8 Tips for Reducing Stress

A hormone called cortisol is the main culprit behind the rise of stress within your body's chemical makeup. The release of cortisol essentially causes your body to unnecessarily waste energy attempting to combat the effects of stress. DHEA is a hormone capable of inhibiting the release of cortisol. Failing the ability to use DHEA to combat cortisol production, the best way to fight back stress is through controlled relaxation. Strategies for reducing stress depend to a large extent upon your own personality; some people become more stressed as they focus on work while others experience stress reduction. Surely, one of these strategies for reducing stress can be of some help.

Delegate Responsibility

A good way to reduce stress in the workplace or at home is to delegate responsibility...or not. Delegating responsibility is an effective stress reducer only if you can be confident that those you put in charge are capable of doing the job to your satisfaction. Otherwise, this is not a strategy for reducing stress, but rather one for increasing stress.

Keep a Stress Journal

Stress often is compounded because you aren't fully aware of the precise mechanisms at play in creating the stressful situation. Start keeping a stress journal in which you keep detailed notes of exactly what has caused you to stress out. Be sure to include as much information as possible such as the time of day, the concrete cause, your state of mind at the time the cause of stress was enacted, who was involved and what other types of stressors were part of the process.

Take a Bubble Bath

The stress reduction properties of taking a bubble bath can vary according to individual. For some, the release of stress is the result of just getting away from the world for a half hour or so. For others, the stress may be reduced as a result of a pleasant scent associated with the bubble bath. Other properties of stress reduction associated with a bubble bath are the ability to stretch out and relax your entire body, the feeling of warm water against your skin and the soothing qualities of steamy situations.

Declutter

Clutter causes stress in a number of ways. You may get stressed out because you can't locate items or objects easily. Clutter can make your life stressful when you are trying to make your way through a minefield on the floor that invariably trips you up. Engage in the decluttering process to reduce stress in a number of different and helpful ways.

Set Goals

Stress enters the lives of some because they sense a failure to live up to expectations. Setting goals can help delineate exactly the route your life needs to take to wind up at the destination of your dreams. Setting goals to reduce stress starts with writing the goals down where you can see them regularly. A formal commitment to achieving goals can potentially cause stress if the goals are too grand or difficult to achieve. Make sure you set goals in writing in a way that allows you to achieve lesser accomplishments on your way to the big dreams at the end.

Educate Yourself About Health Problems

Stress for some is the result of health problems. These problems can range from the overwhelming like potentially terminal cancer to those that daily affect your ability to get past stress like depression. One way to deal with the stress associated with health problems is to educate yourself about the illness, diseases or disorder. The more you know about the causes and treatments of your health issues, the better you will be able to deal with it and dealing with things effectively can significantly reduce the impact of stress on your life.

Get Over the Guilt of Not Visiting Family Members

Parents. Aunts. Uncles. Cousins. Siblings. All these family members can potentially place undo stress upon you do to their incessant need for attention. You may be the recipient of stress as a result of constant criticism from parents or siblings. Your stress may the result of visiting family members who never let you forget they are more successful than you. Keep this stress reduction tip in mind: just because you share blood doesn't necessarily mean you are required to share time.

Widen Your Social Network

Having 15,533 friends on FaceBook isn't really the same thing as having five dependable friends you can count on to help you out when you need to reduce stress in your life. Don't think that you have to do it all by yourself. Yes, absolutely, friends can be the biggest pain in the keister you will ever come across, but a good friend can be far more effective at reducing stress in your life than a six pack, a rock of crack or the umpteenth airing of "Titanic."