1 Weird Tip For Reducing Stress In Your Life

I don’t know about you but often I feel overwhelmed with everything in my life that needs to get done. Since this website is a one man show it takes a lot of work. Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining, I absolutely love it.

I had no idea. I created a monster and I absolutely love it.

But I’m sure in your life you feel the same way. If you’re a little bit younger you have school obligations like eadlines for papers you’re writing or mid terms coming up. Maybe you’re taking a full load of classes at college every single day. Then you might work part time and with what little time you have left, you’re trying to date, meet up with friends and live a normal life.

If you’re a little bit older you might live with somebody, go to school part time or simply work full time. There are so many things in life that keep us attached to the rate race out there. On top of running errands, grocery shopping, going to school or working full time you want to take care of yourself so you go to yoga class or go to the gym a few nights per week.

You might even have kids or other family that you take care of and that takes a significant amount of time.

Being in the generation that we’re in, we have obligations to both sides of the family. We feel obliged to our parents and want to spend time with them but then we might also have kids that need attending to.

We’re right in the middle of the craziness.

What do we do?

How can we live a little more simply and peacefully with so much going on?

Like I mentioned earlier with regards to our show, I could easily employ 10 full time people to get where we need to be. If you’ve tried to email me lately I’m about 6 weeks behind on emails. I really apologize.

I’m rebuilding our store that’s taking many hours per day. I’m researching and scheduling guests to be on the show. I’m show prepping for each show. I’m editing all of the shows, doing all the post production work, rebuilding our entire website, doing graphics, marketing, writing and the list goes on.

At some point in the day (as with you and your obligations) I just have to tell myself, “I’m doing the best I can.”

In our culture we value “doing” things and accomplishing things to the extent that we have to step back and see how nuts that is. I have a list of things I try to do each day in order to achieve goals. I like to spend time reading, sit in the sauna, rebound, do qigong, walk the dog, workout, meditate and more.

I do my best to do these things on a daily basis but it does make life that much more crazy. Do you feel like this also?

Where do we get the idea that we have to accomplish all these things? Our society ingrains in us that we must achieve and do things. It values accomplishments more than character.

So the first step is recognizing that this guilt we put on ourselves stems from years and years of programming all throughout our lives. I’ve been programmed and so have you. It’s okay to admit that. It’s amost unavoidable living in this crazy world we live in right now.

Once we understand where this guilt comes from we can actually start valuing something other than what we were programmed with. Simple awareness is key.

After we cultivate that awareness and understanding we can place more value on being rather than doing. This will help us begin to let things go that no longer serve us.

What might not serve us?

Perhaps the guilt that comes with having too many obligations, plans, commitments or crazy “to-do” lists that we purposely create in order to not complete so we can beat ourselves up over it.

We create the very thing that we can’t complete in order to have guilt over it? Why would we do that?

My guess is that we don’t have self esteem or it has been beat out of us so we’re looking for any reason to feel bad about ourselves.

You might want to consider simple practices like the one Dr. Alex Loyd covers in The Healing Codes with Dr. Alex Loyd (interview) or even adopting a practice like Qigong (interview) for stress management. These are other things to consider for stress management. The key is to avoid beating yourself up if you miss a day of doing either of these practices.

It’ll defeat the whole purpose! I’ve found them to be extremely helpful.

My Daily Mantra

Every night as I’m going to sleep I remind myself of a simple phrase and all my guilt goes away. After I remind myself of this I feel a deep sense of relaxation and peace. It’s almost as if nothing else matters and the stress instantly lifts.

In my mind I tell myself I have to do this or do that or I have to get back to these people who’ve been waiting on me for weeks. I could literally keep myself awake all night worrying about what people are going to think of me. Are they mad at me? Are they waiting on me? But it all goes away when I tell myself this.

What’s the mantra you ask?

Well it’s simple. It’s just this small phrase…

I’m only one person and there’s only so much I humanly do each day. I’m doing the best I can.

Then I fall to sleep as if everything on my “to-do” list is done and I’m completely caught up with everything.

Try it out. See if it works for you and then comment below!