New Knowledge & Tips

I've been reading through my first book, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... and It's All Small Stuff"by Richard Carlson, and I've come across some extremely useful information to help me release my stress and worry.

1. Frantic thinking takes up more of ones energy and effort. It drains a person of their creative energy. When you have inner peace, you create less distractions from your needs and concerns and allow more time to achieve your goals along with just being joyful and happy.

2. Stop mental-snowballing! An example of mental-snowballing is waking up in the middle of the night to remember an important phone call that needs to be made the next day. Once you've remembered the phone call, a list of everything that needs to get done the next day starts running through your head and you begin to feel overwhelmed. Instead of filling your mind with more thoughts and adding stress, be grateful that you remembered to make the phone call and move on. To stop this habit of mental-snowballing, simply catch it before it takes over. When you find yourself about to go through the list in your head, stop, take a deep breath, and relax your mind. Don't let it become a stressor!

3. There will always be something on your "to-do" list - and that's okay! Many people think that once their "to-do" list is finished they will be able to relax and be happy, but in reality they just replace their finished tasks with new ones. This is an easy way to unintentionally avoid family and friends. Carlson put it in an a very clever way, he said "remind yourself that when you die, your 'in basket' won't be empty".

4. Busy people tend to fall into the habit of interrupting/cutting others off when they are speaking - guilty as charged! If you stop yourself before you interrupt others and let them finish their thought, your relationship will grow and you will improve conversation as opposed to rushing through it.

5. Live in the present! This is something that I have been told countless times, but is easier said than done. John Lennon sums it up quite well, "life is what's happening when you're busy making other plans". I understand this concept, but my challenge is to truly live by this and try my best not to constantly be thinking about tomorrow or worrying about what happened yesterday.