Tag: Stress-free Life

Importance of Self-Confidence

Self-Confidence is one of the important things needed in our life. It has the power to either push us up or pull us down. Most people lack self-confidence at some point in their life due to failures and disappointments. Self -Confidence can be increased due to the motivation of others, but it is not the only way to boost our inner confidence. The confidence that comes from inside is the one that resists for long and helps us achieve more and more in our life. Let us see some of the ways to boost our confidence and try to use them in our daily life.

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Ways to Boost Self Confidence

  1. Tell good words to yourself : It may feel silly on reading this. But actually it works during the time of crisis. Whenever we feel low, we can tell some good words to “We can do it”,”We are capable of doing it”,”Nothing is impossible”. These words lowers our stress as well as helps in boosting our confidence. We can even ask our friends and family to tell good words to us. Getting these words from those we trust , gives immense amount of confidence in our life.
  2. Take a deep breath : Before starting any task, taking a deep breath will definitely helps us. We should allot some two to three minutes before the beginning of the job and we should take a deep breath without thinking about anything else. During that time, we should not concentrate on the outside environment or thinking about how to do the job. Our only focus must be on taking a breath and relaxing both our mind and the body.
  3. Thinking on past success : When we are doing a difficult or stretchy job, we can think on our past success or achievement for some moments. Beware, it must only be for some moments. Sometimes it will lead to over -confidence and destroys both the time ,the effort and the task.
  4. Thinking on our good time : Everyone will definitely have such moments in our life that brings us instant laughter or instant happiness on our face. During our low time, we can think on these things for some moments to boost up our energy and confidence to do the job. These times can be with the family or friends or colleagues or anyone. Here too, over thinking may lead to procrastination , which is the dangerous one that won’t led us to finish the job.
  5. Hobbies : Hobbies can make an individual feel happy, calm ,satisfied and acts as a complete stress buster. Taking out some time for hobbies can help us to make our brain relaxed and peaceful. These hobbies can be done during breaks or free time.
  6. Talk to yourself : This task doesn’t need anyone to perform. During our low times or when we have no one with us, this is the best way to keep us away from negativity and low confidence. We can talk anything and everything to ourselves. Just imagine yourself as another human and tell everything that is going on our mind.

Believe you can and you’re Halfway there.

Theodore Roosevelt

Best Friend – Books

Books are indeed best friends for many book readers and book lovers. Some may feel like there is time wastage in reading books and thought of spending that time in something else. But only the book readers know the true value of the Book. Sometimes it gives happiness, sometimes sad, sometimes anger, and sometimes the combinations of all. A book cannot be categorized in any order unless the full depth and till the last page is read. This article will either involve you in the line of book readers or it will be a tribute to all the wonderful books read by book lovers.

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Advantages of Reading Books

  1. Reduces Stress : Books are a great way of reducing stress because there are no such thing like happy books and sad books. Books fed readers with the plethora of emotions like Happiness, Sad, Anger, Excitement,Interesting and many more. Just like spices, each book has its individual flavor and content.
  2. Environment : Book reading sometimes seperates us from the real world and makes us wander in that virtual book world. It keeps our mind and body calm and stress free. There is no need of carrying the real world stress while going through the great books.
  3. Increases Vocabulary : Words used in books are not always common and same words. By reading books, we can learn many new words. It increases our vocabulary and knowledge.
  4. Motivational : Books of freedom fighters , scientists , doctors etc.. are motivational books that can give immense amount of happiness and motivations. People who are stressful and who are facing down time can use the books as a key to their life. It will inspire us and will instill creativity in our minds.
  5. Improves Memory : Daily habit of reading books improves and increases our mental ability to learn new things. The consistency will help us learn new skill in short span of time with greater memory power.
  6. Perspective of Life : Each book has a seperate content, seperate meaning and seperate emotions. Each will gives us a different perspective of life and it will gives us tricks and tips to lead our life. The more we learn, the easier we can lead our life.
  7. Improves Sleep : Reading books instruct our brain to calm down. Since it is a stress-buster , it will greatly helps us in getting good sleep with calmer brain.

Induce the habit of Book reading

  1. Daily goals : Schedule a short goal for everyday to read some pages daily.
  2. Eliminate Distractions : Keep your environment and room as clean as possible. Clean environment gives our brain the feeling of calmness. Keep the devices like Phone, laptop, tablet etc.. away from the place.
  3. Plan a time : Schedule a time for reading . Read the book either during sunrise or sunset to keep us fresh and as well as for having a good start for the day.
  4. Keep the book always with you : By doing it, we automatically want to read the book even during a ten minute break.

Books are a uniquely portable Magic.

Stephen King

THE CURSE OF DEPRESSION

For some people, depression may mean showing a sad face all the time, not responding to anyone, sitting in a room all day, and more. Depression is not always a combination of all these symptoms, some people are depressed but still, show happy faces. We must clearly understand what it actually means and must get out of it before it is too late.

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Common Symptoms of Depression

  1. Trouble in Concentrating : People with depression may feel difficulty or trouble in concentrating on their jobs. They even feel extremely hard to even take simple decisions due to lack of concentration.
  2. Insomnia : Insomnia is one of the most common symptoms of depression. They either sleep for long number of hours or never sleep at all. It varies with person to person. Even sometimes they wake at early morning without knowing.
  3. Guilty Feeling : Depressed state can also happen due to inability or failure to do an important job. It starts with feeling guilty all the time thinking about the work and stressing themselves too much. It makes them feel helpless and alone all the time even they are always being surrounded by friends , family or relatives.
  4. Lose of Interest : People start to lose interest over things that are once their favourite one. It may be hobbies like drawing, dancing, singing or even visiting places that are their favourite ones initially.
  5. Restlessness : Inability to relax or inability to make your mind calm and peace is called Restlessness. It happens due to over stress, thinking about something all the time and excess usage of devices like Mobile Phones, Laptop and television etc.
  6. Overeating/ Appetite Loss : It happens in two ways , either feeling of hunger at all times or feeling full at all time. It is also a symptom of depression which most people fail to address it at early stages of their life.
  7. Unbalanced feelings : Sometimes they feel too happy, sometimes too sad, sometimes too anxious with no meaning, sometimes too angry without knowing. Their feelings become unpredictable and meaningless during their depressed state of mind.
  8. Digestive problems : Even stomach ache for a long period of time , without reacting to medicines is a symptom of depression.

Most of these symptoms are the common ones, the failure to address them for a long period may lead to suicidal thoughts or suicidal attempts.

Ways to overcome depression

  1. Surround yourself with motivation
  2. Do yoga and meditation
  3. Always ask for help without hesitation.
  4. Go out to new places for refreshment.
  5. Take breaks during job to avoid stress.
  6. Eat healthy food like fresh fruits and vegetables.
  7. Create new hobbies
  8. Do activities that keeps both our mind and body calm.
  9. Focus on people who will be there for you during both good and bad times.
  10. Always get minimum six hours of sleep daily.
  11. It’s okay to say ‘no’ to works which is either stressful or not possible.

“Don’t let life discourage you everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.”

Richard L. Evans

10 Simple ways to deal with stress

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Tips to manage stressful situations

It might surprise you to learn that biological stress is a fairly recent discovery. It wasn’t until the late 1950s that endocrinologist Hans Selye first identified and documented stress.

Symptoms of stress existed long before Selye, but his discoveries led to new research that has helped millions cope with stress. We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 ways to relieve stress.

Listen to music

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by a stressful situation, try taking a break and listening to relaxing music. Playing calm music has a positive effect on the brain and body, can lower blood pressure, and reduce cortisol, a hormone linked to stress.

We recommend cello master Yo-Yo Ma playing Bach, but if classical really isn’t your thing, try listening to ocean or nature sounds. It may sound cheesy, but they have similar relaxing effects to music.

Talk it out with a friend

When you’re feeling stressed, take a break to call a friend and talk about your problems. Good relationships with friends and loved ones are important to any healthy lifestyle.

They’re especially important when you’re under a lot of stress. A reassuring voice, even for a minute, can put everything in perspective.

Talk yourself through it

Sometimes calling a friend is not an option. If this is the case, talking calmly to yourself can be the next best thing.

Don’t worry about seeming crazy — just tell yourself why you’re stressed out, what you have to do to complete the task at hand, and most importantly, that everything will be okay.

Eat right

Stress levels and a proper diet are closely related. When we’re overwhelmed, we often forget to eat well and resort to using sugary, fatty snack foods as a pick-me-up.

Try to avoid sugary snacks and plan ahead. Fruits and vegetables are always good, and fish with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to reduce the symptoms of stress. A tuna sandwich really is brain food.

Laugh it off

Laughter releases endorphins that improve mood and decrease levels of the stress-causing hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Laughing tricks your nervous system into making you happy.

Our suggestion: watch some classic Monty Python skits like “The Ministry of Silly Walks.” Those Brits are so hilarious, you’ll soon be cracking up, rather than cracking up.

Drink tea

A large dose of caffeine causes a short-term spike in blood pressure. It may also cause your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to go into overdrive.

Instead of coffee or energy drinks, try green tea. It has less than half the caffeine of coffee and contains healthy antioxidants, as well as theanine, an amino acid that has a calming effect on the nervous system.

Be mindful

Most of the tips we’ve suggested provide immediate relief, but there are also many lifestyle changes that can be more effective in the long run. The concept of “mindfulness” is a large part of meditative and somatic approaches to mental health and has become popular recently.

From yoga and tai chi to meditation and Pilates, these systems of mindfulness incorporate physical and mental exercises that prevent stress from becoming a problem. Try joining a class.

Exercise (even for a minute)

Exercise doesn’t necessarily mean power lifting at the gym or training for a marathon. A short walk around the office or simply standing up to stretch during a break at work can offer immediate relief in a stressful situation.

Getting your blood moving releases endorphins and can improve your mood almost instantaneously.

Sleep better

Everyone knows stress can cause you to lose sleep. Unfortunately, lack of sleep is also a key cause of stress. This vicious cycle causes the brain and body to get out of whack and only gets worse with time.

Make sure to get the doctor-recommended seven to eight hours of sleep. Turn the TV off earlier, dim the lights, and give yourself time to relax before going to bed. It may be the most effective stress buster on our list.

Breathe easy

he advice “take a deep breath” may seem like a cliché, but it holds true when it comes to stress. For centuries, Buddhist monks have been conscious of deliberate breathing during meditation.

For an easy three- to five-minute exercise, sit up in your chair with your feet flat on the floor and hands on top of your knees. Breathe in and out slowly and deeply, concentrating on your lungs as they expand fully in your chest.

While shallow breathing causes stress, deep breathing oxygenates your blood, helps center your body, and clears your mind.

Learn more about stress relief

Stress is an unavoidable part of life, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Too much untreated stress can cause potentially serious physical and mental health problems.

The good news is that in many cases, stress is manageable. With some patience and a few useful strategies, you can reduce your stress, whether it’s family stress or stress at the workplace.

I hope these tips help you.

Thank you.

What to do at the time of depression!!!

If you’re depressed to feel a little bit better and I want to make sure you understand what those are but first I want to start by helping you understand what the typical signs and symptoms are:

1- One of the most common signs of depression is a feeling of sadness or irritability that is really pervasive and doesn’t seem to go away no matter what you do if you’re with friends if you’re by yourself the sadness just sort of becomes your reality irritability can also be present and this is much more typical in teens that they will present with more irritability than sadness when they’re dealing with depression.

adult alone anxious black and white
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2- Feeling really hopeless and this can be hopeless about getting better it can be a sense of hopelessness about the future and the ability of sort of achieving your hopes and dreams and again it’s a very tough symptom to deal with because other people can tell you, know you have so much to look forward to or this great thing is happening in your life but if you’re really struggling with depression that hopeless this just kind of takes over and keeps you stuck.

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3- You should be aware of is something called anhedonia. This is really a fancy way of saying a loss of interest in things that you previously used to enjoy so for example you might really be into gardening and all of the sudden you find that no matter how many times you garden or if you try to garden there’s just not the same joy that you’re getting out of it that you used to or maybe you used to really be really social and enjoy spending time with your friends and you find that you just can’t bring yourself to get out of the house and to go and interact with these friends and it’s really difficult to deal with because it’s very hard to motivate yourself. When the things that really used to be what got you out of bed and got you ready for the day no longer hold the same enjoyment and pleasure.

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4- Either decreased concentration and/or indecision the difficulty with making decisions and this can be really difficult when you have to function either in the workplace or you have a lot of responsibilities at home because you’ll find that it’s harder to complete the tasks that you need to complete and if you do need to make decisions there’s almost like this decision paralysis where you find that you just can’t get yourself to the place of making choices.

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5- You should be aware of our changes in sleep and this can be either that you find yourself sleeping a lot more than you used to and having like a really hard time getting out of bed maybe you’ve never been a Napper and all of the sudden you’re taking a nap every day on the other side of the spectrum many people who are struggling with depression find that they can’t sleep that they’re racked with insomnia for the first time in their life and they’re laying in bed and their thoughts just keep running around and they’re feeling sad and they’re feeling hopeless and so either too much or too little sleep is a really cardinal sign of depression that you should be aware.

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6- You should be aware of our changes in appetite or weight and this can be either in the positive or the negative depression sometimes when people are depressed they find that they use food for comfort and end up eating a lot more than typical and gaining weight and sometimes when people are depressed they lose their appetite completely and don’t eat at all and find that they lose weight so if you’ve had any significant weight changes within the last couple months and you also have some of the other signs and symptoms we’re talking about it might be a good idea to consider that there’s some level of depression going on that you’re struggling with so another.

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7- Lastly sign of depression that we’re going to talk about today is a sense of worthlessness so and really this is very difficult for people to handle because it’s a sense that no matter what they do they’re not enough their life is not enough and it won’t ever be enough and this is such a difficult thing to be dealing with and so I think my overall message as you’re learning about these signs of depression is that if you’re experiencing these please reach out and make an appointment with a licensed professional to talk about this because this is something that can get better and you don’t need to struggle with it on your own if you think that you or someone you love might be struggling with depression please reach out and make an appointment with a licensed professional for an evaluation there are many therapeutic techniques that can help you or someone you love feel better and so I strongly encourage you not to hesitate to get the help that you need.

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Call on +91 730 459 9836 for a better help to Vandrevala Foundation if you are feeling depressed or you find someone else depressed. (https://www.vandrevalafoundation.com)

 

 

Fitness is the key to Stress-free Life

By – Karina Sharma

Being healthy and fit in simple terms means taking good care of the body. We should remember that a healthy mind resides only in a healthy body. Good health of both mind and body helps to maintain the required energy level to achieve success in life. All of us must strive to achieve wholesome health.

healthy food
healthy food

Protecting your body from the intake of harmful substances, doing regular exercises, having proper food and sleep are some of the important instances that define a healthy lifestyle. Being fit allows us to perform our activities without being lethargic, restless, or tired.

A healthy and fit person is capable of living life to the fullest, without any major medical or physical issues. Being healthy is not only related to the physical well-being of a person, but it also involves the mental stability or the internal peace of a person.

Generally, a healthy diet consists of taking proper and healthy food which includes eating green and fresh vegetables, fruits, having milk, eggs, minerals, proteins and vitamins essential for a human’s lifestyle. Practicing Yoga including regular exercises in your daily routine also helps you maintain your desired fitness, blood sugar and immunity level.

Healthy habits improve your physical appearance, mental stability, ability to perform activities in a better way, which helps you lead a stress-free lifestyle, maintaining happy moods, high energy levels, etc. Each individual should take off one’s health on a priority; no single day should be skipped for making efforts on maintaining physical and mental fitness. Being happy is directly related to boosting your mental strength and health, so happiness can be considered as the result as well as the part of a healthy and fit lifestyle.

In a nutshell, Health is the most important thing that a person should take care of. Leading a healthy lifestyle leads to happiness, success and achievements.