Inner Peace and Joy Daily Tip: Are You Dealing With Stress

Are You Stressed Out?

Stress is your body's inside response to what you perceive as outside pressure. You may be stressed if you are experiencing these physical and behavioral signs. Check with your doctor to be sure!

7 Physical Signs that You May Be Stressed

• Chest pain
• loss of appetite
  
• menstrual irregularity
• hair loss/ baldness
• neck and back pain
• constipation or diarrhea
  
• skin conditions such as eczema
  

7 Behaviors Signs That You May Be Stressed

• Inability to concentrate
• Irritability
• Trouble sleeping
• Feeling excessively tired
• Nail biting
• Crying often
  
• Paranoia
  

Stress Management: 2 Ways To Manage Your Stress

If you are stressed, then it is important to understand that you may have limited control over your circumstance but you can have total control over your emotional response to your circumstance. Two things that you can do to have total control over your emotions and have a positive response when you are in a negative situation are: 1) Identify your triggers and 2) Replace your negative thoughts with positive actions.

How To Deal With Your Stress: Stress Management Exercise
Before you can deal with your stress, you have to first identify what it is that is actually causing you to be stressed out. It is important to understand that what you perceive as stressful may not be a stressful situation to some one else. For example: I get stressed out when I am around a lot of noise. What triggers you to perceive a situation as stressful?

Step #1: Identify Your Triggers
1. Keep a journal of all of the things that ticks you off for a week
2. Each time that you are ticked off, ask yourself "Why do I react negatively to this situation?" "What is it about this particular situation that gets to me in this way?"Write down your thoughts in numerical sequence in your journal.
3. At the end of the week, review your journal and identify what you were thinking each time that you felt ticked off.


Step #2: Replace Negative Thoughts with Positive Action
Now that you are able to identify the reasons why certain people and situations ticks you off, your next step is;

1. to write out several positive ways that you can respond to each of the items that you listed in your journal that ticks you off.
2. Practice role-playing with a partner. Pretend that you are in a particular situations or you are in the presence of the type of person that ticks you off.
3. You should practice until you are comfortable responding positively to the negative situation so that when you encounter a negative situation you are not triggered to respond with negative actions.

Positive Ways To Respond To Stress

The way that you are going to maintain a state of inner peace is by not being stressed out. In the exercise, you learned how to be positive and stay calm in situations that are negative. Now, you should be able to take positive actions the next time that you encounter negative people and a negative situation because you will not be taken off guard. You have also learned how to recognize your triggers and you will be well rehearsed on how to take positive actions when you are faced in your trigger situations.


More Useful Tips
Relax

Inner Peace and Joy Daily Tips: 7 Stress Management Tips For College Students

Stress Management: Tips For College Students
The best way that you can avoid being stressed out while you are a student in college is to be prepared. I have listed 7 tips for college students to help them to be prepared and manage the day-to-day stress that may present itself while they are in college.

7 Stress Management Tips for College Students

1. Do not wait until the last minute to register for your classes: If you wait until the last minute to register for your classes you may find that the classes and the times that you prefer to take those classes are full and closed.

2. Take courses that coincides with your lifestyle:If you are a person who likes to sleep late or if you work late at night, then you should try to avoid taking early morning classes. Instead, you should check and see if your class is being offered at a time that is more fitting for you.

3. Pick up your syllabus early: Once you have registered for your class, you should go to your professor's office and pick up your syllabus at that time. The benefit about having your syllabus early is you will be able to get started on your reading assignments before the first day of class.

4. Get your books from the school library: Another benefit about having your syllabus early is that you may be able to get your books from the school library instead of having to purchase them. The school library normally carries the books that are on each teacher's requested reading list, however, the library will only have one or two copies.

5. Get to know your Professors: On the first day of registration you should go to each of your Professor's office and introduce yourself. You should also familiarize yourself with each of your Professor's office hours and do not hesitate to visit them when you have a question about your assignments.

6. Get to your class early: You always want to be professional and that means coming to each of your classes a few minutes early. An advantage about coming to class early, is your Professor may also arrive early and that will give you the opportunity to ask any questions that you may have about your assignment.

7. Turn your assignments in early: When you get your syllabus you are going to see when each of your assignments are due. The best way that you can manage your stress is by not procrastinating and turning in your assignments a few days early. When you turn in your assignments a few days early, your professor will be able to grade your work sooner and may even give you an opportunity to make corrections.

More Useful Tips
Discipline

Inner Peace and Joy Daily Tip: Free Stress Reducing Activities

Stress Management Tips







Working more than one job, raising a family, starting a new business, going to college etc. can be very stressful especially if you are juggling more than one of these activities at a time. It can be even more stressful trying to find affordable activities that you can do to relax from your busy schedule. Two activities that I do that helps me to relax and release stress are: 1) Exercise and 2) Write.





#1 Exercise

Walking is a great way to release stress and it is free. When I walk, I find parks that have beautiful scenery. I normally walk at a comfortable pace and enjoy the colors of the leaves as the season causes their leaves to change. I live in the "now" by not concentrating on all of the things that I have to do in the near future. Instead I enjoy feeling the breeze as it blows against my body and the wind as it moves across the leaves on the trees. I take time to smell the flowers and listen to the birds as they communicate as well as the other animals of nature. I use my time walking to silence my mind and listen to God to speak to me.






#2 Writing

I write as a way of releasing stress. I use to stay in the house all of the time, now I make it a point to get out. Instead of writing at home I go to places that have a beautiful backdrop. In the region that I live in, it is the lake. I use nature as my inspiration for writing. I found that staying home added to my stress because staying home can become mundane and when you are bored you can easily get depressed or irritable. When I get out of the house and interact with other people, it keeps me busy and it is very refreshing.

Although living off of limited funds can be stressful, it has advantages because it forces you to to find creative ways to enjoy life. You can still enjoy life in spite of your circumstances but you have to decide that you are not going to live a stressful life. It is possible for you to have an abundant life with limited funds, you just have to be creative and find ways to enjoy life.

Inner Peace and Joy Daily Tip: Don't Answer Your Cell Phone

My Cell phone, Friends and Family

If I allow it, my cell phone can be one of my worse enemies especially when I working on maintaining my Inner Peace. You see, I do not like to talk on the telephone no longer than ten or fifteen minutes but my family and friends, on the other hand, like to stay on their cell phone for hours. They call me throughout the day wanting to talk about what is going right or wrong in their life and it can be very stressful at times.




Dilemma:

My dilemma is "Answer my cell phone and be stressed out or do not answer my cell phone which would piss my family members off"You may be saying "Just do not answer your phone" but not answering the phone is not an easy solution because I really want to stay in touch with my family and friends but I do not want to spend a lot of time on the phone talking to them.

Well, if you are faced with a similar stressful dilemma, I have 4 things that you can do to stay in touch with your friends and family members without spending too much time on the telephone talking to them and they are: 1)Text 2) Send a multimedia message 3) Email and 4) Social media





#1 Text:

I enjoy using the text feature on my cell phone because I can check in with everyone in my circle without answering my cell phone. The text feature causes a few extra dollars on your cell phone bill but it is worth the investment because you can send and receive written messages to anyone who has the text feature on their cell phone. I usually send out "hello" or "inspirational" texts to everyone in the morning. I usually get a reply back within minutes that says something like "Thank you" or " How are you doing today?"





#2: T.V. Cellphone, Multimedia Messages:

I have a Verizon Blackberry Storm and along with the text feature, I also can send videos, pictures or sound recordings. This is a great feature for staying in touch with people who you have not seen in a while. My sister, who lives far away, use this multimedia feature to send me videos of my nephew who is growing fast.



# 3: Email:

If you want to send a message from your cell phone that contains more characters than texting will allow you, try sending an email. Email is another great way you can stay in touch with people. You can check your email messages from your cell phone as well, if you have that feature enabled on your phone.




#4: Social Media:

My cell phone offers me a social media application that allows me to stay in touch with my friends in real time on Facebook, Twitter and Instant Messenger. This application is great because you can send short messages, upload pictures and share information without ever answering your cell phone.

Cell Phone Plans, Cell Phone Offers, Cell Phone Features and Your Inner Peace
If you are like me and you do not like talking on the cell phone because it disturbs your inner peace then you should check out different cell phone plans, cell phone options and cell phone features that will help you reach out to your friends and family without answering your cell phone.

Inner Peace and Joy Daily Tip: 4 Things You Can Do To Help You To Remain Calm

Your emotions are going to be your number one indicator to let you know if you are at a state of inner peace or if you are at a state of dis-ease.When you are stressed, angry, depressed, sad etc. you are in opposition of feeling calm, joyful and peaceful. Once you recognize that you are not experiencing a state of Inner Peace, then you have to be responsible for taking the necessary steps to position yourself back in to a peaceful state of being. I have listed four things that you can do to calm down when you are feeling stressed. They are: 1)Play Cards 2) Write 3) Go for a walk and 4) Listen to Mellow Music


#1 Play Cards

One of the reasons why you may be experiencing stress is because you are focusing your thoughts on the stressful event. If you want to calm down and return to a peaceful state of being then you must change what you are focusing on. Playing cards is a great activity to help you change what you are focusing on because when you are playing cards you are concentration on the activity and not on what it is that is stressing you out.


#2 Write


If you are a person who likes to write then you should try writing down your feelings when you are feeling stressed, angry or sad. Writing out your feelings on paper is a great way to release your negative energy in a positive way. You can also try blogging or as a means of expressing yourself. Squidoo is a free and fun site that allows you build a web page and write about whatever your interests are.

Build Your Free Web Page on Squidoo


#3 Go For A Walk
Walking is another way that you can release negative energy in a positive way. The great thing about walking is that you can bring along your ipod and listen to music, a word of inspiration or anything soothing while you walk out your frustrations

#4 Create A Play List and Play Mellow Music

When you are feeling stressed out, a great way to get your focus back is by listening to some mellow music. Music is an easy way to calm you down and help you to return back to a peaceful state of being.

More Useful Tips
Play Video Games

Inner Peace and Joy Daily Tip: Play Donkey Kong for Free

When you are feeling stressed, a great way to calm down and relax is to play a game. Growing up, I was fond of playing Donkey Kong. It was so fun!

You can play it to by clicking on the following link. Try testing your skills for about 30 minutes and please be sure to leave me a comment telling me what your high score is and how you feel afterward.

Peace and Blessings,
Antionette Tate








#1 Play Donkey Kong







More Useful Tips
Listen to Music

Inner Peace and Joy Tip # 100: What is Inner Peace?

Inner Peace and Joy Daily Meditation Tip: The Book of Psalms will uplift your soul. Read Psalms chapters 51-60 for a Spirit Booster!





Inner Peace is a peaceful, calm mental state of being that can be maintained by everyone at all times with the right tools. It is my belief that Inner Peace is a gift from God and this gift has nothing to do with how much material wealth you have, your race, religious background, ethnicity, sexual preference or even your health. Inner Peace is a free gift and it is available to all who are willing to receive it. Once you except the free gift of Inner Peace from God you must know how to maintain this gift or you will find yourself being frustrated, worried, feeling sorry, fearful, anxious, depressed, confused etc. whenever you are faced in a stressful situation.

Get Knowledge
The way that you are going to be able to live a stress free life is by having the right knowledge and by being prepared. The good thing is that you do not have to re-invent the wheel to find proven methods that will help you to stay calm when they are in a stressful situation. You just have to do your research, sift through the information and find out what works for you. The Bible is a great resource. You can also visit my blog, go to your local library, go to the book store or you can just go on-line and type in stress management tips.

Build Your Skills
It is not going to be enough just to read about how to live a stress free life, you are going to have to build your skills through practice. If you do not practice your skills, you will continue to react instinctively based on your emotions when you are under stress. The reason why you do not want to react emotionally when you are under stress is because you will be leaving your mental state of peace up to chance. Instead or reacting you want to be able to know how to respond calmly and peacefully when you are in a mentally stressful situation.

Role Playing, Trial and Error
Role playing is a great way to practice remaining calm because if you already know that certain people or situations stresses you out, you can practice beforehand on how you can respond calmly when you are in that particular situation. You are also going to learn that your best practice is going to come from trial and error situations. In a trial and error scenario, your practice comes from learning and improving from your mistakes.

Whatever method that you chose, it is going to be important to always keep in mind that maintaining your Inner Peace is going to be a life long journey and sometimes you are going to get angry,frustrated and you may even lose your cool but with the right tools and with enough practice you will be able to easily recognize when you are under stress, take control of your mental situation and easily return yourself back to your state of mental peace.

More Useful Tips
Make Better Choices
Practice

Inner Peace and Joy Tip #95: Manage Your Time

Inner Peace and Joy Daily Meditation Tip: The Book of Psalms will uplift your soul. Read Psalms chapters 21-25 for a Spirit Booster!



Inner Peace and Time Management
The purpose of maintaining your mental state of peace is being able to be joyful, peaceful, calm and relaxed at all times instead of being agitated, frustrated, overwhelmed and confused most of the time. A great tip to help you to be able to maintain your mental state of peace is to have order in your life. I have found that when I have order in my life, I am better able to maintain my Inner Peace because things go smoothly and I am not stressed out. I have listed 5 tips that you can do to help you manage your time in order to keep your Inner Peace:

5 Time Management Tips
1. Prioritize : It is easy to become frustrated and overwhelmed when you have a lot of things to do and so little time to get them done. A great tip to help you maintain your Inner Peace is to prioritize. When you prioritize you are going to feel relieved and calm at the end of the day because you took care of the most important things first.

2. Write a to-do-list daily: Another thing that you can do to keep order in your day is to daily write out on a piece of paper all of the things that you need to accomplish in the course of a day. This will help you to maintain your Inner Peace because it will eliminate the frustration of operating based on your memory or impulse.

3. Work according to your biological time line: Are you a morning, evening or night person? You will be surprised how much more peaceful and at ease you will be when you set your schedule to work during the times that are best suited for you biological time line.

4. Set a time limit on your tasks:In order to make the best use of your time you are going to have to set time limits on your tasks and stick to them. What's going to happen if you do not set a time limit to your tasks you may work for hours at a time on one project and not get anything else done.

5. Set a Routine: You should get in the habit of setting a schedule and following your schedule. When you follow your schedule you will be able to effectively manage your time and you will be more productive. The more order that you can have in your day the more peaceful, calm and joyful you will be.

More Useful Tips
Prioritize
Make a to-do-list

Inner Peace and Joy Tip # 82: Write,Journal, Blog

Inner Peace and Joy Daily Meditation Tip: The Book of Psalms will uplift your soul. Read Psalms chapters 101-105 for a Spirit Booster!


When I am having a stressful day, I maintain my Inner Peace by writing.

How Writing Helps Me To Maintain My Inner Peace

• # 1 It gives me time to cool down:

When I get upset, I normally say the first thing that comes to my mind without any regard to how my words may impact the lives of others. Writing helps me to maintain my Inner Peace because it gives me the opportunity to express my emotions on paper and it also gives me a chance to cool down before I approach the person whose actions caused me to get upset.

• #2 Writing is a form of art

Writing helps me to maintain my Inner Peace because when I write, I get a chance to use my words to paint a picture with words. It sounds easier than it is but when it is done correctly your readers will be able to feel what you feel, see what you see and even smell what you smell.

• #3 Writing helps me to keep record

Writing in my journal is a great way for me to maintain my Inner Peace because I actually have a record of my emotions. When I review my journal I can see where I was emotionally in the past, how much I have improved, regressed or stayed the same.

• #4 Writing helps me to release my negative energy

When I am upset I have a lot of energy and instead of using my energy to explode, I write. My Inner Peace is maintained because I am focused on what I am writing about and not on the stressful situation.

• #5 Writing is a coping skill

Writing is a therapeutic way of maintaining your Inner Peace because you can use it as a coping skill. A coping skill is something that you can do that will help you to calm down when you are upset or feeling stressed out. If you enjoy writing, then you can do things such as journal, blog or even write a book.

• Do you have a coping skill ? Leave me a comment and tell me what it is that you do to calm down
  

More Useful Tips
Listen to music
Control your emotions

Inner Peace and Joy Tip#68: Count Slowly

Inner Peace and Joy Daily Meditation Tip: The Book of Psalms will uplift your soul. Read Psalms chapters 26- 30 for a Spirit Booster!

Have you ever been in a stressful situation and you could not leave the room. Well, I am in this situation daily. I manage a group home for at risk boys and they threaten my inner peace daily. If you have teenage children then you know that they require your attention and they have special needs that you must attend to. This can be stressful but it does not have to be once you learn how to master your stress from the inside out and not outside in.

Now when I am in a stressful situation, such as one of the boys may be verbally abusive or causing chaos, at the same time another boy may need my assistance, and to top it all off the phone is ringing. In a situation such as this, I really want to just pull my hair and run out of the house but the reality of the situation is I can not leave the boys unattended.

So, what I do is a breathing exercise. This exercise is really quick and you can do it right where you are at.

Exercise
Try counting from 1-10 very slowly. As you count inhale and exhale

• 1 (deeply inhale) (slowly exhale)
• 2 (deeply inhale) (slowly exhale)
• 3 (deeply inhale) (slowly exhale)
• 4 (deeply inhale) (slowly exhale)
• 5 (deeply inhale) (slowly exhale)
• 6 (deeply inhale) (slowly exhale)
• 7 (deeply inhale) (slowly exhale)
• 8 (deeply inhale) (slowly exhale)
• 9 (deeply inhale) (slowly exhale)
• 10 (deeply inhale) (slowly exhale)

When you count 1-10 very slowly, it gives you the time you need to refocus and get centered. By the time that I reach number 8, I am usually calm and able to deal with each situation.

Share with me what you do to keep your inner peace when you are in a stressful situation

More Useful Tips
Know Your Triggers
Relax

Inner Peace and Joy: Tip # 19 Get Active

Inner Peace and Joy Daily Meditation: the Book of Proverbs is loaded with wisdom nuggets. Read Proverbs 19, pull out the wisdom nuggets and apply it to your life

Walking is a great way to relax and reduce stress. And walking is free!

Get Active and Make Walking Enjoyable!
-Upload your favorite songs to your Mp3 player and walk and listen to music
-Listen to the news, your favorite speakers or sermons while you walk
- Use your walking time as prayer time. Walk and talk with God
- Meet with your friends on the track and catch up
-Have your next business meeting while you are walking instead of over lunch

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Maintain a Positive Self-Image
Love the skin that you are in
Exercise Helps to lower high blood pressure