How to Avoid Stress with the Best Ways to Deal with Stress

In our modern society most of us struggle with how to avoid stress in our daily lives. Let's face it, if you want to avoid stress in your life, the only option is to run off to a remote tropical island and spend all day drinking pink drinks out of coconuts and staring at the soothing blue ocean.

For those of us who don't happen to have our own tropical island, self-awareness is one way to manage stress. It might not have occurred to you, but when we experience emotional stress, the human body reacts by fast, shallow breathing and a general tensing up of muscles, usually in the neck and shoulders.

When you feel a stress attack coming on, just mentally step out of the stress-causing situation, count to ten and take three deep, slow cleansing breaths. Then on the forth breath hold it to a count of ten then release it with force. This may sound overly simplistic, but try it! It works wonders. It’s the easiest method on how to relieve stress you'll ever learn. Also, each person finds different situations stressful. What raises your stress levels?

Take a few moments and write down the things that create stress in your day. Do you notice a pattern? How can you avoid these situations? Are there people that you deal with on a daily basis who cause you stress? Aside from hitting the old trap door button that drops them into a pit of hungry crocodiles, what measures can you take to diffuse stressful situations?

If you have a co-worker who enjoys baiting you, instead of snapping when they say something that is going to set you off, count to ten, breathe and just smile. If you know that route X along your way to work is always jammed with traffic and that is on your list of stressful situations, try leaving a few minutes early or taking a different route. If that is not possible, play soothing or uplifting music and focus your thoughts on the positive things you'd like to achieve with your day today.

The key for how to avoid stress is that only you can control your actions and reactions. You can avoid stress if you really want to. So relax, shift your focus and instead of grumbling about the traffic, realize that here is an opportunity to listen to your favorite music, to muse about this evening's dinner plans or to enjoy a few minutes to gather yourself before your day begins.

Once you realize that you can't stop the idiot in the car alongside you from cutting you off without indicating, it becomes a matter of choice for you.  You can decide to let it raise your blood pressure or you can just shrug and hum along to your favorite song.