Lower Your Stress with These 6 Tips

Marcianne Kuethen

June 1, 2012

I can tell that my usually pleasant boss is stressed when I walk into his office to ask a question and he grimaces and makes a painful noise I can’t duplicate here in writing. Obviously, the best way to lower his stress is for me to come back later!

The reality is, we lead very fast-paced lives, cutting it close to the edge much of the time. The danger is that, as stress causes us physical, mental, and emotional problems, it can damage our work and personal lives. But the good news is, we can take steps to lower our stress. Here’s an example:

The news media, like every other form of entertainment, makes money by producing strong emotions in its audience. Outside business news, those emotions are almost exclusively negative: anger, fear, anxiety, dread, and frustration. While those manufactured emotions do provide momentary distraction from work stress, they do it by adding more stress. Watching or listening to the news in order “to relax” is like having a beer to dull the pain of a hangover; it only makes things worse in the long run. So whenever there’s a news story that starts to make you angry or upset, change the channel–unless it’s 100% relevant to your life–or click to another page.

Did you realize that stress is “catching?” For all 6 practical stress-reducing tips, read the full article here.

Review by Marcianne Kuethen.
Article originally published on Inc.com by Geoffrey James.