The Guest List

1. Pay attention to your self-talk.
   People tend to focus on the negative in an attempt to survive all the "what ifs" in life, but we end up spending more of our lives worrying than living.
2. Remember to breathe - especially deep, slow diaphragmatic breathing.
   Slow, deep breathing reduces your heart rate, lowers blood pressure and activates your parasympathetic nervous system (the opposite of the flight-or-fight response).
3. Be sure to get plenty of sleep, eat well and drink plenty of water.
   Most Americans are truly running a deficit on all three of these, and they are critical to our mental and physical well-being.
4. Exercise or take a brisk walk.
   Exercise is one of the best ways to burn off stress hormones and improve your mood.
5. Learn to meditate.
   People who take time to meditate or intentionally relax on a regular basis have been shown to weather daily stress more successfully and with better overall health.
6. Maintain relationships with people and pets.
   People who have healthy relationships with friends or family have fewer stress-related illnesses. Also, just petting an animal has been shown to lower your blood pressure.
7. Allow extra time for projects or even to get ready in the morning.
   Rushing actually triggers a stress response in our body, producing all the harmful stress hormones that alter mood negatively and may eventually turn into illness.
8. Do your best to live in the present and practice mindfulness.
   This is all we really have, and it's easy to miss the moment if we're focused on the past or future.
9. Listen to your body's signals.
   If we don't pay attention to our emotional and mental stress, physical issues begin to emerge. The longer you wait to listen to your body, the louder it will have to speak to you.
10. Think about the big picture.
    Increased levels of stress hormones in our brain actually cause our brain's seat of long-term memory to waste away. So, the next time you're stressed out, ask yourself, "Is stressing out over this really worth shrinking my brain?"

Visit the Anxiety and Stress Management Institute at http://www.stressmgt.net.