Help! Five Stress Relief Tips You Can Use Right Now

Need stress relief NOW? Can't make it another moment? The following five stress relief tips will help you immediately.

Get out of the situation. If a meeting is out of control, excuse yourself to the restroom. Are your children fighting like crazy? Send them to safe places and get away to a separate room where you can think. Spouse pushing your buttons? Request a few moments alone to think clearly. Is the stressful situation a larger scale problem? Schedule a day off. Just by walking away, you will feel your stress level drop. Spend that precious short amount of time decompressing as much as possible.

Breathe deeply. Deep breathing exercises force your body to return to a more normal physical response, instead of staying in fight or flight mode. Pay attention to your breath as you inhale, hold it, and then slowly exhale. When you feel calm enough to handle the situation, return.

Think about the big picture. Ask yourself if this is important when you think about your life as a whole. Is your job on the line? Your relationship with your child or spouse? Your health? What other parts of your life are going well? Can the problem at hand be fixed easily? Determine what is rightfully your part of this problem.

Determine what you can reasonably do. Using the new persepctive you've gained, plan out what you can do to help solve the problem. Surrender whatever is not your responsibility, decide to do what you can do to help out, and let go of expectations for anything else.

Try to promote a peaceful approach to the problem. If others are still stressed out when you return, try to help them see there are solutions. Look for ways to work together, avoid blame, and find answers.

It's essential to have a plan for stressful situations. If your life is high-stress, you may want to build stress relief techniques into your daily routine.