ratify the fact that home works are never easy and you understand them and their concerns. Your acknowledgment or agreement would only develop a feeling of appreciation, which would be comforting and motivating for them. in turn, to help them, you should discuss the importance of studies and how home works and assignments help them in solving bigger problems in practical life. This will fill a feeling positivity and also put less pressure on them to perform.

5. Be available as a guide. While it is wrong to spoon feed your child with answers, one should also not forget the importance of assistance. Your availability as a guide or a tutor would be a moral boost for your child. You should encourage them by praising them for their efforts, and guide them in the right direction that motivates them further to come up with a solution with minimal help from your end.

6. Time your intervention well. While you are making an effort to help your child understand the true meaning and ways of dealing with the stress of homework, it should seem like just another day for them. Children should not be under any pressure or time bound, while you are trying to convey your thoughts. Take your time, do it slowly and try not to rush. Weekends or holidays might be a good time to start when there is no pressure and you can work with them as a friendly companion that helps them reduce stress and focus more positively.

7. Keeping it fun: substitute problems with real world interesting problems, or try to explain and understand the various issues by relating it to fun things. For instance: you can always give an example of a basketball to explain laws of physics.

8. Always remember your ultimate goal is to help your child gain focus and get rid of any stresses that comes along with the homework or their student life. Just getting the work done on a daily basis will not take you far. There could be multiple ways you would need to try, before you start seeing encouraging results and time and patience would be the key.

A child and his homework go hand in hand, and the pressures that come along, are easily avoidable. A positive approach, and better grades, all come together as a complete package.

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5. Enjoy the ride

When on the road, everyone is in a hurry. Instead of vexing your way through over fellow riders or the long queue on traffic lights, use this time to relax and refresh yourself. Tune into your favorite morning show on FM or that album you grew old listening. The idea is to spend your time pampering your own self as this might also be your only time alone for some of you.

6. Make it a comfortable ride

Chronic backaches have become ever so common. Even for those who are free from this lower back strain, long strenuous hours at the wheel could take a toll on you. It is most important to adjust your seat to your height and a correct posture. It really helps to support your back using cushions or a tucked towel in your lumbar back area. Sitting in one position for longer period of time, tends to put pressure on your spine as it is curved outwards. Also keep adjusting your position every couple of minutes to avoid extra strain in one position, which can often cause numbness in the legs.

7. Hit the gym after work

It might sound impossible at first to be working out after you have had a long tiring day at work, but once you get in, its advantages are more than many. The fitness centre that you have always known to exist in a corner of your office, is the place for you to beat the stress, help you relax and at the same time, beat the evening hours of traffic. We know the bumper-to-bumper traffic gets on everyone’s nerves, an easy way to face it is- “avoid it”. Go for a bite, a yoga class, a gym or anything that helps you relax and before you even know, you would be all set and relaxed to speed your way home. Simple, isn’t it?

8. Take a break

It’s worthwhile to take a day off and get away from the extra pressures. Most companies allow a schedule and flexibility that would let you squeeze in a day or two when you just don’t feel you are up for it. We all deserve one or two of those.

9. Work from home

Many of us, if not all are involved in the kind of jobs that can be done by yourself even at home as effectively as from your cubicle. Ask your manager if you can get one of those days at home. Not only are you saving the precious time in travelling, it also lets you relax and space your work according to your needs. You could also enquire if there is a sister branch or office that might be closer to your home, where you could put in your work hours for some days. The idea is to explore your options and making a choice wisely.

10. Variety and change of habits

An occasional car pool, or a ride in the bus or local train might be advisable to try out every once in a while. If distance is not much, you could also try walking or biking your way to work.

Just making it to the work place every day of your life, is just the half story. What makes it complete is your state of mind, which of course is in your hands. In the age of economy crisis and cutthroat competition, it wont hurt to try a tip or two to help you relax and deal with secondary stressors that comes with the package

Hope you found some great tips to reduce your commuting stress, try a few next time you feel stressed on your drive to work. Here’s hoping for a stress free commute.

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Given the demand and expectations of our current lifestyles, it is next to impossible to avoid stressful commuting for most of us. However, to deal with these negative forces is easier than we can imagine.

First important step could be to prepare yourself mentally and physically, much in advance. You always want to avoid the morning rush. The moment you wake up in the morning, worrying about small things such as preparing documents or getting the cloths ready should be the last thing on your mind. These issues are best dealt the previous night, giving you ample time and comfort zone to mentally prepare you for your journey. Not only this gives you more time to relax, but you can then focus on enjoying your breakfast or chatting with your family or reading the morning newspaper. And when you are ready, the only thing you are left to do is hit the road and beat the office rush on the freeway.

Here are some of the other common things we can take care of.

2. Sleep well and be an early riser.

It is needless the mention, the importance of a good night’s sleep. This enables your brain and your body to relax and work over your daily tensions and cumulative stress issues, which you gathered over the day. If you lose sleep, not only do you feel un-fresh but also there is a tendency for your brain to slow down of lose focus, which in turn would affect your mood and productivity at work.

3. Rotate or alternate your working hours

Not all of us are cut alike, and we definitely have our preferences. If Mr. Robin likes to be in his office at 7, does not mean he wants to work more? It is important to realize what works best for your. Depending on your work policies and schedule, one can provide some flexibility in his work timings such as doing a 7 to 3 or a 10 to 6 shift. This would not only help you plan your day better but you are also more than likely to avoid the peak traffic on the road and spend remarkably less time commuting each way.

4. Carpooling

If you are in California or Washington (or many other cities), not only will the carpooling lane on freeways help you cut down on the travelling time, it also makes you more relaxed when someone else is driving. Along with the plus of having company, you face much less pollution and road congestions. At the same time, you earn credit for being environmental friendly. It isn’t easy to coordinate your timings with another person, but isn’t it still worth it?

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if your company has announced layoffs then the entire period is very stressful to all the employees. Since most of the decisions for headcount reduction are purely based on numbers, your performance is not generally taken into consideration. You can reduce overall stress by not thinking about the issue at hand. Fearing the uncertain is common and basically pointless. Instead spend time in organizing your work life and work harder to show your superiors why they cannot function without you in the company.

If the layoffs are at a very large scale, it always helps to be prepared. Prepare as to how you would handle the situation if it arises. Are you financially stable, is your resume updated, can you find another job. Keeping these simple questions in mind will help you if you are the getting laid off. Anger, resentment and similar feelings can only add on to your stress. Remember more often than not, your manager is feeling worse than you.

Obviously the loss of ones job is a stressful time and there isn’t one sure shot technique we can recommend that will keep you stress free. But the following are few tips to keep your mind healthy and stress free which hopefully will bring your life back on a steady track.

- Tell your family and friends about your job situation: The biggest fear and the most stressful part about being laid off is one thinking what their family and friends will think or now. Move past this fear and tell your close friends and family. They are only there to help you through networking and can only offer you help and may in fact refer you to someone they know who is hiring.

- Focus on your life: There is no better time to focus on what you really want out of life. Since now you have a bit of free time, reflect on your past job; were you happy? were you excited to go to work? Think about what kind of job you would enjoy and work towards achieving them.

- Add a degree to your resume: These days very few companies are hiring on a large scale, or hiring at all for that matter. Instead of wasting time hunting for the right job, why not take a course or apply for a degree which will improve your resume and your knowledge and at the same time increase your chances of landing your next job.

- Don’t panic: Granted loss of monthly revenue is a reason to get panicked, but this is why you have saved in the past, do not be afraid to dig into your savings to help you through these times financially. Spend your severance package carefully, and keep it for basic necessities like bills and groceries.

- The job hunt: Apply to as many companies as possible, prepare well for interviews and keep references handy. Also offer skeptical employers a week or two of free service to evaluate you. This shows confidence and will motivate you to work better.

- Relax: Since you have lot of free time as compared to when you were working, you will most likely be anxious and worried. Draw up a fixed time table and follow it, for instance if your work day was from 9 to 5. then make a steady time table for 9 to 5 including things like research various companies, preparing for interviews, making calls to prospective employers, networking etc. Then after 5 stick to the schedule what you used to follow when you were working. Drastic change adds to stress, by following a routine, you can avoid this.

- Be close to family and friends: Support is great, if you can stay with friends or family for a few days, then do that.

- If possible travel: People always think of taking a year off and travel. With airfare and hotels so cheap, there’s no better time. You can always take a few hours off each day to apply to various companies.

- Consultation: If you are good in your field you can always do well by offering your expertise to people who possible can’t afford to hire you full time.

- Join a group: There are various groups of people in similar situations, join a group related to your field, this would give more networking opportunities and also will give you access to resources such as who’s hiring and what kind of interviews are taking place.

- Use networking websites: Big name companies hire people through networking sites like facebook and linkedin, make sure you join all such websites and ask people you have worked with before to leave references for you. Also if possible make an online resume for yourself. There are tons of websites that allow you to do that.

- Work around the house: Keeping busy is always good.

- Temporary : Never forget that this is just temporary. Every bad thing eventually turns and heads for the better. This economy will also take a turn for the better. Just keep calm and work hard to achieve what you’ve always dreamed of.

Hope these few tricks will help you reduce stress in these trying times. Remember to relax, take tihis time to spend with your loved ones, eat healthy and stay fit. All the best with your job hunt. Stay Stress Free.

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Sure, visits to the doctor and certain medications can help, but one form of stress relief comes from exercise. This kind of stress relief is known for soothing the body and mind, and working wonders in relieving the daily worries we as humans endure.

Types of Exercise Used for Stress Relief

Yoga is probably one of the most popular forms of exercise when it comes to relieving stress, and it’s because the methods of yoga are well known to soothe the mind by focusing all energy on relaxing and coming to peace with your surroundings. If this can be achieved, a feeling of serenity often lingers for hours after the yoga exercise.

Aerobics is also another popular form of exercise stress relief, as the fast paced exercise helps to release endorphins within the body which results in happiness and security. Getting rid of pent up energy by doing aerobics is something that will release stress within itself.

Exercise tips for Stress Relief

If you choose yoga as a stress relief exercise but don’t have the time or endurance to perform an entire yoga session, there are a couple of moves you can do on a daily basis to help keep your stress in check. The first is a series of breathing exercises, performed while laying flat on your back.

Once in position, make sure your arms are flat against your body and your head is facing straight up. Close your eyes, and breathe. Using your nose, breathe in while counting to 5. Using your mouth, breathe out while counting to 5. Continue this cycle for 20 sets, all the while clearing everything but counting and breathing from your head.

The second yoga exercise for stress relief is a little more active, but can be done before or after the breathing exercise. First you’ll want to position yourself on your hands and knees with your head facing straight down. Next, you’ll use your right leg, lift it and bring your knee in toward your face below you.

While you bring your knee in, breathe out slowly. Next, extend your leg back out behind you, while breathing in slowly. Once your leg is in mid air and stretched behind you, hold it for a count of three, along with your breath, then repeat 10 times for each leg.

These short yoga exercises for stress relief can help turn a new leaf for you in your day to day activities, and it’s something that’s easy to keep as a part of your daily routine.

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