Reducing stress everywhere.

I was on the Internet looking for some new information that could help us and found two articles about reducing stress but in two different ways: one in our lives, the other in our homes. I though that it could be very useful for us to combine all these tips in just one article in order to fight this enemy (the stress) in more than one way. Let’s start.

James S. Gordon offers in the HealthNewsDigest.com five steps from his most recent book “Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression” to help people deal the stress, “pain and insecurity that may come with today’s economic uncertainty”. Here they are:

• Begin a simple nondenominational meditation practice: Slow, deep breathing — in through the nose, out through the mouth, with the belly soft and relaxed and the eyes closed.
• Move your body: Physical exercise may be the single best therapy for depression.
• Reach out to others: Human connection is an antidote to the sense of aimlessness and isolation that may come from job loss or unexpected economic insecurity.
• Find someone who will listen and help you take a realistic look at your situation: Allow a trusted friend or adviser to help you look for possible solutions for any stressful situations you may be experiencing.
• Let your imagination help you find healing and new meaning and purpose: After breathing deeply and relaxing for a few minutes, imagine someplace safe and comfortable, it could be a place you know and love or one that comes to you.

Karen Maezen Miller, from The Huffington Post asks readers what does a monastery have that your home doesn't? And then answered: a lot less stress. She then explains which aspects from a monastery we can have in our homes to make they feel more “calm”. Here they are:

• Observe light. The natural world wakes with the first light of the sun--why not you? If rising at daybreak is too late for your daily work and commuting schedule, wake before the sun and observe the sunrise.
• Observe darkness. Turn the power off and see what happens when night falls. We've turned our homes into temples of electronic stimulation, and our default position is maximum overdrive.
• Observe quiet. The quiet that needs observing is not an external silence like the kind imposed at a library or hospital. Our homes are not ivory towers or infirmaries. The quiet that needs stilled is our internal commentary--the nonstop thoughts that stir anger, resentment, anxiety and fear.
• Observe bells. A mountain of laundry, a forest of weeds, and an avalanche in the hall closet: the sheer size of untended tasks at home can topple us into paralyzing despair. When chores get out of hand, pick up some extra time. Set a timer for 20 or 30 minutes and focus on doing one thing during that period.
• Observe nature.
• Observe order. Washing dishes, sweeping floors, folding clothes, clearing the table and sorting mail: these are not just simple means of practicing mindfulness, they are your mind.
• Observe ritual. Light a candle, and elevate your mealtime. Burn incense, and alleviate anxiety.

I hope this information can help you to fight stress, in different ways.

By Patricia Rivero.