Reducing Stress with Mindfulness

by Shelby

Being overwhelmed and feeling stressed or anxious during the current state of our world can be hard to cope with on top of all the other stressors in our lives. Using mindful practices to change your mindset may help reduce the effects of chronic stress and anxiety.

Here are a few simple practices you can implement into your day that will only take a 5-10 minutes but can make a huge difference in your day.


 

Gratitude List

This is something simple you can do every day. The idea is to list 1-10 things that you are grateful for every day. The challenge is to list something new each day so that you have to dig deep to find things in your life that are truly great. By doing this, you may find you have a deeper appreciation for day to day life.

Positive Self-Talk

Our negative thoughts in our heads is sometimes are biggest critic and bully. This is a practice you can do throughout the day whenever a negative thought comes into your head.

For example, the negative thought may be “I didn’t accomplish all the tasks on my to do list. I’m such a failure. I can’t get anything done”.

Instead, take those thoughts and change the words to something like “I got a few important tasks done today. I can do the rest tomorrow. My priority was taking care of the kids and playing games outside. I can do the dishes
later”.

Using neutral or positive words instead of negative ones can change your mindset about yourself. It takes practice but it could make a huge difference once you implement positive self-talk.

Focus On What You Can Control

A lot of stressors stem from parts of our life that are out of our control. Some examples would be, getting caught in busy traffic, the weather ruining a planned family outing, or to go along with everyone’s daily life right now COVID-19 changing many aspects of life. In each situation, find something you can control that isn’t related to the stressors.

For example, the weather may be ruining your planned family outing to the park but what you can control is choosing a different, new activity as a surprise for the kiddos. Maybe instead, you build blanket forts in the living room and watch a movie in them. This helps the mind be more positive because instead of feeling sad that you can’t do what you planned, you made a new plan and it worked!

With these 3 ideas in mind, pick one to work on and stick to it each day to work towards preventing chronic stress from building up. You can even go further and research different ideas for mindfulness. Find the best option that works for you!
 

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