by Gina DeMent, Public Information Officer
Five County Mental Health Authority
Around the first of the year, most of us begin turning our attention to ways we can improve our lives.
While resolutions often center on developing new habits that will get us into better physical shape, reducing stress and getting into better mental and emotional shape can provide huge rewards. Eating right and getting exercise generally tops most peoples’ lists of goals for the new year. But this year, it might be wise to incorporate new habits that will reduce stress and increase happiness and overall life satisfaction.
Here are some important steps you can take to be a happier, healthier, and more relaxed you in the coming year:
Get enough sleep – Being sleep-deprived can be both a cause and an effect of being stressed. While stress can keep people up at night, operating on too few hours of sleep can make people less productive, more emotional, and more reactive to stressful events in their lives. This year, you can gain significant benefits by striving for better quality and greater quantity of sleep at night.
Have a Hobby – It’s important to keep learning, growing, and doing things you enjoy throughout your life. Having a regular hobby can provide a necessary outlet for mental stimulation and stress relief and help you maintain a balanced lifestyle.
Increase your social life – We are, by nature, social creatures, and the company we keep can have a huge impact on quality of life. Good friends and close family can celebrate with us during our best times and support us through our worst. A social network of healthy relationships can be a buffer against stress and provide many other benefits. However, conflicted relationships can cause additional stress and frustration, and even affect our health. This year, you can strongly improve your quality of life by seeking out healthy new friendships, improving the relationships you already have, and letting go of relationships that drain you.
Get rid of clutter – Living in chaos can create stress. Whether you’re overloaded by clutter, disorganized with your schedule, or carrying excess emotional baggage, disarray can make you feel scattered and rob you of resources. While many of us live in cluttered homes, for example, most of us don’t realize that the clutter can rob us of time (as we look for lost items), money (as we pay late fees on bills and things we can’t find) and peace of mind (as sitting in a cluttered room can drain your energy without you even realizing it). This year, you can take weight off your shoulders by being more organized with your time, giving away things you don’t need, and maintaining your home as a haven.
Know your stress relievers – Sometimes stressful situations seem to culminate quickly, and we can go from feeling fine to overwhelmed in a very short period of time. When this happens, it impractical to stop your life to go practice yoga, get a massage, or try other effective but time-consuming stress relievers. It’s best to have a quick and effective way to turn off your fight or flight response and trigger your relaxation response.
Be optimistic – Many people don’t realize that the way they see the world has a heavy impact on their stress level, but it’s true: pessimism and negative self-talk can cause you significant amounts of stress. Whether you see situations as threats or challenge, beneficial or negative, stressful or exciting, is a matter of your point of view. Fortunately, your point of view can be changed with practice. How much happier, more productive, and less stressed could you be if you omitted some self-defeating thought patterns?
Reduce job stress – Is your job your greatest level of stress? It’s not surprising, considering the long hours, heavy workload, and other factors that come into play in today’s workplace. However, some jobs are more stressful than others. Feeling overwhelmed and burned out by your job can add stress to virtually every area of your life. This year, one of the best things you can do for yourself is examine your work life and see what changes you can make in order to reduce stress. This may include finding tools to increase your productivity, changing certain aspects of your job, adding to your life outside of work so you feel less stressed in general, or even examining whether you’re in the right field.
Have a plan for the future – While there’s a lot to be said for living in the moment, there’s a difference between being fully present in your life and feeling so overwhelmed by stress that your focus goes no further than how to get through the next day. You should be able to reduce your stress level so that you’re able to look into the future and chase your dreams. Do you have a strong financial plan in place? Are you expressing yourself as fully as you’d like? Are you on the path to where you’d really like to be with your relationships and personal growth? This doesn’t mean a set-in-stone blueprint, but a idea of where you’d like to be in the future so you can be growing in that direction.
A balanced lifestyle means having the time to choose doing the things you enjoy, rather than the things that you have to do!
These tips may help you figure out how to take back your life. Fight for a balanced lifestyle! Take the time to enjoy and do what matters most to you! It’s a New Year’s resolution that you CAN keep. Remember – take control of you and everything else will fall into place!!!
If you feel that stress is affecting your life, Five County Mental Health Authority offers free stress management classes to organizations, companies and other agencies. Call Anne Williams at 252.430.3077 or Gina DeMent at 252.430.3031 for more information.
For more information regarding mental health, developmental disability, or substance abuse services available in our area, call the Five County Mental Health Authority’s Helpline number at 1.877.619.3761.