148 Ways to Reduce Stress
1. Get up 15 minutes earlier
2. Prepare for the morning the night before
3. Avoid tight-fitting clothes
4. Don’t rely on your memory
5. Practice preventative maintenance
6. Make duplicate keys and stores them where you can get to them
7. Say no more often
8. Set priorities in your life
9. Avoid negative people
10. Use your time wisely
11. Simplify everything you can
12. Make copies of important papers and store them where you’ll be able to find them
13. Repair anything that doesn’t work properly
14. Ask for help
15. Chunk down big jobs into little ones
16. View problems as challenges
17. Look at challenges as opportunities
18. Unclutter your life
19. Smile
20. Be prepared for rain
21. Laugh at something
22. Pet a dog or cat
23. Don’t try to know all the answers
24. Look for the silver lining
25. Say something nice to someone
26. Teach a kid to fly a kite
27. Walk in the rain
28. Schedule some time each day to play
29. Take a long shower or bubble bath
30. Be conscious of the decisions you make
31. Believe in yourself
32. Stop beating yourself up
33. Stop saying negative things to yourself
34. Visualize yourself winning
35. Develop your sense of humor
36. Stop thinking that tomorrow will be a better day
37. Set goals for yourself
38. Say hello to a stranger
39. Ask a friend for a hug
40. Give a friend a hug
41. Look at the stars
42. Breath slowly
43. Learn to whistle
44. Read a poem
45. Listen to some music you’ve never heard before
46. Watch a ballet
47. Read something
48. Do something new
49. Stop a bad habit
50. Buy yourself a flower
51. Smell the flower
52. Find support from others
53. Give support to others
54. Do it today
55. Work at being cheerful and optimistic
56. Put safety first
57. Do everything you do in moderation
58. Pay attention to your appearance
59. Strive for excellence, not perfection—be perfectly human not a perfect human
60. Stretch your limits a little each day
61. Look at a painting or a sculpture
62. Hum a song
63. Eat nutritiously
64. Plant a tree
65. Feed a bird
66. Practice grace under pressure
67. Stand up and stretch
68. Have a “plan b” and “plan c”
69. Draw a picture
70. Buy some crayons and color
71. Learn a joke
72. Be responsible for your feelings
73. Meet your own needs
74. Know your limitations and let others know them, too
75. Throw a paper airplane
76. Exercise
77. Learn the words to a song
78. Get to work early
79. Clean out one closet or one drawer
80. Go on a picnic
81. Take a different route to work
82. Put an air freshener in your car
83. Watch a movie
84. Eat some popcorn while you are watching a movie
85. Write a note to someone you haven’t heard from in a while
86. Take a walk
87. Go to a ball game and scream
88. Eat a mean by candle light
89. Recognize the importance of unconditional love
90. Remember that stress is an attitude
91. Keep a journal
92. Practice a smile
93. Remember that there are always options
94. Develop a support system
95. Quit trying to “fix” people
96. Get enough sleep
97. Listen more
98. Talk less
99. Praise others
100. Stop counting things
101. Don’t rely on your memory
102. Do nothing which, after being done, leads you to tell a lie
103. Be prepared to wait
104. Plan ahead
105. Don’t put up with something that doesn’t work right
106. Allow 15 minutes of extra time to get to appointments
107. Eliminate (or restrict) the amount of caffeine in your diet
108. Relax your standards
109. Pollyanna-Power! For every one thing that goes wrong, there are probably 10 or 50 or 100 blessings. Count them!!
110. Ask questions to be sure you know what is going on
111. Turn off your phone and just relax
112. Turn ‘needs’ into preferences.
113. Simplify
114. Make friends with non-worriers
115. Wear earplugs
116. Create order out of chaos
117. Do deep breathing
118. Try yoga
119. Prepare and educate yourself enough to insulate yourself from needless fear—practice a speech enough, learn the facts, get involved to make a difference…
120. Talk it out
121. Learn to live one day at a time
122. Add an ounce of love to everything you do
123. Do something for someone else
124. Focus on understanding rather than being understood, on loving rather than being loved
125. Schedule a realistic day
126. Become more flexible
127. Use your weekend for a needed change of pace
128. Do one thing at a time
129. Plan for privacy, quiet and introspection everyday
130. When you have a yucky task, do it first and get it over with
131. Learn to delegate responsibility to capable others
132. Don’t forget to take a lunch break
133. Have a forgiving view of events and people
134. Have an optimistic view of the world
135. Drink water
136. Stop using drugs and abusing alcohol
137. Live within your means
138. Consider a career change
139. Tickle a baby
140. Have goals for yourself
141. Dance
142. Avoid negative people
143. Ask someone to be your vent partner
144. Maintain your weight
145. Learn a new doodle
146. Tell someone to have a good day in pig Latin
147. Practice grace under pressure
148. Pace yourself
Compiled by Renee Zaman, consultant Zaman@tds.net