7 Tips for Living a More Relaxed Life

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” – Albert Einstein.

Today’s guest post is submitted by Ryan Rivera.

Often in life it feels as though everything is being thrown at you at once. We deal with stress on a regular basis, but that stress would often be much easier to manage if we had 100 hours in the day, and still only needed 8 hours of sleep. We’d have an opportunity to slow life down, relax, and go on with our lives.

Unfortunately, time is limited. By the time you’ve had an opportunity to get everything done in the day, you need to go to sleep and get up for another stressful day. We don’t always feel we have the time it takes to sit back, relax, and reduce the feelings of stress we experience in life.

Luckily, there are ways to live a more relaxed lifestyle – a lifestyle that feels as though you still have ample time in the day, and one that gives you an opportunity to control the way that stress affects your life.

How to Slow Life Down and Improve Stress Control

1. Turn Stress Into Energy – Some amount of stress in life is normal. How you respond to stress affects how easily you can control it. Many people, when they feel stressed, decide to sit down on their couch at home and try to rest away the stress. This is generally not effective, because it causes you to mope in your stress while also wasting precious time.

Japanese psychology teaches a better idea. They teach that you should embrace stress like an old friend, essentially waiting for stress and using that energy towards productive activities. Rather than try to fight it, accept that stress is okay, and see if you can take that energy and place it to something interesting.

2. Do More Outside – When the weather is nice, spending time outside has several benefits. It provides fresher air, which is naturally calming. The light from the sun has the ability to improve mood and wake up your mind. The outdoors also has more distractions, which calm your mind from its stresses (one of the reasons why walking a dog outside is important is because the smells, sights, and sounds of the outdoors are more calming to their minds than walking them indoors). Even if it is as simple as ironing the laundry, if you can safely do it outside in the sun, you should.

3.Exercise – Similarly, exercise itself is a crucial step in improving stress control and, surprisingly, slowing life down. Exercise may not naturally seem like something that is relaxing (and arguably, exercise itself is not relaxing), but after exercise your body experiences a rush of relaxation – relaxation that, in many ways, makes everything you do more relaxing.

Many people find that the act of going to dinner or working around the house becomes a far more relaxing activity as a result of endorphins released during exercise and the tired muscles. Exercise is good for your health, but arguably even better for your mental health.

4. Don’t Wait, Just Do – Many people don’t realize how often they’re truly procrastinating in any given day. They feel like five more minutes here and there won’t be a big deal, so when they need to get something done they’ll say (to themselves or aloud) “okay, I’ll do it in 5 more minutes.” 5 minutes then turns into 10, or even 30, and eventually you’ve lost more time you could use to relax and you’re behind in the tasks you need to complete.

5. Schedule Fun and Relaxation – Scheduling your entire day is an incredibly effective tool to make sure you get things done, and keeping to that schedule like it’s a work schedule keeps life organized. It’s important not just to focus on scheduling the things you have to do. Make sure you’re scheduling the things you want to do.

Schedule time to go have fun, and make sure you treat it like any other thing on your schedule. Schedule time to meditate or relax as well. You’ll find that life feels less busy when you have successfully scheduled your day.

6. Write in a Journal – Journaling is underrated. There are several ways to take advantage of a journal. Positivity journaling is an incredibly effective tool. Rather than write down your thoughts, you challenge yourself to write down 10 or more specific, genuinely positive things that happened during the day. This teaches you to seek out more positive things every day in order to successfully complete the journal.

However, perhaps more important is the idea of writing down any persistent thoughts. Persistent thoughts have a tendency to make life feel more stressful, prevent sleep, and cause you to lose focus. Write down these thoughts, and your brain knows that it can successfully stop thinking about them without you forgetting them, since they’re written down.

7. Make Menial Tasks More Enjoyable – Boring, tedious tasks don’t have to be a chore. It’s unusual how many people have accepted the things they don’t want to do as inevitable, and go about their day allowing themselves to be more stressed. Instead, find ways to turn life into a game.

For example, let’s say you are extremely stressed at work. Make a bingo card with the causes of your stress placed in different boxes. If you get a bingo, treat yourself to something you like. Or, if you don’t like folding laundry, see if you can turn a game out of folding laundry (speed or accuracy, etc.). In the end, you’ll be turning something you have to do into something that relaxes you, helps your anxiety, and is good for your mental health.

You don’t need to win the lottery or retire by the beach to experience a life that feels slower and more relaxed. All you need to do is make sure that you’re focusing your attention on ways to enjoy life more, and find your stress much more manageable. Keep yourself active, outside, and dedicated to your own ability to take advantage of life’s abundance and you’ll ultimately see a drastic improvement in your happiness and mental health.

About the Author

Ryan Rivera is an anxiety specialist and writer, who has focused most of his efforts on helping people recognize where they can improve their life and reel in their mental health. He writes about anxiety at www.calmclinic.com.

Hope you have enjoyed this guest post.

Love and Abundance Always,

Author. Adventurer. Life Coach. More About Me.

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