5 Behaviour choices for a stress-free life

Life today is fast-paced and competitive. We are constantly moving from one thing to the next without ever taking time for ourselves or our loved ones. You wake up feeling exhausted and stressed every day because you haven’t had time for anything other than work or school during your waking hours. We are living a life that is not balanced. Our busy schedules create enough stress. On top of that, there comes another force: illness caused by chronic diseases such as high blood pressure or heart disease, leading to strokes; diabetes largely due to lackadaisical attitudes toward personal health care.

We can all agree that a lack of balance in our lives is not good for mental or physical well-being. Take, for example, a situation where one spouse goes through an extreme change (like losing their job) – loss of job results in emotional pain and stress, impacting that person’s relationships and daily interactions and creating an imbalance in their life.

Our mental stability becomes impaired when we continue to think about something repeatedly and become preoccupied with worrying or fretting. We enter a vicious cycle where the weight of the stone we are lifting never increases, but our ability and strength to carry that stone start diminishing.

There are many things that you can do to manage stress. But wouldn’t it be more satisfying if you could navigate through the trying situations and keep stress at bay?

So, what can you do to avoid getting stressed in the first place? Here I’m sharing some life and behaviour choices here that you can practice.  

Adapt: Stressful situations can cause emotional distress, which leaves people feeling defeated. To be successful in life, adapt to the situations, improvise and innovate, and then develop new solutions and opportunities.

Stay Calm: Keeping a calm mind helps us stay unperturbed and become hopeful through good times and bad. It also keeps stress under control, which allows for clarity of thought that can be used in weighing options or channelising our energy into something beneficial with ease! The knowledge that changes inevitably plays an important role makes this possible because it teaches you how not to react emotionally but rather handle every situation calmly.

Keep Anger in Check: The emotion known as anger can be a destructive force in many people’s lives. Anger inhibits your ability to think clearly and accomplish any goals, resulting in negative thoughts that lead people to do unpleasant things such as harming others or damaging property. 

The root cause of this feeling lies deep within you. It was born out of an experience or reaction to an unpleasant situation. You need to remember that no matter what you do, there will be instances and events that you cannot control, and they will happen without any warning signs beforehand! The choice to walk away or react aggressively will always be yours.

Practice Tolerance and Forgiveness: Life can be difficult, but tolerance helps us face hardships with equanimity. Forgiveness leads to greater understanding and pardons any wrongdoings that someone may have committed against you. Forgiveness enables both parties involved (the victim and those who caused pain) to heal together through love instead of hatred or resentment.

Learn to let go: The most stressful situations arise when we attach ourselves to things, people, goals, and outcomes. If you are working to achieve a particular result and you cannot accomplish it as per your expectations, you’ll get stressed. And under this stress, you will make decisions that could be more detrimental. Practice’ detachment’ – not attaching your happiness to an outcome. When you are detached from a situation or its consequence, you are in a better frame of mind to think beyond it. You can practice yoga, meditation, or deep breathing – anything that works for you as an individual. There is no one-size-fits-all approach here. 

Conclusion: While there are many things you can do to manage stress, it’s always more satisfying if you can avoid getting stressed in the first place. We hope that at least one of these behaviour choices works for you! If adopting a technique seems exhausting or overwhelming, start small and see how it goes. Not getting stressed in stressful situations will become second nature with time and patience. How have you managed your stress in the past? What techniques worked best for you? Tell us about it in the comments below.