Written by: Vedant Kulkarni, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Stress = the ultimate enemy of happiness. Stress manifests as conflicts at work, sour relationships, and illnesses right from mild headaches to increasing cancer risk. Check out this ultimate guide to a stress free life – the best 4-5 mins you'd spend reading today. P.S. Don't miss out on the Bonus (massive timesaver) towards the end.
1. Prevent stress buildup at work
Imagine you are a runner in a marathon. You start with energy and excitement, but as you run, you feel the strain in your muscles and the sweat on your forehead. And if something goes wrong (a cramp, a fall, a delay), you lose your momentum, worry about falling behind, and increase the probability of failure.
The same is with daily stress. You might start strong every day but with continuous work, distractions, conflicts, surprises, and adverse situations, stress accumulates, communication takes a toll and anxiety, frustration and panic takes over.
How to fix this? The key is to Break the Pattern. What does that mean? It means stopping the cycle of linear thinking and work that causes stress over time. Here are some examples of how you can break the pattern:
Look at something Green: Change your surroundings. If you continuously work on screens, go and have a look at trees. Research suggests that even some exposure to green colors can help reduce stress and anxiety. You can refresh your mind and work stress-free with this exercise. It’s simple: if you cannot go for a walk, just take a quick break and look out the window.
Include some Physical activity (even during work time): Physical activity is one of the best ways to reduce stress and improve your mood. It helps release endorphins (the feel-good hormones) in your brain and lower cortisol (the stress hormone) in your body. It also helps improve your blood circulation, oxygen intake, and muscle strength. You can infuse some simple stretches into your work schedule or frequently take the stairs instead of an elevator.
Do something creative: Creativity is another powerful way to break the pattern and relieve stress. It helps stimulate your imagination and positively express your emotions. Bare minimum: make it a ritual to hear some instrumental music while you work or during your lunch break.
By breaking the pattern, you’ll be able to disrupt the cycle of stress and create a new one of relaxation and happiness. Caution: While it is important to break the pattern, you must also note that switching tasks too many times can rather turn out to be counterproductive.
Avoid Context Switching (switching tasks quickly and too often): Researchers at the University of London even found that multitasking on electronic media led to a bigger IQ decline than smoking marijuana or lack of sleep. Thus, it's important to avoid multitasking, take it easy and break the pattern when stress seems to build up.
Bonus: A fast track to stress free living
Work is tough and uncertain, the moods of your clients/boss fluctuate like wind speed, and managing relationships at home is a different story altogether. Financial situations wobble, and so does politics. Staying stress-free is a skill, like keeping your clothes spotless when walking on a muddy road in the rain.
Imagine if you had a tool or a vacuum pump to flush the stress you accumulate daily. Imagine you had a way to silence all the stressful noise in your mind and enjoy a smooth state of bliss and joy in a few minutes. Well, there is. And it’s easier than you think. Want to find out how? Join me at the upcoming Masterstroke (it's Free). In there, I also reveal the 3 best-kept systems to stop overthinking, and anxiety, and tap into inner tranquility no matter what situation/work environment you are in (make sure you don't miss it!).
2. Modulation in life
Modulation means finding a balance between productivity and pleasure. Here're some ways you can implement Modulation:
Prioritize your relationship with yourself
Many can balance relationships at work and home well, but most FAIL to have an amazing relationship with themselves!
Naturally, this leads to stress, anxiety, loneliness, overthinking, and even feeling low often. Just like relationships with others improve with quality time spent, we need to spend quality time with ourselves, keeping aside the constant cravings that pull us apart.
Quality time spent with ourselves is directly proportional to our well-being and happiness.
Spending Quality time with yourself can mean meditating, spending time in nature, sleeping adequately, and being curious about the nature of our mind, emotions, and the deeper self. When you enjoy being with yourself, you become more confident, cheerful and happy. Who wouldn't want to be around you and have a better relationship with you?
Eat healthy, mindfully
More often than not, you know what is healthy for you and what isn't. The key is to eat what is healthy mindfully. If you eat something with stress, the chances are it not getting digested the way it should be and producing more stress for you.
Eating is a process to relish, let's not make it even that stressful. Engaging in mindful eating practices, such as paying attention to hunger, relishing the sensations on the tastebuds, and noticing the fullness cues, can help develop a healthier relationship with food. This can reduce emotional eating, which often results from stress or negative emotions.
3. Tackle stress through your breath
Let me ask you another question:
Do you know that you breathe more than 22,000 times a day? How many of these breaths do you breathe consciously? You may be breathing shallowly, quickly, or irregularly but what that means is a low Oxygen supply to your body, and most importantly to your brain.
An optimized flow of breath allows you to Work More in Less Time while Beating Stress.
Furthermore, our breath and our emotions are closely interconnected. When you’re stressed, your breath becomes shallow, fast, and irregular. This signals your brain that you’re in danger and activates the fight-or-flight response. Conversely, when you’re relaxed, your breath becomes deep, slow, and rhythmic. This signals to your brain that you’re safe and activates the rest-and-digest response. Therefore, by changing your breath, you can change your emotional state.
Deep breathing is a pre-requisite for optimal functioning of your brain especially when you are working under deadlines.
The irony is that during stressful times, we forget to breathe deeply. But there's a way you can use your breath as a tool to lower your stress and increase your well-being.
How? By learning Pranayama (breathing exercises) you can slowly increase your lung capacity and habituate yourself to naturally breathe longer and deeper – and that's another powerful way to live stress free.
In a nutshell
Stress is a silent killer. It aggravates the leading causes of death like heart disease, cancer, lung ailments and respiratory disorder, and suicide. And stress is far more widespread than you think. Over 40% of the world feels highly stressed and worried, while every 40 seconds someone dies by suicide.
But you don’t have to let stress control your life. All you need are these three simple tricks: preventing stress buildup; Modulation; and leveraging the power of your breath.
And why not make all of this as smooth and easy as possible by taking charge of your mind and emotions? If you haven’t signed up for the Masterstroke yet, this is your chance (if the link is still open, secure your spot now!)
A way to reduce stress is also to help others reduce their stress. If you found this article helpful, don't let your friends and family miss it.
Thank you for your curiosity about living stress free.
Thank you for taking action today towards a stress free life. Thank you for helping your loved ones tackle stress as well!
Vedant Kulkarni, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Vedant is an internationally acclaimed executive well-being coach, aka 'Friend In Need' for high performers like you, to help you clear the clutter of anxiety, overthinking and depression, take control of your emotions & feelings, and set up a road map to reach the top of your industry. Through his decades of experience and expertise he developed unique short, and effortless meditative techniques which are helping thousands high-performing executives, founders, employees, and artists to reclaim their peace of mind, take their performance to the peak, find love in what they do, and explore deeper secrets of this mind, and the life. Over the last decade, Vedant has guided CEOs, Executive Directors, and Heads of State from across the world, advised the United Nations, and closely worked with the World Health Organization on implementing solutions on mental health & wellbeing.
