Over two-thirds of visits to doctors’ surgeries are for stress-related ailments. Stress has been linked to headaches, backaches, insomnia, anger, cramps, elevated blood pressure, , and lowered resistance to disease. For women, stress is a key factor in hormonal imbalances resulting in menstrual irregularities, PMS, fibroids, endometriosis and fertility issues.

Stress factor

Stress may also be a factor in the development of virtually all disease conditions, including cancer and heart disease; the major cause of death in Australian women. Typically stress is a consequence of letting life get out of balance. This happens when we put all our energy into just a couple of areas of our life (usually work) and ignore the rest. We take on too much, over-promise, do not assign and push our own desires and needs into the desktop by constantly looking after others needs first.

We overload ourselves to the stage where we have to stop attending to what’s important to us, such as time for our interests and time to spend with our families. If stress is a significant problem for you there are steps you can take to restore balance to your life – so you can worry less and smile more. Most people suffering anxiety are very good at practising extreme self-neglect! They do not eat well, rarely exercise or take out time and probably can’t recall the last time they had a vacation. If you’re among these people you will need to take your self-care to new heights, above and beyond your normal limit.

Energy reserve

When you look after your own needs first you’re building a reserve of energy and resources that will let you sustain intense self-care with enough left over to look after others. Creating 10 delightful daily habits that give you pleasure is a superb place to start. Here are some suggestions. Stretch for two minutes. The secret to gaining accumulated benefits from the daily habits and practising extreme self-care would be to do them daily. Start with a single and commit to practising it for seven days, then add another, practising both for another seven days.

Continue adding your customs until you’re practising all 10 items in your list each day. Tolerations are circumstances and situations you set up with that drain you emotionally, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. They comprise crossed boundaries, unfinished projects or business, others’ bad behavior, frustrations, undesirable commitments, clutter, cluttered environment, broken things, being over weight, weeds in the backyard and debt. List five tolerations that drive you nuts about your work, life, and health and home and then devise a strategy to eliminate the first’excruciating’ toleration in your list this week.

Take note

Notice how this makes you feel, how it lifts a weight off your shoulders. Now think of how much better you’ll feel when you eliminate the other four tolerations in your listing! When you have finished the elimination of the initial five tolerations you’ve recorded, begin a new one and keep working until you have zero tolerations in your life. Step Three: Having your needs met! Unmet needs cause us to become upset, angry, stressed and depressed. The key to fulfilling our personal wants is to identify them. Identify needs that feel authentic, not ones that may look good to others or are shallow. Be mindful that what you believe to be a necessity (like to be loved) might be covering a true need (self-esteem).

It may be necessary for you to tell others exactly what your needs are and learn how to request support. Step Four: Smile often and laugh! Scientists have found that laughter stimulates the release of beneficial brain neurotransmitters and hormones, which can decrease stress, enhance our and give us an overall sense of wellbeing. Some physicians are using laughter therapy to substitute anti-depressants and to decrease the use of painkillers. According to researchers faking laughter will also create the exact same health and health results as real laughter. Do you have to boost your ability to laugh more? Bronwen Williams from Laughter Works Australia recommends that upon waking we must sit upright in bed or in a chair and smile vigorously and ridiculously.

This muscular action induces the release of endorphins and within moments we really feel happy! Without we don’t have any direction in life. We’re lost! When we are lost we become overwhelmed and stressed. Goals help us navigate our lives with greater ease and attaining goals fulfils us, making us happier. One way to learn what your actual goals are is to compose a list of 100 things you want to achieve before you die and then begin working on your list now! When you set a goal it tells your mind what’s important to you and also to be on the lookout for things, people, opportunities or situations that will let you move towards your objective.

Goals

Establishing goals is a tool we could use to have what we want and desire in our private and professional lives. Our environment can be supportive and give us energy or drag us down and leave us tired and stressed. An inspiring, enjoyable environment full of positive things and people energises us and we feel happier. Most of us need great support structures to assist our lives flow with less effort and to stay balanced.

Examine these five classes and look at who or what you use to encourage you in every area. Are you truly being encouraged? What do you have to alter to feel more encouraged in every area of your life? Start making the simplest changes . As it can take some time to become stressed, overwhelmed and out of equilibrium, in addition, it takes time to create positive changes in your life. Sometimes attempting to implement change (even for the better) can itself cause stress and prevent a individual remaining motivated. Making changes in your life can be stressful, even if the changes are aimed at reducing stress. Because of this it’s crucial to work on each of the steps one at a time, mastering each before moving on to another. If you discover you can not make the changes on your own, get support from a counsellor, doctor, naturopath, friend, life threatening or life coach who specialises in anxiety difficulties.