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- Get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning. Hurrying is stressful!
- Eat mostly nutritious food and move your body in healthy activities you enjoy.
- Reduce or eliminate your caffeine consumption. Caffeine can add to feelings of stress and anxiety.
- Avoid drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. They’re just plain unhealthy—and they’ll cause more stress in the long run!
- Learn deep breathing and relaxation techniques. In a quiet and peaceful place and position, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Concentrate on progressively relaxing specific muscle groups.
- Learn to be assertive. It’s okay to say what you need and what you don’t want assertively—but politely.
- Accept some stressful situations and learn from them. One example is taking a drama class, if acting in front of a class makes you anxious.
- Learn project management skills. All large tasks can be broken into smaller, more manageable tasks.
- Be good to yourself and remind yourself about your positive traits. "My life sucks today" can be transformed into "I may feel discouraged now, but my life will probably get better if I work at it and get some help."
- Concentrate on what you do well, and expect only your best from yourself.
- Escape. If friends are stressing you out, spend some time with your family. If family’s stressing you out, spend some time with friends. If people are stressing you out, find a place to be alone. If the TV is stressing you out, turn it off. Sometimes it helps just to get away from what’s stressing you out.
- Nurture friendships that encourage you, and through which you encourage others.
- Don't rely on your memory. Be a list maker—write down assignments, activities, due dates, etc.
- Be prepared to wait. Patience IS a virtue—and a necessity for staying relaxed!
- Learn to say NO. If you’re being encouraged to bite off more than you can chew (from yourself OR others), slow down, evaluate the situation, and say NO to what you can’t tackle. It’s okay!
- Learn to say YES to helping a friend or a stranger, to fulfilling a goal or a dream, to making it happen.
- Be good to yourself. Treat yourself to something special (to eat, to wear, to do) occasionally. You deserve it!
- Be good to others. Volunteer in your community—it feels good to help others. Feeling positive and valuable increases self-esteem and decreases stress.
- Forgive. Carrying a grudge or feeling angry zaps your energy and fills you with negativity. Talk about stress!
- Act. Check off something on your to-do list.
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