How Can Parents Destress?

Parents can have high-stress levels, especially when they have a child with special needs or a diagnosis. Parents can also have high-stress levels by filling their schedule to the point that there is not enough time in the day to do all that is required of them. Another stressor for parents is having super duper high expectations for themselves and their children.

With all the stress that parents deal with, asking how they can destress is a valid question.

The number one way parents can destress is through prevention. Preventing stress is a tall order; it just takes a little pro-action.

Stress prevention is preparing yourself for what is to come. So, how does one prepare?

We can prepare by taking care of ourselves. We can take care of ourselves emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually.

How do we take care of ourselves emotionally? We learn how to be happy. Sounds silly, I know, but many people, especially parents, have the habit of anger or irritation over the most minor things. 

One of the best ways to learn to be happy is to focus on all that you love and all that is great in your life. A nasty habit people have learned from their parents is concentrating on the negative. Children do a thousand things correctly, all day long, and if they do one or two things wrong, it is focused on. For example, if a child gets, let's say, 3 A's and 3 C's on their report card, the parent may focus on the C's and how they can make the C's, A's. What should be done to help the child empower themselves and develop the habit of focusing on the good is that parents should magnify the A's. In other words, celebrate the A's, even if the child has C's or F's.

Parents should compliment them at least one hundred times if children do a thousand things right all day. Praising a child just a couple times a day would make that child very confident and happy. A secure and comfortable child makes a happy parent. Pretty cool, eh?

How do we take care of ourselves mentally? We think good thoughts. Have you ever heard the term auto-pilot? Well, many people have their minds on auto-pilot and what that does is it allows us to think randomly. When we think randomly, we may think about what we don't have and how we are not what we want to be, which is very human. 

What kind of good thoughts can we think? We can think of all of the blessings we have in our lives. 

If I were to tell you a story about a woman who lost all four of her children, one at a time, you would think how lucky you are to have all of your children. Guess what? It is not necessary to hear a sad story of a woman who lost her children tragically to know how lucky we are to be able to hug and kiss our kids every day. In other words, know your blessings. 

How can we take care of ourselves physically? Eating right, getting plenty of rest, and exercising are how we take care of ourselves physically. This small but essential list will help us create energy, and it takes energy to manage stress.

How do we take care of ourselves spiritually? We fill ourselves with God's love and love for others. This can be done every day. Going to church really helps to refill us spiritually too. If I miss going to church on just one Sunday, I feel it.

So, how can parents destress? Here is your list of stress prevention, in short.

Take care of yourself emotionally by learning to be happy all the time. TOTALLY POSSIBLE!

Take care of yourself mentally by thinking good thoughts all the time. TOTALLY POSSIBLE!

Take care of yourself physically by eating right, exercising, and getting plenty of rest. TOTALLY POSSIBLE!

Take care of yourself spiritually by filling yourself with the love of God and loving others. TOTALLY POSSIBLE!

I believe this because I live it and know it is TOTALLY POSSIBLE!

You can do it! You have the power. All you have to do is think you can.

Have a great week, and don't forget to have fun and be playful.

Love you lots ;0)

BIG HUGS...

Elizabeth Stanfill 

If you love what you read here, you may find my books by clicking, books by Elizabeth Stanfill.

WHY IN THE HECK DON'T WE DESTRESS???

Well, hello there, my friend!  How are you?  I hope that you are absolutely perfect today.

 

I have another question for you!  My question is, why in the heck don't we de-stress?

 

I know the question is broad and general.  Well, why don't certain people with stress learn how to handle stress better?  Is it because they don't want to?  Or is it because they don't know how to?  Or is it because they love being miserable?  Or is it because they do not believe they can?

 

The answer......................is........................YES!  

 

Yes to all of the above.

 

People don't learn to manage stress because they don't want to, don't know how to, love being miserable, or believe they cannot.

 

Oh, I cannot wait to get the emails on this one, he he he.

 

Let's start with why people don't want to manage their stress.  I believe people want to manage stress but do not want to do the work.  It is so easy not to do anything.  Call it laziness, lack of motivation, or inability to act.  Whatever you call it, it all boils down to not wanting it bad enough.  If you want 'it,' meaning a better life, happiness, energy, vitality, and joy, you will do something to manage your stress.

 

What could you do?  You could read a book on stress, Google stress management, talk to your Bishop or clergy, or seek professional help.  You could eat for energy, exercise vigorously, learn to have faith in yourself and others, and learn to relax to know how anytime and anywhere.

 

That takes care of wanting to and how to; now, let's talk about loving misery.  People will say, I don't love misery or being miserable, but I would argue, "If you don't do anything about it, you must love it."  Harsh, I know, but some people are so engulfed in drama and misery every day that they must love it.  People always come to me asking for help, and the people who always have an excuse as to why they can't improve this or that, I am convinced that they love misery.  Maybe it brings them attention or a purpose in life, I don't know, but they refuse to live without it.

 

I'll give you an example.  This individual came to me because of the stress in the business that they own.  This person was overwhelmed because employees were flaky, wouldn't hit deadlines, would call in sick or late, and would do whatever they wanted.  We discussed boundaries; this business owner had every excuse for why each boundary would not work.  We are discussing boundaries like disciplinary action if employees do not adhere to company policy.  We also discussed learning not to get upset when employees display this behavior, but there were more excuses.  This business owner suffered because of the unwillingness to do anything about the distress.

 

This person has to love suffering!

 

Lastly, I suggest that people do not manage their stress because they believe they cannot.  This is a consequence of a lack of self-confidence.  People have a fear of poverty, old age, criticism, loss of love, ill health, or death, and all of these fears cause low self-confidence.  Any fear causes low self-confidence.  

 

So, what can we do?  We can discover our fear and turn it into faith.  Yes, yes, yes, a lot easier said than done.  But you have a choice; you can choose to have fear, or you can choose to create faith, it's just a thought.

 

My friend, if you want to de-stress yourself and haven't taken the steps yet, maybe you need to evaluate why.  Is it that you don't want to?  Or is it that you don't know how?  Or is it that you love being unhappy?  Or is it that you do not believe you can?

 

Once you have evaluated your reason, work on that as a goal.  If you want happiness, energy, vitality, and joy in your life, then learn to want to de-stress yourself, learn how to de-stress yourself, learn how to love happiness instead of misfortune, or learn how you can believe you can.

 

IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY, SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!

 

If you are not living with happiness, energy, joy, and vitality, something must be done. You can learn to be happy by de-stressing yourself, and I can show you how for free. The only thing you gotta do is read my blog and apply the practices.

 

If you want to live your dream life, let me help you. Learn to de-stress yourself by me for free, and experience permanent stress relief. There are many de-stressing exercises throughout my blog, and you can apply them throughout your week or month. Practice can make permanent stress relief.

 

Praying for your success, and thank you for visiting my blog.

 

Remember to have fun and be playful.

 

Elizabeth Stanfill

HOW I DESTRESS MYSELF

 Hey!!!  Hi!!!  How are you this wonderful day?

Just want you to know that I am so grateful for you and I appreciate all you do!!!

There is a question that has been handed to me over and over via email and that is, "Elizabeth, what do YOU do to destress yourself?"

Well, I try my hardest to practice everything I preach, and every morning I do specific things for my stress prevention.

Every morning I wake up, the first thing I do, when I get out of bed, is get on my knees and pray.  I pray with gratitude, I pray for forgiveness, and I pray for blessings upon those who are in need.  The gratitude helps me remember all the wonderful things I am blessed with, the forgiveness helps me remember the weaknesses that I need to improve on, and the blessings for others are something that is very important to me.

After my morning prayer, I do four things to help destress and prevent stress in my life and they are clean, exercise (yoga), meditate, and read my scriptures.

These are my morning habits, every morning, and they help me prevent stress by starting the day right and feeling good.

The cleaning helps me keep my house decent.  My house is not immaculate but, I am not embarrassed to invite guests in when they pop by.  When I have a dirty house, I do not feel good about myself. 

Our lives are busy and sometimes a clean house is not a priority, I understand that.  But for me, what joy it brings to have a decent home because my home is my Heaven on earth. 

After I clean, I do yoga, which has been a part of my life for about nine to ten years.  Although I use to attend classes, I now know enough to do a routine of poses that stretch nearly every part of my body.  This practice helps me feel 25 years young.  People my age (which is 45 btw), or younger, are always complaining about their aches and pains and yoga is a great cure.

After my yoga, I meditate.  Meditation is absolutely the most important thing we can do for our minds.  When we practice meditation, we quiet our racing thoughts and find joy in the moment, no matter how stressed we are. 

Just about every person, who comes to me about their stress, or other related problems, I encourage them to meditate.  Unfortunately, this is the hardest thing to get people to do.

Finally, the last thing I do is read my scriptures.  This is a spiritual practice that keeps me and my faith alive.  All of the other things I do before I read my scriptures, I do for at least 15 minutes but, I read my scriptures, usually, for 20 to 30 minutes a day.  I want to be close to Heavenly Father and I love having the spirit with me as much as possible.

Now, I understand some of you may say, all of this sounds a bit silly and why would I want to start my day with so many things?  I ask you, what is the alternative?  Getting up, getting ready, and going to work, school, or where ever you have to go? 

Doing all of these things helps me create and start my day with focus and intention.  Yes, I love to live my life with intention.  I intend on having a healthy and clean home, body, mind, and spirit. 

Just getting up and going lets us run our lives on auto-pilot and remain in the constant state of going nowhere. 

The goal is to find things that will help us feel good.  When we create habits that help us feel good about ourselves and life, we are much better at handling stress that comes our way.  Healthy habits replace stressful ones and when we have habits they become a part of our blueprint for our life.

There you have it!  The things I do, every day, that destress me.  Every day, I take care of the most important things to me, my home, my body, my mind, and my spirit.  All of these things keep me emotionally stable and it helps me help others. 

Have a wonderful week!

Until the next post, don't forget to have fun and be playful.

Elizabeth Stanfill

Destress Yourself With Solution Focused Thinking

 

Greetings, my friend!  I hope you are having a great day!

Are you stressed?

One of the reasons we become so stressed and overwhelmed is that we worry about a particular problem or situation, become obsessed with it, and are unable to think of anything else.

There are many reasons we do this; instead of asking why, we can evolve our thinking and become solution-focused. To become solution-focused, we must identify the best resolution and make it a goal.

When we figure out an answer and create a goal, we can replace our incessant worry with solution-focused behavior.

Here are three easy steps to creating a goal.

1. Decide on a solution to your problem, in other words, figure out the best remedy to your current dilemma.

2. Write the solution down as a goal.

3. Focus on this goal diligently and effortlessly by replacing your obsession with worry with an obsession for this goal.

One of the greatest things that we can do for ourselves when we become overwhelmed and stressed out is to focus on what we want. By focusing on our desire, we create a habit of solution-focused thinking rather than worrying. And this, my friend, is truly de-stressing yourself.

 

The science of habit is that practice makes permanent. 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out what you want and turn it into your purpose. Keep practicing this habit into permanence.

Until next post, don't forget to have fun and be playful.

 

I love you, 

 

Elizabeth

What Is Stress?

Hi there!!!  How are you?  I hope you had a great weekend!

I got a couple questions for you.  What is stress?  What does the word 'stress' mean to you?  Does it mean that you are going through something difficult?  Does it mean you are going through something you are unable to handle?  Is stress your situation?  Is it your job?  Your boss?  Your spouse?  Your kids?

What does stress mean to you? 

The reason I ask these questions is because many people have the illusion that stress is a person or a situation and if they aren't experiencing something they believe they are not stressed. 

Often times when I ask a person if they are stressed out, they say yes, and blame it on a person or a situation, or they tell me they have no stress at all.

Recently, I was working with this medic who was having anxiety attacks.  I asked her what she was stressing over and she said she has no stress. 

YOO HOO!  HAVING ANXEITY ATTACKS IS STRESS!!!

After exploring a little more, we discovered she had tons of stress.

She was sleeping very little, she was eating unhealthy, processed, fast foods on a regular basis and she was suffering from very low self esteem. 

These are all very stressful habits because stress is strain.  Stress is not a person or circumstances we are going through, it is caused by the strain we put on ourselves emotionally, mentally, and physically.

This medic had stress because she was putting strain on herself physically through lack of sleep and unhealthy eating habits and she was putting emotional and mental strain on herself through all of the unhealthy thoughts she was creating from her low self-esteem.

Lack of sleep and unhealthy eating habits weigh on you because it takes energy to sustain yourself through out your day.  Your body needs rest and nourishment to maintain it's healthy immune system.  When we do not take care of our bodies we cause physical stress.

Emotional strain comes from our mental process.  If we think that we aren't good enough we start to worry about that and we begin to feel anxiety or depression.  Worry is mental strain (or stress), and anxiety and depression are emotional strain (or stress). 

When we have emotional, mental, or physical stress we are unhappy.  Learn to destress yourself by eliminating your strain so that you may experience happiness, energy, and vitality which truly is HAPPINESS!!!

One of the best ways to discover your stress is to look at how well you are taking care of yourself emotionally, mentally, or physically.  Discover one thing that you can change in any of these areas, make it a goal to change it, and watch yourself make a shift in destressing yourself.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day!

Until next post, don't forget to have fun and be playful!

Elizabeth

Are You Burned Out???

Sooo, my question today is, are you burned out on life, your job, or your relationship? Or, are you just burned out? The reason I ask these questions is because burnout causes misery. Burnout is a very stressful state.

How do you know you are burned out? Excellent question! The three elements of burnout are, exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness.

When we are exhausted, we are physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. No matter how much rest we get or caffeine we drink, we are still exhausted.

When we are cynical, we are focusing on all the negative things that are happening and we are very negative in our attitude which includes our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

When we are ineffective, we are ineffective to ourselves, to our family, to our friends, and to our work environment.

If you are displaying any of these signs, chances are high that you are burned out. When we are burned out we must take action or it will get worse.

What should we do when we are burned out? First, we should evaluate the fundamentals of basic stress management. These fundamentals include taking care of ourselves and learning to enjoy life.

Have a great day!!!

Until next post, don't forget to have fun and be playful...

Elizabeth

A Very Stressful Habit

Greetings my friend...Happy Monday ;-)

I hope you had a wonderful Weekend.

Today, I want to talk about a very stressful habit.

A very stressful habit is not paying attention to and creating our thoughts. Often times, we allow our thoughts to run on autopilot. When our thoughts are on autopilot we may think about the worst thing that could happen, in any situation, and that can cause us stress, rather than focusing on what we want. When we focus on what we want we are more focused, organized, and productive.

So, living our lives with our mind on autopilot can be a stressful habit, and paying attention to and creating our thoughts is a successful practice.

Practice paying attention to and creating your thoughts.

When we pay attention to our thoughts we can notice the mood of our mind. Our mood may be doubt in ourselves, fear about the future, or worry about outcomes.

When we create our thoughts we can think about our goals and what we want, we can think about having faith in ourselves and others, we can think about faith in the future and confidence in our outcomes.

We have a choice! We can allow our minds to run on autopilot and let our stress run our lives or we can pay attention to and create our thoughts and build confidence, certainty, and faith.

Decide what you want! Always think about what you want and move towards that!

The goal is to get better and better, at life, as we age, and that includes getting better at what we think about.

The goal is to get better and better, at life, as we age, and that includes getting better at what we think about.

If you would like help at creating and paying attention to your thoughts please check out my 'HOW TO DESTRESS YOURSELF AUDIO'
Thank you for all of the emails.

I am so very grateful for you!!!

Have a wonderful week!

Until next week, don't forget to have fun and be playful!
Please email me if you have any questions, I would love to hear from you.

If you have not, please add me as a friend on facebook, Elizabeth M. Stanfill.

Elizabeth Stanfill
destressyourself.com
destressyourself.blogspot.com
661-877-7800
elizabeth@destressyourself.com

Destress Yourself With An Open Mind

Hello My Friend!  ;-)

I would love to discuss having an open mind and trying new things to help change your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

First, let me discuss a closed mind so that an open mind makes more sense. A person with a closed mind might say, "I know I should try new things to make changes in my life, but..." Fill in the blank. A person with a closed mind towards their stress refuses to believe, recognize, or acknowledge that life improvement is required.

Life improvement is always required! Why is life improvement always required? Because, if you are not improving yourself and your life, you will be in the constant state of going nowhere. Being in the constant state of going nowhere is being in the same place as you are now, in one year, in three years, or even in ten years from now.

Having an open mind is being teachable and having an attitude of wanting to learn. Are you teachable? Do you have the attitude of wanting to learn, specifically to improving your life? Are you willing to try new things to change your thoughts, feelings, and actions? If you answered yes, to all of the questions, then you probably have an open mind. :-)

If you are unhappy, something must be done!  If you are in the constant state of going nowhere with your career, finances, family, spouse, and/or health, something must be done.

Having an open mind to learn new things, like educating and preparing yourself to discover what you want out of life, and setting goals, is required to remove yourself from the constant state of going nowhere. 

Stop being stagnant and start moving forward in your life so that you can live the life you dream of.

If you would like to live the life you dream of, stick with me, follow this blog, and do the exercises that are provided so that you may destress yourself.

Have a great week and don't forget to have fun and be playful.

Elizabeth

Three Things You Can Do To Destress Yourself

Hello my friend!

There is something very important I would like to share with you and that is three things that you can do, right now, to begin your journey to destress yourself.

1. Take Responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
2. Have an Open Mind to ways to change your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
3. Make a Commitment to change your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

We can make the decision, right here and right now, to take responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, and actions. We are the only thinker of our thoughts and we often drift through life with our thoughts on autopilot, when we have the ability to choose what we think. When we take responsibility for our thoughts, specific feelings and actions follow.

For example, when we think we are going to the beach we may be excited, we feel good, and we behave as though we are in a good mood. Or, we think we have to clean the house, and what a terrible thing that is, we feel dread, and then we are in a not so good mood.

These two examples are very microscopic when it comes to real stress but, whether our stress is miniature or gigantic, whatever we think does not make a thing true, it just makes it a thought, then a feeling, then an action.

Here is where the, "have an open mind," comes in. When we have a thought, we can change our thoughts to what we want. We can think, cleaning the house is not so bad, and it will make us feel better, after we are done. Sound silly? Maybe it does but, it is how we think of things that causes our reactions, and in turn causes our stress.

It is time to make a commitment! Make a commitment to destress yourself by taking responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, and actions and by having an open mind to changing your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

WE ARE THE ONLY THINKER OF OUR THOUGHTS, WE GET TO CHOOSE OUR THOUGHTS, WE GET TO CHOOSE OUR FEELINGS, AND WE GET TO CHOOSE OUR ACTIONS!

We can be happier, we can make more money, we can have a better relationship, we can loose more weight, we can find a better career, we can get more clients, we can do anything we think we can. So, let's start thinking we can, have an open mind, try new ways of thinking we can, and make a commitment to our life.

This week, let's take responsibility to noticing our thoughts and creating better thoughts. When we do this we will notice how good feelings and actions follow.

Have a great week and don't forget to have fun and be playful.

Elizabeth Stanfill

Gratitude

Hello!!!

I hope you are having the best day ever. 

The reason so many people are stressed out, anxious, depressed, or angry is because of what they focus on.  So many people focus on what they don't have instead of what they do have.  So many people compare themselves to others and it makes them feel not so good about themselves and life.

I feel very happy and grateful everyday of my life because I try to focus on what is good. 

I am grateful for my son, the most handsomest, most intelligent, most fun person in the world.

I am grateful for my parents who are the most loving people in the world.

I am grateful for my home, my brothers, their wives, and their children.

I am grateful for my many many friends all over the world.

I am grateful for the fun I have each and every day.

Sure, there are lots of things that I can point out that are wrong about the people and things on my list, that I am grateful for, but I try not to because then it would make me not so happy as I am.

Today, my friend, choose gratitude!  Choose to focus on the things you are grateful for!  Choose to wake up grateful every morning, remind yourself through out the day, and go to sleep grateful and watch yourself become an expert at destressing yourself.

Have a super duper day!!!  Don't forget to have fun and be playful!!!

Until next post...

Elizabeth 

How To Destress Yourself; The Second Step

Hello there my friend.

In my last two posts, How to Destress Yourself; The First Step and The First Step Continued,  I discussed, in detail, how we must begin the process of destressing yourself.  Basically, these posts are about awareness of yourself and your stressful habits.

In this post, I would love to discuss The Second Step to Destress Yourself and that is THE DESIRE TO CREATE HAPPINESS, ENERGY, AND VITALITY.

If you are unhappy with your life, your work, your body, your finances, your relationships, your energy level, and/or anything else that is a major influence In your life then YOU MUST WANT SOMETHING MORE!!!

If you want a better life, YOU MUST DEMAND IT!

If you want a better job, company, or career, YOU MUST CLAIM IT!

If you want better health, YOU MUST SEARCH FOR IT!

If you want better finances, YOU MUST CRAVE IT!

If you want better relationships, YOU MUST REQUIRE IT!

If you want more energy, YOU MUST DESIRE IT!

If you want anything, YOU MUST SEEK IT!

YOU GOT THE POWER!!! 

Can you feel the power in the words?  SEEK IT!  DESIRE IT!  REQUIRE IT!  CRAVE IT!  SEARCH FOR IT!  CLAIM IT!  DEMAND IT! 

Try this!  Imagine yourself, in your unhappiness, three years from now, 10 years from now, and then 20 years from now.

Then, Imagine yourself in the constant state of never ending goal setting with happiness, energy, and vitality, living the life you dream of three years from now, 10 years from now, and then 20 years from now.

JUST DO IT!  IMAGINE IT!

You don't have to know how your going to get it, just yet, just learn to DESIRE IT!  And then, follow my posts and we will create happiness, energy, and vitality, together!

Have a great day and don't forget to have fun and be playful!

Elizabeth

How To Destress Yourself; The First Step Cont...

From the last post, How To Destress Yourself; The First Step, you should have looked at the stressful habits, or characteristic, and determined which ones you are sustaining.  When you discover which stressful trait you are maintaining then you have begun the awareness, which is the first step to destress yourself.

So, now that you know your stressful habits what do you do with them.

Well, I will tell you.  You must learn to eliminate your stressful characteristic and replace it with the successful practice, which is the opposite behavior.

STRESSFUL HABIT VS. SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE (AKA OPPOSITE BEHAVIORS)

Angry vs Peaceful

Irritable vs Easy Going

Frustrated vs Composed

Sad vs Happy

Anxious vs Relaxed

Uptight vs Calm

Drinking vs Sober

Smoking vs Nonsmoker

Over Eating vs Eating for Energy

Reacting to situations with doubt, fear, and worry vs having confidence, faith, and hope

Being closed minded (unteachable) vs being open minded (teachable)

Being apathetic and indifferent about others and self vs being loving and caring towards others and self

Having a racing mind vs having a quiet mind

Having very negative thoughts vs having very positive thoughts

Experiencing negative emotions vs experiencing positive emotions

Being very critical vs being very complimentary

Mastering doubt vs mastering faith in life, others, and self

Getting offended easily vs being more understanding towards people's imperfections

Not intentionally setting goals vs Never Ending Goal Setting

Looking at what is wrong vs looking at what is right

Too serious about life vs having fun and being playful

Accepting illness vs eliminating illness

The awareness is knowing your stressful habits, discovering the opposite, successful behavior, and setting the goal to eliminate the bad and replace it with the good.

This is the first step to destress yourself.

I hope that this is helpful.

Have a great day and don't forget to have fun and be playful.

Elizabeth

How To Destress Yourself; The First Step

The very first step to Destress Yourself is creating awareness.

The most stressed out people I know (and believe me when I say I know some seriously stressed out people. I am not trying to be unkind, it's just the nature of my business) are the one's who say, "I am not stressed." 

These individuals, even though they say that they are not stressed, are always either angry, irritable, frustrated, sad, anxious, uptight, drinking, smoking, eating, and especially unhappy (to just name a few).   

Besides the moods mentioned above, these individuals have several things in common but the number one thing they have in common is the lack of awareness.

Some other very mutual characteristics that they display are:

They live their life with habitual stressful habits of reacting to situations with doubt, fear, and worry.

They are very closed minded (in other words, they know everything so they are unwilling to learn anything new or listen and learn about their weaknesses so that they may improve their lives).

They are very apathetic and indifferent about others and themselves.

They have a racing mind.

They have very negative thoughts.

They experience very negative emotions.

They are very critical of life, others, and themselves.

They are masters of doubt in life, with others, and with themselves (which means they have no faith in life, others, or themselves).

They get offended easily.

They do not intentionally plan goals.

Everything always goes wrong (in their eyes).

And they are too serious about life.

Oh ya, and I guarantee they have at least one illness (stress is the number one cause of every illness).

How do I know all of this?  Well, I have taught, and teach, thousands of people to destress and these are the most common traits that have been derived through a survey I have (and still do) administered.

So, back to the first step to destress yourself.  If you would like to destress yourself, in other words create happiness, energy, vitality, and true joy in your life, you must become aware of what is causing your stress. 

You, my friend, are causing your stress due to the reactions, that are frequently habitual, to your situations.  Your habits of reacting are causing your unhappiness.  And if you disagree with me then you can remain in your unawareness (aka ignorance). 

Shew, that was harsh.  It is harsh and it is true.  The truth hurts!

Look at the characteristics above and just notice if you have any of these behaviors.  If you do, especially if you have more than a few, you have just created awareness and that is the first step to destressing yourself. 

How can you find the solution to the problem if you do not know the problem?  Now that you know the problem, we can work on a solution, together.

Take the first step and create some awareness as to what is causing your stress so that you may destress yourself.

Have a great day and don't forget to have fun and be playful.

Elizabeth

Destress With Success!!!

Who is the most successful person you know?

If you could pick one person, who you think is the most successful person in the world, who would you pick?

I would pick my Mom, and I will tell you why, in a minute.

Now that you have chosen someone, why do you think that they are successful?  What makes them successful in your eyes?

Is it because they make more money than anyone?

Is it because they have more things than anyone else you know?

Is it because they have the career that you would love?

This is a great question to ask yourself because you may evaluate what success is for you.  When we know how we define success we then know what we want to work towards. 

What does success have to do with 'destressing yourself'?  Well, I'll tell you.

One of the reasons that you may be unhappy is because you do not think that you are successful.  When we are unhappy, we are stressed.

If you are unhappy because you think that you are unsuccessful then it would make sense to set goals to obtain what you define as success.

When we feel successful we then feel destressed.  It helps us with stress relief.

So, make a list of all the things or characteristics, that the successful person has, and set some goals to work towards your success.

Make sense?

The reason I picked my Mom is because she is the most loving, kind, giving, and forgiving person I know.  Her only intention is to help.  If anyone ever gets mad at or offended by my Mommy it is because they did, or do, not like the way she is trying to love, or give, or help, or forgive, and that is just plain silly.

So, success, to me, is being loving, kind, giving, and forgiving, which, by the way, is one great formula for happiness.

So, destress yourself with success. 

Elizabeth