STRESS and ANXIETY or PEACE and HAPPINESS?  YOUR CHOICE.

Are you feeling stressed and overwhelmed?

Looking for more peace in your life?

Are you ready to trade in that stress and anxiety for a more balanced happy life?

The most effective way to ward off stress and anxiety is to understand how to create and keep peace in your life.  We are often the culprit of our own stress.  Our choices may start out slow and innocent but if we aren’t careful, they can snowball us into a life that can be unbalanced and overwhelming.

Peace naturally gives way to happiness and contentment and keeps stress and anxiety at bay.  If you are constantly feeling overwhelmed and not living the life you had hoped or wanted then it might be time to make some important decisions.  When you decide to put peace first, you will have to make some changes both internally and externally.  It won’t just happen overnight especially if you have spent most of your life feeding and pampering your stress and anxiety.  Once you do achieve some peace there will still be the “triggers” in life that derail your peace from time to time, but with perseverance those triggers will be far and fewer between and won’t seem to get you off track for long. 

8 TIPS on HOW to CREATE & KEEP PEACE in YOUR LIFE:

TIP #1 - Learn that Worrying is a Waste

Worrying gets us nowhere especially about the future or things out of our control and it is truly a wasteful use of energy.  Know where to focus your energy so that you create and keep peace.  Did your worry ever solve your problems?  Did worry make you feel better about the obstacles or challenges you have faced in life?  Did all the things you ever worried about actually happen most of the time?  I am guessing like me, it didn’t, yet many of us seem to give worry so much of our time, energy and focus even though it never seems to produce the result we want. 

Worry is not going to turn you into a superhero to handle your problems better, in fact the opposite is true.  We handle our problems much better when we have peace inside and a level head.  Think you can’t stop worrying?  Read on and maybe the reason you worry in the first place will be revealed so you can work on it.

TIP #2 - Don’t Compare Yourself to Others

Comparing ourselves to others is torture at its finest and I have learned that comparing myself doesn’t get me the things I want or any closer to my goals or bring me peace.  When we compare ourselves to others, we are not playing on level ground because each of us has a unique personality, unique circumstances, a unique purpose and unique gifts.  The moment we start comparing is the moment we start telling ourselves that we aren’t good enough, aren’t educated enough, aren’t smart enough, don’t have enough money, or enough talent or the right connections and on and on.  We are telling ourselves that it’s not okay to be who we are and in order to get what we want; we have to be like someone else.  The moment we step into the arena of comparison, we step away from gratitude for what we do have and who we are and our peace becomes severely distressed.  BE YOU!  Be the best YOU there is! Flaws and all.  Mistakes and all.  Quirks and all. Even if you aren’t where you’d like to be in life.  None of that matters.  Reaching our full potential just means that we are being the best version of ourselves in this lifetime at any given moment that we can possibly be. 

TIP #3 - Watch Those Thoughts & Stay Positive

To obtain and keep peace, you must be aware of your thoughts and always try to pull the good out of challenging situations and people.  Our own thoughts can be our peril or our joy – it’s our choice!  Choose positive thoughts over negative thoughts, choose to believe the best in others first, choose to think about things that create happiness inside instead of anxiety.  Focus your thoughts in the direction you want your life to go in.  All of our behaviors start from thoughts!  Have control over your mind or it will have control over you!  What thoughts are giving way to the stress and anxiety in your life?  How can you change those thoughts to be more positive and bring more peace in your life?  Can you find any good amongst your challenges? (do a gratitude check)

TIP #4 - Happiness is Your Choice

Happiness comes from within; we are each responsible for our own happiness and must take the actions necessary to create and keep ourselves happy.  This may be as simple as just getting outside to go for a walk and not letting anything prevent you like waiting on someone else who really doesn’t share the same desire at that moment.  It’s about taking charge of your own happiness.  It’s a choice you may have to make several times a day with each moment that presents itself.  When we put the burden on others to make us happy, we will always be disappointed and lose our peace because it’s not other people’s job to make us happy.  It’s our job.  What makes you happy?  Are you actively doing the things that bring you happiness? Or are you waiting on your circumstances to change or on other people to make you happy?

TIP #5 - Surround Yourself With the Right People

Be mostly with people who bring out the best in you.  Keep boundaries with those people who bring you down, are negative and bring out the worst in you.  Limit your time with these people as much as possible unless you have learned how to let their attitudes bounce off of you without any affect.  Many of us may not have mastered that ability yet. Toxic people can sometimes trigger us to lose our peace, so limit interactions with them.  Keep the positive, inspiring, supportive and wise people close to you to lean on in hard times, to learn from and to stay in good spirits daily – go where the love is!

TIP #6 - Be A Light to Others

Try to help others, show compassion, do things for people, contribute, motivate and be a positive force when other’s need it most and the opportunity presents itself.  Do this in your jobs, in your families, in your communities, with friends and even with people you don’t know when you see the opportunity to be a blessing.  It doesn’t have to be a big production, it’s the small stuff that counts the most.  It could be as simple as words of encouragement.  When we are there for others, our problems seem to lessen and we start to see that even amidst our own problems we have the power to be a light, a hope and a blessing to others.  Simple acts of giving can re-energize our spirits.

TIP #7 - Create & Keep Boundaries & Balance

Creating boundaries and balance is probably the most critical aspect that can allow us to create and keep peace in our lives and reduce stress and anxiety.  Don’t take on more than you can handle, and keep life in balance.  For example, if you have no boundaries with your work, it may be creeping into your personal time and robbing your peace.  You may have to create some boundaries.  When you leave the office for example, don’t take your work with you.  Create a boundary to leave it at the office; tomorrow is a new day.  You may also have to create a mental boundary and not stew over what you should have done, should have said, what you need to do or could have done and fill your head with all the things you have no control over in the present moment.  Set those things and thoughts on a shelf for the evening (or weekend) and deal with them in the right timing. 

It’s critical to take care of yourself so that you can be at your best for your job, your family and the important relationships and tasks in your life.  Set boundaries for work, people and yourself so that you can keep things in balance and allow peace it’s rightful spot in your daily life.  You are the only one who can control your schedule, what you take on, what you delegate, what you set as a priority.  If things are off balance in your life, there will be stress and anxiety.  Are there things on your plate that don’t need to be there?  Are there personal boundaries you need to set in various areas of your life or with certain relationships in order to create better balance?  Do you have habit of taking on more than you can handle? 

TIP #8 - Replace Your Control with Faith – Hope & Trust

We are so tempted to try to control every little aspect of our lives and we think if we do, we will have some sort of peace but actually our controlling mindset can lead to increased stress and anxiety, especially when things don’t go our way.

Do your part and then trust that God will work all things out for your good.  Let him take the driver’s seat and follow his divine guidance each day.  You don’t have to take it all on when you put trust in God’s capable hands and that equals “peace”!  We have to realize that we don’t always get what we want, when we want it and for good reason sometimes.  Often times God reveals a better plan he has in store for us if we just have a little faith and patience and trust in his divine wisdom.  Sometimes God knows we can’t always handle what we may think we want anyway.  God protects us sometimes from making wrong decisions that might not be good or safe for us when we hand it over to God instead of getting all stressed and trying to control every little detail in our lives.  Lastly, we need to trust God’s timing for things.  Are you holding on tightly to things beyond your control?  Are those things taking away your peace?  What things in your life can you let go of and hand over to God?  As the saying goes…let go and let God.

Final thoughts…

Many of us are caught up in an unhealthy cycle or habit of letting stress and anxiety take control of our lives.  We have given those emotions too much power through our thoughts and actions.  We have somehow put peace and happiness too far down on the priority list by the daily choices we make and then we wonder why we are feeling so anxious and stressed all the time.  Worrying unnecessarily, comparing ourselves, negative thought patterns, placing our happiness in our circumstances or on other people, surrounding ourselves with negative people, selfishness, taking on too much without any boundaries and trying to control it all with no trust or faith in God is a recipe for stress and anxiety.  We can make choices to stay like this or change.  If we decide to change our unhealthy patterns, the payoff is a peace filled, content life that we feel good about, empowers our spirit and gives way to all that we are meant to offer and be blessed with in our lifetime.  It’s true freedom.

Life is too short to waste it being stressed and anxious all the time!  Trade those life drainers in for some peace and happiness by making healthier choices in your thoughts and behaviors.

You deserve it!

Sheri