How To Relieve Your Stress Today: 7 Effective Tips For Stress Relief

There are so many suggestions on how to relieve stress out there and with good reason. There is so much stress in the world today. Generally people are so busy they have little time for anything.

We are victims of a world gone mad. Think about it. We run around like crazy all day just so we don't have enough time. Money, success, careers and family are what drives us to keep going day in and day out and as a result we have become 'stressed out'; ticking time bombs ready to blow at any minute.

The symptoms of stress can be fatal leading to disease, chronic illness, hypertension and even heart attack. Most of us don't even realize the kind of stress we put ourselves under. Our bodies were made to help us in stressful, fight or flight, situations when we need adrenaline quickly to protect ourselves. We were not however supposed deal with stress all the time.

How do you go about relieving the effects of stress on your body? Before we get to the 5 tips for effective stress relief there are two things you should be doing, if you are not already, on a daily basis to free yourself from stress.

The first thing is to get off adrenaline. One of the best tips on how to relieve stress is to plan better. There are situations in life that are unavoidable but this should be the exception and not be happening all the time. A little planning can be the best thing you can do to keep your stress levels down. Remember that your life could be on the line.

The second thing is to drink less caffeine and if you are a smoker to cut back, or better yet, quit smoking. Nicotine and caffeine can cause your body to deal with unnecessary stress. Where possible try to avoid them.

Now we can work through the 5 tips to avoid stress on your mind and body.

1. Regular exercise
It’s not really important what exercise means to you. You could go out for a jog or a brisk walk in the park or go to the gym and exercise there. Relaxing while you exercise is what is important as well as exercising on a regular basis. There is no point in exercising if you hate every minute while you are doing it.

2. Relaxation and meditation
I know it sounds easy to say just relax or chill out but most people don't know how to. You don't have to know the art of meditation in order to just get a little uninterrupted time for yourself on a consistent basis.

3. Go out and spoil yourself
Treating yourself doesn't mean going out and buying a whole lot of stuff. It does mean doing something for yourself. Take a time out to be on your own making sure you will not be interrupted or you could go out to a spa and get a massage.

4. Video and board games
Board games can be a perfect stress reliever. You may want to choose careful the people you play the game with so as to avoid tension because of competitiveness. There are some great free software games you can download off the internet that are great to help relieve stress

5. Get some decent sleep
Make sure you get enough rest. Disruptions to your sleeping patterns can cause tremendous stress on your body. To rest properly your mind needs to be at rest. This may sound impossible but you can control how you react to worrying and constant what-if thoughts about work or money.

You do not need to do all of the above right away but you should start with one, get in the habit of doing it regularly and then start the next one. Remember that you should be relaxing no matter what you choose to do. Get started today.