With stress, you can use it as a tool to see possibilities rather than impossibilities. It will cause you to concentrate and focus your energies on accomplishing tasks and handling things that you might not normally do.
So whenever you do experience stress, instead of allowing it to be an instant negative thing, ask yourself how you can make it work for your benefit. Look for the silver lining and grow your confidence that you’ll be able to handle it.
Seven Rules for Reducing Stress and Improving Sleep
There’s a strong correlation between how much sleep you get and how stressed you are. It’s a vicious cycle that can cause mental distress and even wreak havoc on your physical well-being.
It’s a well-known fact that people who don’t get enough sleep are lethargic and constantly experiencing an energy slump. This causes irritability, which also makes it hard to fall asleep.
The reverse is also true. When you experience an exorbitant amount of stress during the day, it causes you to lie there awake – and that piles on more stress for the upcoming day.
The Huffington Post conducted a poll recently where they asked people what their #1 stressor was. Lack of sleep was one thing that dominated the results. Stress and a lack of sleep combined can cause you to lose mental clarity and they can put more pressure on your body to perform at less than optimal standards.
So it’s vital that you learn how to implement stress relief measures that also work to lull you to sleep at night. When you wake up fully refreshed, you’ll be able to tackle the world and anything it throws at you!
Rule #1 – Implement a Bedtime Technology Ban
If you want to toss and turn and have trouble getting (or staying) awake, just keep your cell phone right by your bed. For some of you, that won’t be a problem – but for many people, it’s become an addiction that disrupts their sleep routine and causes a lack of sleep.
Some people have their computer right beside the bed and the glow of it lights up the room at night. Ditto for notifications that come in on cell phones – sometimes with lights and sometimes with the inclusion of sounds.
Not only is it a physical factor, but it causes a certain amount of mental unrest when you’re constantly checking emails or looking to see who posted what on Facebook.
The physical distraction of the computer glow tricks your body into thinking it’s time for you to be awake. Your body won’t produce the melatonin it needs and help you get (and stay) asleep, so you toss and turn all night.
Technology doesn’t just have to be left out of the bedroom – it needs to be shut down quite awhile before you go to bed. Your mind needs time to disconnect and wind down itself, and it can’t do that if you’re constantly feeding it information.
If you go to bed at 10 PM, try disconnecting around 8:30 PMM. Let your stress melt away and your mind relax. This isn’t an easy habit to break, but you’ll be able to implement it – even if you do it in baby steps, such as not taking it in the room with you, but using it right up until bedtime, and gradually creating a routine that’s beneficial for your health.
Rule #2 – Adopt an Aromatherapy Habit
Aromatherapy soothes your mind and body for both sleep and de-stressing. Scents are a powerful element of our lives, and you can use the power of it to help you feel more rested.
Start off by choosing the right scents for you to unwind, let go of the anxiety the day brought, and get a good night’s sleep. You don’t want anything invigorating for bedtime – like peppermint.
That’s a scent that’s perfect to help you start your day – not end it. You want to look for scents that soothe and relax. Here are some possibilities:
•Bergamot.
•Chamomile.
•Jasmine.
•Lavender.
•Rose.
•Vanilla.
What’s the best way to use these to unwind and get better sleep? You have many options when it comes to aromatherapy. You can find scented bath products (if you enjoy a bath before bed).
You can use candles, diffusers, wall plugins and more. Some people like to create or buy a special mist that they can spray on their pillows at night (or put on their wrists) before bed.
Rule #3 – Wind Down Your Day With Exercise
It sounds almost backwards – putting forth extra exertion when you really need to be relaxing and calming down. But that’s just what exercise does for you! Exercise is a great stress reliever because it helps you release endorphins.
That’s why you sometimes hear of athlete’s bragging about their “runner’s high” – because although they may start out fatigued, they hit a point in their regimen where the endorphins are released and they feel good.
Feeling good is one of the first steps to you being able to sleep well tonight! Your body has probably been tensed and knotted up all day while you were at work. Allowing it to exercise gives you some relief – somewhere to pour all of that tension into.
Exercise also helps you sleep better at night. We joke as parents about letting our kids wear themselves out so they’re ready for a good, long nap – but the same goes for us as adults!
When the Huffington post conducted a poll for people who exercise in terms of how they sleep, they discovered that people who exercise don’t just get more sleep – they get better sleep.
As you might suspect, the harder you work out, the harder you snooze each night! If you’re not used to exercising, start out slow and work your way up. You can start off with a simple 10-minute-a-day plan and increase it a bit each week.
The side effect of exercising to get better sleep and stress less is that you might shed pounds if you’re overweight! Poor sleep makes people gain weight according to recent studies – and stress is a definite factor in consuming too many calories.
Try to exercise after work – plenty of time before bed, but in the evening. If you exercise too close to bedtime and you discover that you still feel restless, just move your exercise up to an early time.
Rule #4 – Let Bath Meditation Boost Your Sleep Count
For some people, bath time is their only time of the day when they unwind and kick stress to the curb. There are no clocks ticking, no technology vying for your attention, and nobody talking to you.
It’s just you, your warm, soothing water, and whatever environment you’ve created to help you relax. The environment for your bath meditation is just as important as the sleeping environment you create.
If it’s off, then you can’t relax. A cold, sterile bathroom won’t lend itself to a calming environment. You can use bath meditation whether you have a 10-minute bath or an hour-long bath.
Some people like to incorporate aromatherapy during their bath meditation – and you can find candles or bubble bath that soothes you with lavender or chamomile or any other scent that calms, rather than invigorates you.
Music is another option for you to consider. You can choose soft, relaxing music – or even invest in some sort of guided imagery CDs that will walk you through a visualization process that helps you meditate while in the bath.
Just as you’ve made the commitment to turn off technology at bedtime, do the same for your bath time, too. You can’t really relax and meditate if your smart phone is ringing off the hook.
Make sure that when you ease yourself into your bath, you start to