Just follow the simple process in this article, and you'll find stress relief within a few minutes.
1. What Demands Are You Making?
Start by thinking of the demands you make of yourself.
Stress starts in your mind. Our lives are so complicated. People make demands on us, which causes us stress, and we make demands on ourselves too. The demands we make on ourselves can be completely unreasonable.
Think about what you're asking of yourself. Look at your To Do list. Are those demands reasonable? Would you make the same demands of someone else?
Some demands we make on ourselves are so deeply ingrained that we don't even know we're making them. They come from our culture. Think about some of these demands you may be making:
* Do you feel you need to be perfect - to lose weight, look fantastic, and have a perfect family?
* Do you feel that you must everything everyone else has - the latest gadget, a big house, a pool...?
Many of these cultural demands we make of ourselves are dangerous, because we don't realize we're making them. If you never challenge any of these demands, they'll cause unlimited stress.
2. Could You Change Those Demands to Preferences?
Make a list of the demands you know you're making of yourself.
Yes, write them down. Once you see what you've written:
"I must lose weight. I must have the latest fashions. I must have a new hair style. My kids must behave perfectly... My spouse must... My friends must..."
Writing down your demands helps you to see how unreasonable they ALL are.
Now you've written down your demands (our demands are endless, so you should have a long list), decide that you will change your demands to preferences.
You can change any demand to a preference. For example, if you're overweight, you may prefer to lose weight. If you're in debt, you may prefer to be debt-free.
Or not. Preferences give you choices, and when you have choices, you're free to choose - this releases stress.
Once you change a demand to a preference, it stops causing you stress. You may want to lose weight, but it's a preference, in the same way you prefer vanilla ice cream to strawberry.
3. The Bubble Technique for Floating Your Problems Away
Every day you're face with problems. Some are solvable, and you go ahead and fix them. Other challenges are not fixable, not right now - indeed, if they involve other people, they won't ever be fixable, because you can't change others.
When you're faced with a problem, here's an easy way to float your cares away.
See the problem, whatever it is, enclosed in a pink (or blue - or any color) bubble. The bubble is light, lighter than a balloon, and as you watch, the bubble floats away...
Watch the bubble, enclosing your problem, floating away, up into the sky... see it floating far away.
This "bubble" visualization technique is useful for any and every problem you encounter. Using it will give you instant stress relief.
The above processes are guaranteed to bring you stress relief; use them every day.
