We all have a lot of stress in our lives. When you have your own business, you often add even more stress into your life. You may be worried about making enough money to pay the bills. You may be stressed about getting more business, or keeping the customers you have. There are a lot of things that can stress you out. There’s no doubt about it.
The good news is that there are many things you can do every day that will help you reduce the stress in your life. None of these things are instant, but when you do them daily, you’ll find that you’ll be less stressed and feel a lot better.
1. Get Enough Sleep
This is one of those things that in theory is very easy to do but in practice is a lot harder. If you go to bed earlier, you should be able to get the average 7-9 hours a sleep per night that most of us need. Of course, we all know how hard it is to drag ourselves to bed at night. And of course we often have to wake up a lot earlier than we’d like to. But getting enough sleep is very important.
When you get enough sleep, you’re in a better mood the next day. It’s easier to handle everything going on in your life. When you don’t get enough sleep you’re more tired, less patient, and things will stress you out more easily. When you don’t get enough sleep, your cortisol levels are higher the next day. Cortisol is a hormone that is produced in response to stress. When you get enough sleep, your cortisol levels drop to normal levels. Sleep not only reduces stress, but also reduces anxiety and depression, so getting enough sleep is very important to keeping your stress levels down.
2. Exercise to Reduce Stress
Most of us don’t exercise enough. We spend a lot of time each day sitting, whether it’s because we’re working or relaxing after work. But exercise is important. They say you should get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity. Now, we all know that this will help your whole body and help get you in better shape, but exercising helps your mind too. Studies show that exercise helps reduce stress levels as well as improves your mood. It can even help with depression. Exercise will also help you sleep better, which is also helpful in reducing stress levels.
3. Eat Better
Eating healthy helps you in a lot of ways. Being less stressed is one of them. Drinking less caffeine will help you be less stressed. Studies have shown that people who eat more processed food and have more sugar in their diet are often more stressed. And of course, when you’re more stressed, you’re more likely to make poor food choices. Eating healthier and having more fruits and vegetables in your diet will help you be less stressed and feel better as well. Fish, seeds, nuts, and legumes are also good to add to your diet.
4. Be More Organized
People can be stressed when they have a lot of things to do, and don’t see how they can get it all done. It can be especially overwhelming when you know you have a ton of things to do, but can’t even name them all. Keeping everything you need to do in your head gives you more stress. Being more organized can help with this. If you write down everything that you need to do, you’ll already feel a little less stressed. That’s one thing that you don’t need to keep in your mind anymore, because it’s been written down. Then, go through it and decide when you’re going to do the things on your list. Now you know exactly what you need to do, and when you’re going to do it. You’ll feel a lot less stressed this way.
5. Don’t Procrastinate and Reduce Stress
It’s easy to procrastinate. If you don’t want to do something, you tell yourself that you have plenty of time, and you’ll do it later. You find other things that you can do now instead. The problem is that the things you still need to do are hanging over your head. You become stressed because you know in the back of your mind that you still need to get these things done.
It’s easy to tell someone not to procrastinate, but it’s a lot harder to actually stop. Here are a few tips. If it’s something that will take 5 minutes or less, do it right away. It’s not worth any stress if it’s something that will take you so little time to do. You’ll be thinking about the thing way longer than it would actually take you to do it!
If it’s something that will take you longer, there are still ways to overcome procrastination. One way is to set small bursts of work time. If you spend 15-30 minutes at a time working on the task, it may not feel as stressful. Sometimes starting a task is the hardest part. One way to get around that is you can set a minimum time to work on it. So for example you’ll work on the task for at least 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes are up you can stop, but often once you’ve started accomplishing something, you’ll go further.
6. Take a Look at Your Time Management
What do you spend your time doing? Do you give yourself any downtime? Do you relax at all? You need to make sure that not only are you doing the things that need to get done, but that you’re getting the things you want to get done too. If you have hobbies, make sure you’re spending time doing them. They’ll make you happier and less stressed.
If you notice you’re spending too much time in front of a screen, maybe you should spend less time on that. Then you can spend more time on things you want or need to get done. Every so often you should take a look at how you spend your time, and make sure that it’s how you intend to spend your time. If you spend time doing the things you want to and should be doing, instead of “wasting” your time, you’ll reduce stress in your life.
7. Reduce Stress by Journaling at Night
Journaling can not only help you be less stressed, but it can help you be happier as well. It can even help you sleep better! There are many things you can journal about, and you can choose which is best for you. Some people like to write about whatever is on their mind, and may include how they are feeling. This way they don’t have to think about it anymore and they can fall asleep more easily.
Some people like to write down everything they need to get done right before they go to bed. Others like to write down things they are grateful for. This is a great practice to start as it focuses on the positive things in your life. You can choose which things you want to journal about, as they all help you be less stressed and have a bonus of helping you sleep better.
If you notice, a lot of these work well together. Both exercise and journaling help you fall asleep easier and sleep better at night. This in turn helps you lower your stress levels even more. When you sleep enough, you have more energy and are more likely to make better food choices and exercise more. Again, all of these will help you be less stressed. So while none of these are instant remedies to helping you be less stress, when you add them into your life, you’ll find that you will be less stressed overall.
Enjoy,
