I've recently learned a trick on how to prevent stress.
It's simple and it works! Being a parent of a teenager is inherently stressful - I think the words teenager and stress are actually synonyms - and any way you can figure out how to prevent stress while dealing with them is a huge help.
So what works for me? Getting centered! No not walking down a straightline or straigtening out my clothes, at least not for me, but as you read on maybe this will work for you.
In fact, everyone has their own personal way to get centered.
Once you are able to identify your best ways to reduce stress or get centered, you will be on the road.
Where does stress come from? I believe that anxiety or stress comes from lives or parts of our lives that are out-of-control.
It could be anything, money, children, lack of time freedom, and sickness are a few of the main areas that can become out of whack.
Our world is complicated and we are required to run at breakneck speed to keep up.
And as far as I can see it there is no way to get past that.
Even living alone on a desert island, knowing what we know now, would be stressful.
So how to we reduce our stress? I do solemnly believe that stress cannot be actually reduce just handled.
And the way I do this is to get centered.
What does it mean to get centered? Getting centered means figuring out something that you can do that will give you a sense of control in your life, even if it's in a tiny way.
It might not even be anything that needs controlling, but it has to be something you can control.
So even if you can't control any or all of the big things, if you can control something small, it can do wonders for your overall stress level.
Where do I start? Okay, what can you do that is calming or quieting and where you can feel you have completion when you are done? I do a couple of things to get centered - one is to mow the grass.
Much to my kids chagrin, NOT!, I will never pass this chore down to them.
Only to train them a time or two, but its mine, baby all mine! I feel so right after I am done mowing, just looking at that perfectly manicured lawn.
I am centered.
I also feel immensely centered when I make the bed.
That's right - nice tight corners and smooth sheets and blankets tucked in snugly.
It brings me right into center.
My wife loves this one especially.
My wife's method of how to prevent stress? To clean the sliding glass door.
When she's feeling out-of-control, she almost runs for the Windex and paper towels, and gets that baby so clean you could eat off of it.
It's her way of getting centered.
Paper Clips Piles! I heard about a CEO of a major corporation that get's centered by separating small paper clips from large ones.
When his assistant told him they could have someone else to that, he almost ripped the container of mixed-up paper clips out of his hand! Nope, that was his job, thank-you very much! So there you go.
Is your life out-of-control? Well, figure out what gets you centered, and you're well on your way to figuring out how to prevent stress.