How can I reduce my stress levels?
Do you often find yourself asking “How can I reduce my stress levels?” I certainly do. Life seems to provide us with a never-ending supply of challenging situations to overcome. We seem to work ever longer hours, but are less satisfied with the rewards. We try to achieve a better work-life balance, but this always seems to get further and further away, despite our best efforts. It began to dawn on me that the problem wasn’t really to do with my actual situation or its particular challenges, but on my mindset and how I felt about my life.
Fight or flight?
Our stress response developed long before humans evolved. It is essentially an automatic physiological response to a threat to life, whereby hormones are released into an animal’s bloodstream to help them to fight a predator, or run away. The problem is that in today’s modern world, our stressful situations are constant. We never really get a chance to escape from them, so we have a constant heightened state of alert, and we never really get a chance to switch off and relax. As a result, our stress levels never reduce.
Anxiety
None of this is good news for our health. Our raised hormone levels mean that we are constantly anxious. If we are lucky, we might be able to use relaxation techniques, mindfulness, or holidays to calm ourselves and de-stress on a semi-regular basis. But this isn’t the way life should be. We should focus on creating a life for ourselves where our usual state of mind is relaxed and calm, not one where we accept that anxiety is natural and normal. It requires a complete mind-shift, and that is exactly what I have chosen to do. I have chosen to swap my old stressful job and life for my calm, creative, successful future.
Work-life balance
Are you able to reduce your stress levels by making some fundamental changes to your lifestyle? The mental health boosts that you receive may well be worth the reduction in income. I have taken an active decision to accept a lower standard of living in order to improve my happiness, health and freedom. That is a work-life balance that I would never have been able to achieve had I remained in employment. It simply required me to make the mental switch to realising that freedom is what I value most of all in life. Once the decision was made, it seemed so simple. Why had I not been able to see this years ago? I recommend that you take some time to explore your most important values. The insights can be truly life changing. Good luck!
Project 365
I set up this website after deciding that I want to build a more creative life for myself, so I can give up my job and be in control of my own destiny.
I have set myself a goal of publishing an article on my website every day this year, to document my journey from employment to self-employment.
The name I chose was Project 365 because I see this as a year that I have dedicated to learning and self-development, as I countdown to freedom. It started on 1st January 2021, so I have 359 days to go!
Why not check in on a regular basis to see how I am progressing, and what I have discovered?
I have decided to set up a blog, and to document my adventures in life through it.