At the rate things are going, one might be led to believe that the world we live in is becoming crazier by the day. With vaccine mandates, toxic politicians, never-ending problems, creeping inflation, etc. trying to escape stress is becoming a Herculean task.
The best way to avoid anxiety will be to ensure that you have good habits in your life which help to manage your stress and anxiety levels. Very often, what you do NOT do is just as important as what you actually do.
Below you’ll find 7 habits to avoid if you’re prone to anxiety and/or the odd panic attack. Cut them out of your life and you’ll find that your anxiety symptoms dissipate and disappear in no time at all.
Avoid social media at all costs, if you’re constantly upset or fearful of the news and debates taking place on platforms like Facebook.
What was once supposed to be for fun and entertainment has become a breeding ground for vitriolic debates, overly sensitive people and generally bad news or fake news making the rounds.
Taking a 30–60-day break from social media will do wonders for your mind and soul and will help you to avoid that incapacitating anxiety attack.
Some people can find a problem for every solution. These toxic people will always leave you aggravated, fearful or feeling negative. The longer you stay around them, the more upset and anxious you’ll become.
While the self-help books will tell you to be the bigger person, sooner or later you need to ask yourself if always being the bigger person means that you’re hanging around with ‘small’ people.
I know this can be difficult to do, especially if you have toxic family members, but you really do need to surround yourself with people who will build you up rather than bring you down.
The media can be summarized into one word – agendas. That’s it. No longer is the news about informing people of current events.
These days, the news is used to make people fearful of pandemics, political issues, crime rates, and a myriad of other talking points designed to stir up fear and panic – to achieve ulterior motives.
You will find that many of the most successful people don’t watch the news. Yes, there will be those that tell you that you need to stay informed, but they appear to be unaware that they are getting a skewed vision of the world through the lens of that particular organisation, and they all have their own worldviews to promote.
Stimulants such as caffeine, sugar, alcohol, cigarettes, energy drinks, etc. may make you feel good temporarily, but they’re harmful to your health in the long run.
Reduce your consumption of them… and for habits like smoking, it’s best to eliminate them totally. The ingredients and substances in most stimulants have been shown to cause anxiety directly or indirectly.
The quick high simply isn’t worth the low you will be feeling for hours afterwards!
Leading a sedentary lifestyle makes people feel lethargic, depressed and weak. Our bodies were made to move – even if you think you don’t have the time or mood to exercise.
Spend 15-30 minutes a day exercising. Your body will release endorphins that make you feel happier. You can’t be anxious and happy at the same time. This is one of the biggest benefits of exercise.
Furthermore, your stamina will increase and so will your strength. You’ll be less tired all the time and you’ll feel much better about your life.
Do NOT burn the candles at both ends all the time. Society has made it seem that material success and wealth are the be-all and end-all of life.
But if you’re in a constant state of anxiety because you’re sacrificing sleep just to work, not only will you be more tired, irritable and high-strung, but your productivity will suffer too.
Get 7-8 hours of sleep daily. Give your mind and body a rest. It’s one of the best things you can do to reduce anxiety.
Comparing yourself with others will almost always make you feel worse about yourself. If you think someone else is better off than you, you’ll be dissatisfied with your own life and envious of them.
If you think you’re better than others, generally, you’ll be feeling insecure deep down inside, and your thoughts are a reflection of you not feeling good enough.
Either way, it’s not a good prognosis.
You’ll find happiness when you’re not comparing yourself with others. Don’t run if no one is chasing you.
Apply the pointers in this article and your anxiety levels will drop. You may also wish to spend time meditating, finding ways to destress (E.g. gratitude journaling, watching comedies, praying, etc.) and try to stay optimistic.
Find what works for you and do it consistently. Always remember that life is to be lived… and not controlled. Surf the waves of life taking each wave as it comes rather than trying to control the tides.
The latter will only lead to anxiety. Let it go.
“Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”
– Kahlil Gibran
Managing stress requires self discipline and if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self discipline, check out the featured resource below for a free detailed report; download, read it and take action 🙂
Finding one’s purpose in life can sound like a deep and complicated task. To make matters more convoluted, you’ll probably have beliefs that were foisted upon you since childhood, either by your parents or other adults.
Following your passion by finding your ‘why’ or purpose is something pretty much every human being aspire to, because it promises a life of fulfilment because you re truly doing what you want to do.
The truth of the matter is that finding one’s purpose is a simple process of thoughtful introspection. Once you dispel the misconceptions and lies that surround this topic, you’ll find things much simpler.
Let’s look at the common misconceptions…
You don’t have to create your purpose. It already exists. You just need to find it… and you’ll only find it by asking yourself introspective questions about what makes you truly happy and fulfilled.
But what if that’s not what you want? What if you only want an income that’s comfortable but you want more free time to volunteer and make a difference to your community.
Then that might be your purpose. Your purpose is determined by your feelings and desires. Not goals or external influences.
Different people are born with different talents and desires. Some people may be good writers and sing well too. They may excel at both talents and they’ll need to choose one that they feel they were ‘born to do’.
You’re not only given ‘one purpose’. Your purpose in life may change as your belief systems change. What you thought was important once, may seem trivial now.
For example, you may have loved surfing before and felt that it was your purpose to ride the waves and become a surfing instructor. However, a trip to an African village may have made you feel blessed and suddenly now, you think that surfing is no longer that important.
You’d rather volunteer and help the less fortunate in the village. You get more satisfaction and a sense of achievement that you never had before. This could be the missing piece in your life.
Your purpose is closely linked to what you feel is important to you and what motivates you to get up daily and get going with enthusiasm.
Measuring your purpose against other peoples’ achievements is a pointless and depressing endeavor. You may be a painter who creates magnificent works of art. But if you compare yourself with a doctor who saves lives, you may feel like painting is trivial in comparison.
However, what you fail to realize is that your art brings joy and wonder to many people – from the person who buys your art to everyone else who gazes upon it.
No one purpose is better or more rewarding than the other. All that matters is that you do what’s right for you.
Your purpose doesn’t have to be your job. A lady may be a waitress at a café, but feel like her purpose in life is to raise well-balanced children who grow up to be successful adults.
On the other hand, another lady may be more career-oriented and feel that her purpose in life is to grow her company so that it positively affects thousands of lives while making millions of dollars in return.
Your purpose is not tied to dollars and cents. It’s not your job, your career or your achievements. It’s more subtle than that.
If you need to struggle and force yourself to sacrifice for it, it probably isn’t your purpose. Very often, when you discover your purpose, there will be a sense of excitement and ease to it.
Discovering and following your purpose in life is a pleasant process and while it may be challenging, it shouldn’t be depressing or cause you to despair.
Purpose doesn’t have anything to do with your religion. While millions of people claim to have discovered their purpose in life after ‘finding God’, this is not a necessity.
Finding your purpose is a personal journey towards self-discovery. You can go the spiritual route, or you can self-reflect and do some journaling until you realize what it is you truly want to do. Therein lies your purpose.
You don’t need to be a solitary monk eking out a meagre existence on the mountain top just to be on purpose. You can be a millionaire too and still feel like you’re following your calling.
For example, a successful plastic surgeon who makes millions may truly love what he does. He enjoys enhancing his clients’ appearances and seeing the happiness and increased confidence in the patients once they see the results.
By helping others, the surgeon feels like he’s living with purpose. Since plastic surgery requires a high level of skill, he charges accordingly and his wealth is a by-product of his efforts.
And this training proves that!
These 7 misconceptions are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many others out there.
What’s most important is that you realize that discovering your purpose is a journey that’s done inside you – and has nothing to do with the distractions/expectations of the world outside you.
Once you understand this, you’ll find your purpose and shine.
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
– Pablo Picasso
As you probably already know, having a strong mindset is critical to any attempt to finding your purpose and passion and staying focused on them, so click on the featured resource below to get a free report on how to develop a strong mindset. Download, it read and take action 😊
How many times do you think Thomas Edison failed in his attempt to bring light into our lives by inventing the lightbulb? Likely, he failed more times than we can count. Imagine how he felt when he worked so hard (during daylight hours or by candlelight) to find something that worked, came so close each time – and then failed with each attempt.
Then, finally it happened. One path Edison took led to the invention of the lightbulb and all other attempts were forgotten. We’ve been bathed in iridescence ever since. Edison and other successful entrepreneurs have all suffered from self doubt but trudged on through the lack of confidence to make their dream a reality.
Think about the times in the past (even as a child) that you’ve persevered through disabling doubts that you could do something, only to find out that it wasn’t within your grasp even though you gave it your all.
Either you shrugged and went on to something else or withered away in self-pity that prevented you from possible future successes. Virtually every successful person in the world has failed many times before.
Rather than wasting time stewing over each failure and making yourself miserable, make a firm decision to move on – and then do it. Begin on the new project immediately by setting short and long-term goals and really dig deep into how you’re going to ensure it’s a big success.
Each success will spur you on to the next project – and the next, until you have some firm accomplishments under your belt. Next time a failure happens, you can focus on the successes you’ve had to break the cycle of self-doubt and begin again.
Before you begin a project or new venture, think about all of the possible scenarios that can happen. Make sure you include the worst-case scenarios along with the rewards that will happen when you succeed.
After you face your fears of “what if,” you can use those fears as challenges. Looking at fears as challenges rather than obstacles can only help boost your self-confidence and help you begin to see success in your future rather than failure.
Most of us don’t think of failures as opportunities – but successful entrepreneurs know the secret to turning the knowledge learned in a failure into opportunities for growth and success.
Kids learn about winners and losers at an early age and may be taunted when playing sports or about the dismal results of a test. Some take the “loser” label and define their future self worth with it and are reluctant to take risks, while others become more determined to show everyone that they can win.
We hate the way failure makes us feel, but when we realize it’s not the end of the road and we have time to come back as a success, failure can actually be a learning experience.
What you learn from failure is invaluable to your future success. A close analysis of what went wrong with the failed idea or venture can help you make sense of the situation and learn lessons that will make you a true winner.
Every failure can be turned into a unique opportunity to grow and learn – and every success might be detrimental to future successes. It’s a contradiction that’s difficult to understand unless you’ve experienced both the opportunities in failure and the dangers in success.
Being honest with yourself is the first step in turning failures into opportunities and learning experiences. Blaming failure on others or making excuses can only serve to dig you further into a state of denial.
When that happens, you don’t learn anything. If you don’t use your failures to find flaws in your thinking or how you managed a product or venture you’re likely doomed to failure.
Learning from past mistakes is a trait that every successful person on this planet has profited from. Remember, that every failure you experience shows that you tried. If you never fail at anything, chances are you’re not trying hard enough to succeed.
While none of us seek to fail, the process of life and how it works condemns us to some failures along the way. Your success will come when you seek to learn how you failed and figure out what you’re going to do next time to ensure success.
Some of us tend to doubt ourselves right out of future success with “what if” predictions we make. It could be named the “what if” syndrome. It’s when you’re mired in self doubt so much that you begin to imagine and predict obstacles and outcomes that aren’t even there.
The “what if” syndrome is especially prevalent after you’ve hatched up a brilliant idea for an online project that’s going to make you lots of money and help your fellow entrepreneurs.
You’re sure everyone will love it and want it. Then, self-doubt sets in and you begin to think of all of the reasons why it won’t succeed. You walk on the shadowy side of your ability to make things happen and talk yourself down or out of even trying.
You were so excited about the idea at first and it fired up your creativity to a point where you could hardly wait to begin. That lull – somewhere between the excitement of the idea and taking action to make it happen – is where self doubt takes root.
You may begin to think of past failures and how they made you feel or become highly sensitive to the fact that you’ve never endeavored something like this before. If you keep thinking about past failures or what “might” happen, you may come to a point in the project where a big wall is placed in your path.
Or – you can take another route – one that doesn’t ensure success, but that at least gives you a chance. Rather than giving in to self doubt, trust yourself and try it again. You’ve likely practiced this scenario many times before in your life.
Some attempts may have failed, but you’ve probably succeeded many more times. Bring a new attitude into the mix and think positively rather than giving in to the hauntings of past failures. Also, bring in positive people to surround you who encourage, rather than discourage you.
Don’t compare yourself to others whose successes may be greater or more profitable than yours. You may even learn from their stories of success. They’re bound to have had failures along the way – and overcame them rather than feeling defeated.
When you find yourself become mired in self doubt about your future success, mute the negative voices by focusing on the positive and living in the present moment rather than projecting yourself into a future of unknowns.
Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and being able to reframe failure is a small part of that. And if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free detailed report; download, read it and take action 🙂
We’ve all heard the quotes when it comes to procrastination. ‘Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today’ or ‘Action today can prevent a crisis tomorrow’… and so on.
Yet, millions of people procrastinate daily. So why do we not do what we know we need to do?
The answer is simple. When you view a task as unpleasant and tiring, your mind immediately starts cooking up excuses to prevent you from being in discomfort. This is your self-preservation instinct at its finest.
Your mind is trying to protect you. While this is good when it comes to dangerous situations, for the most part it’s unnecessary and actually holding you back.
Knowing how to act is crucial to avoid procrastination. If you keep procrastinating, your work will pile up and your schedule will become a mess.
You won’t reach your goals or meet your deadlines. It’s impossible to have work-life balance when you’re always playing catch-up. So, here’s what you need to do to stop procrastinating…
Make a list of ALL the things you need to get done. List them in 3 categories:
Get the urgent matters out of the way ASAP, then focus on the important tasks and finally clear the other tasks as and when you can.
Many times, you may feel like you’re not in the mood for an activity. This could be exercise or writing or cleaning your house, etc. Whatever the activity is, your mind is already making excuses for you to avoid doing it.
You’re thinking of skipping the workout. Or maybe you’d rather organize the folders in your laptop than write that blog post you need to.
Clean the house? Pfft! You can always do that next month.
So how do you beat this problem?
Simple. Just give yourself 2 minutes to do the task. Tell yourself that you’ll just exercise for 2 minutes or clean the room for 2 minutes. It doesn’t matter what the task is. Just aim for 2 minutes.
You’ll often find that once you get started, you’ll usually go on for 30 minutes to an hour or longer.
It’s always the initial step of getting started that’s the most difficult. 2 minutes tricks your mental resistance because writing or exercising for 2 minutes is not as intimidating as doing it for 30 minutes or an hour.
Employ this technique whenever you catch yourself about to procrastinate.
Parkinson’s law states that, “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
What that means is that if you give yourself 3 days to complete a job, you’ll take 3 days. However, if you gave yourself 8 hours to do it, you’ll rush and get the job done.
So, giving yourself shorter deadlines will help to motivate you by lighting a fire under your butt to get you moving. You can’t procrastinate when you have a deadline that’s approaching really fast. You’ll get the job done quicker than you thought possible.
One of the cruel twists of life is that very often, you get motivation only after you’ve completed the work. If you wait to be motivated to do a task, you’ll be waiting a long time.
However, if you just go ahead and do it, you’ll gain some self-satisfaction and feel productive. Now you’ll have the motivation to quickly complete the next task and so on.
Start doing first, and the motivation will come later – and you’ll not even think of procrastinating once you’re on a roll.
Avoid procrastination at all costs and know that it doesn’t change anything other than cause your responsibilities to pile up. Life begins outside the discomfort zone. Challenge yourself to get started today and right now.
And now you have mastered procrastination, let’s look at how you can use automation to make even more use of the time you have.
One of the best ways to increase your productivity and free up more time for leisure will be to automate your recurring tasks or outsource them. This could be done in a variety of ways.
One fantastic strategy to stop wasting time at the bank will be to have your bill deductions automated. You could plan things out in such a way that money from your account is automatically deducted towards your outstanding bills.
Online banking is all the rage these days and yet thousands of people queue up at the tellers just because they’re not ‘tech savvy’ and don’t wish to learn something new.
If you’re working from home or you’re a busy entrepreneur, it’s these automated tasks that will save you precious hours and also prevent any hassles in your workday.
Instead of washing dishes by hand, you could use a dishwasher. Instead of drying the laundry on a line, you could use a dryer. There are many machines that will help to simplify your chores.
You could also create a roster for your kids where each one gets a specific chore to complete daily. It could be doing the dishes or vacuuming the house or one of the many daily chores that threaten to suck up your time.
They’ll do it in a fraction of the time for a small fee. The amount you pay for the service will be worth every cent because your time is worth much more.
If you’re an online entrepreneur, there are tons of email management software and other tools that simplify your job. You can queue emails for an entire week that are set to be sent at a specific time and day.
The same applies to other activities such as scheduled blog posts, social media posts, etc. Automation is a time saver that you absolutely must use if you wish to be effective.
Which brings us to the next point…
Batching your tasks is without a doubt one of the best productivity hacks ever. So what is batching?
For example, if you’re planning to write 10 articles, batching will mean doing the research for all 10 articles at once. Then you’ll outline them all.
This principle applies across the board. Write all your emails at once. Schedule them at one go and so on.
Instead of doing each task from beginning to end and then repeating the process over and over, batching will save you countless hours in the long run.
Use the methods above to manage your time effectively. Time management is life management. The better you are at it, the more time you’ll have for yourself and the activities you really want to do.
And remember, one way to beat procrastination is to stay focused and many people struggle with this. If you want to learn more about staying focused, check out the featured resource below for a free detailed report; download, read it and take action 😊
Saying that times are challenging these days would be a gross understatement.
With the Covid pandemic, political polarization, lockdowns, vaccine mandates, people losing their jobs daily and untruthful media juggernauts dividing the people over issues – let’s just say, times are stressful.
The good news is that you can remedy this problem and maintain your sanity in a world that seems to be growing increasingly insane by the day.
Here’s how you do it…
The first step to healing yourself will be to find out what’s getting you down.
Are you unhappy at work? Is it the news? Or is it the constant vitriolic debates on social media that’s aggravating you?
What’s important is to know what’s eating you.
Even overthinking can be a problem – and the first step is knowing what’s causing you distress.
As simple as this sounds, people are not rational and fail to do it. Millions get stressed out watching the news which is always polarizing and stirring up fear. It would only make sense to stop watching this drivel.
But people don’t.
Like a deer caught in the headlights, they keep consuming the news content put out by the networks who have hidden agendas of their own. As a result, they get more stressed out. It’s a vicious cycle that never ends.
Eliminate ALL triggers that are causing you mental and emotional anguish.
A 3-to-5-day digital detox will do wonders for your mind and soul. When you don’t watch TV or use your phone, you’ll immediately be reducing the amount of stimuli your brain receives and processes. As a result, you’ll calm down.
Recently, Facebook (Instagram and WhatsApp too) was down for a day. Millions of people reported feeling better for that day when they couldn’t access their social media.
They got a brief respite from all the stimuli. Instead of understanding how beneficial this was to their mind and soul, the masses mindlessly got back on social media the very next day when the platforms resumed operations and started discussing why the ‘blackout’ happened.
Like Max Lucado said, “A man who wants to lead an orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.”
Turn your back on the social media crowd and your life will become a symphony. Or at the very least, it won’t become a stressful cacophony of social media talking points.
While your morning coffee is fine, you’ll want to avoid energy drinks and other stimulants to keep you going through the day. Caffeine dependency is a very real problem.
It causes anxiety and when you’re not loaded up with caffeine, you feel lost. Over and above that, any alertness you get from caffeine is temporary… but it generally leaves you feeling worse after the effects wear off.
Since the half-life of caffeine is about 5 hours, many people still have caffeine in their system when its bedtime. As a result, they can’t sleep well and wake up groggy and stressed out. Avoid caffeine after 1 PM.
We all know what we need to do here. Eat clean and in moderation – and exercise 4 to 5 times a week. It’s so simple in concept but so difficult in practice.
A good diet and regular physical activity are 2 of the best forms of self-care any individual can undertake.
Want to feel better mentally and emotionally?
Then look after your body well.
However bad things may be, fear helps no one. Like author, Robin Sharma says, “Being scared is part of being alive. Accept it. Walk through it.”
Don’t let fear control your life. Tell yourself that you’re resilient and will get through anything. You’ve come this far, haven’t you?
Well, you have what it takes to go all the way. Focus on your goals and where you want to go – not fear.
Massages, yoga, aromatherapy, walks in the park, watching a comedy, going to the zoo or an amusement park, etc. are all forms of stress relief.
What matters here is that you do what works for you. Break the monotony in your life. Do something fun. Very often, people get trapped in a mundane cycle of work and mind-numbing entertainment such as reality TV.
What you really need is a change in your daily life. Something that takes you out of your normal routine and helps you break through the grey fog of inertia and unhappiness.
Doing something that’s fun and not what you normally do will be akin to letting rays of sunlight break through the dark clouds in your life. You’ll get a ‘breather’ and be able to shift your mental state. This is priceless.
The author, Robert Ingersoll, once wrote, “We rise by lifting others.”
An excellent quote with an eternal truth – when you help someone else, you will feel better.
You’ll feel like you’re making a difference in the world, and your actions just might make someone else believe in the goodness of people. This belief is in short supply these days.
Buying a homeless person a meal will not only help them but will make you feel much better than donating your money to a faceless organization.
Sometimes, you’ll even find good conversation among people who have fallen through the cracks of the system. That said, you’ll want to be cautious in your approach too.
Your mental health and emotional health are intertwined. How you process information is just as important as how you emotionally react to it. It’s imperative that you be aware of this.
Feed your mind positive information. Where your attention goes, your energy goes.
If your attention goes on social media and reading hateful comments, you’ll be stressed out and become spiteful too. Your mind and thoughts be clogged up with drama, debate, and disinformation.
If you spend your time reading good books and helping yourself to progress in life, you’ll feel a sense of achievement because your life feels more purposeful. That’s how you look after your mental and emotional wellbeing.
“You can’t have a positive life and a negative mind.” – Joyce Meyer
Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and maintaining a healthy mental and emotional balance is a small part of that. And if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂
