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Resolved to Reduce Stress? Here are Seven Helpful Tips.

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It’s common to feel a bit down and tired during winter’s cold and dark days, especially once all of December’s festivities have ended. As a result, people often resolve at the start of a new year to reduce their stress levels and find more ways to relax. However, this resolution is famously hard to keep, especially once the year’s work and personal obligations begin to pile up.  

Your institution’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a great resource to help you stick with this kind of resolution. They can offer tips for stress relief and help you find relaxation methods that work best for you.

The EAP is available to help you and your dependents with life's concerns. It is a benefit of your employment that provides confidential, professional assistance to help you resolve problems that affect your personal life or job performance. Visit the EAP section of our Living Well website to learn more.

Read on for seven more tips that will help you to stay focused on becoming less stressed this year.

1) Make your other New Year's resolutions realistic.

One common reason for failing to reduce your stress levels can be other resolutions that you make. If you're anxious about achieving a large range of goals, this can increase your stress levels. To be happier and more relaxed in the coming year, make sure you choose a small number of realistic resolutions that focus on manageable changes to the way you approach life.  

2) Consider keeping a stress journal.

If you dedicate a notebook to your quest, you may be able to learn more about the things that make you unhappy you so that you can modify your responses or remove some sources of stress from your life. Every time you feel overcome by stress, write down what caused the stress, how it made you feel, and what eventually helped to reduce the negative feelings or helped you to relax. Some popular and useful examples include meditation, spending time outdoors, listening to music, taking a long bath, interacting with an affectionate pet, booking a massage treatment, watching comedy, and reading fiction. After a while, you will see patterns emerging, and these patterns can help you make productive changes and to see which helpful methods of stress relief you should try to repeat.  

3) Think about whether you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

If you're particularly susceptible to stress and depression during the winter months (even when your life is going well by all objective measures), you may be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). People with SAD typically feel tired and unhappy due to a lack of natural sunlight. If you think that you might have this condition, there are several things you can do to combat it which will naturally reduce your stress levels. You might try taking a daily walk before it gets dark, or you might investigate light boxes that attempt to alleviate SAD by simulating natural light.

4) Truly face any problems you experience.

If you want to reduce stress levels, it's vital to be honest with yourself and work out the source of your negative feelings when you experience them. If you try to write down all of your problems (whether they are social, familial or related to your job), you can then use this list to tackle the issues and work out possible solutions.

5) Avoid unhealthy methods of reducing stress.

These methods include smoking, drinking too much alcohol, withdrawing from your social circle, sleeping too much, depending on painkillers or other drugs to induce feelings of calmness, and taking your stress out on other people by starting arguments. If you are prone to using these coping mechanisms, talking to your family doctor or approaching a counselor should help you to find support and cultivate healthier coping mechanisms.

6) Exercise more often.

Many people find that exercising helps to reduce stress levels by promoting the release of endorphins. Endorphins are chemicals that naturally trigger positive feelings and an increase in physical energy.

7) Make time to relax every day.

It's good to be aware of all the things you can do to reduce your stress levels. But having a list of ways to relax is of very little use if you rarely make time to indulge in these activities. If you want to keep your New Year’s resolution to reduce stress levels, do your best to enjoy one of your stress-reducing activities at some point every day.

Don’t forget to make an appointment with your Local Employee Assistance Program (EAP) counselor!

Article adapted from: http://mentalhealthnews.org/seven-tips-that-will-help-you-stick-to-your-new-years-resolution-to-reduce-stress/842907/