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| image by Kelly Cappelli |
It’s been a week since the election – how stressed out are you?
Everywhere I go it seems that people are majorly stressed out. Trump fans are mad that the haters be hating, Trump haters are stressed out that he even got elected let alone that he is going to take office.
The world is stressed out that God only knows what will happen, and today I even heard Trump voters stressing out that he is putting Steve Bannon, the white supremacist in the White House.
I have been super stressed out that this has happened to my adopted country, meanwhile a massive earthquake hit my home country, which has me beyond stressed out.
Add to the mix working the past 44 days straight, AND having a major flood in my home and frankly it has been a stressful few weeks.
The thing about stress though is that it doesn’t achieve anything. Well, nothing positive anyway. The trick is to find ways to manage your stress so that it doesn’t manage you.
5 Ways To Manage Stress
1. Do Yoga
Even if you just do a few sun salutations each day, yoga is a fantastic way to manage stress. The focus on your breath, the stretching, the flow from position to position make yoga the ultimate stress buster.
If you can’t get to class just roll out your yoga mat and do some sun salutations with a you tube yoga guru.
Don’t have a yoga mat? Check out Manduka.com for all kinds of yoga wear and yoga supplies. I’m ordering a new 5mm Eko mat and a new bolster to replace those that got lost in the flood.
2. Take a walk outdoors.
Fresh air and nature are wonderful stress relievers. A long walk with no distractions, just you and Mother Nature, is food for the soul.
3. Sit and reflect by water.
Looking out over the ocean or watching the waves are instant stress busters.
Watch, breathe, repeat.
4. Meditate.
If you can still your mind meditation is an amazing stress-buster. It calms you, helps you focus, helps you sleep better. Most of the super successful people that I work with in my real life (makeup artist) meditate for 10 to 20 minutes per day. I figure I can find 10 minutes somewhere each day so I just downloaded an app called Headspace that offers 10 minute meditations, but there are plenty of meditations available on You Tube.
5. Get off social media
Social media can be fun, but it can also be a huge source of anxiety. Whether that anxiety comes from comparing your life to others and feeling inadequate (remember no-one’s life is as good as it seems on Facebook!) or whether its people being contentious and going all attack-dog over issues (hello Trump) the dark side of social media can be very dark.
Give yourself a two or three day total break from all social media, and then when you go back don’t look at any social media in the first 30 minutes after you wake up or the last hour before you go to sleep
by Garance Dore
