Are You Willing To Break The Cycle?

The stress cycle can become out of control if you let it. You know which cycle I am referring to. The one where you get stressed out about something, eat something sweet or have an alcoholic beverage to relieve the stress some, then get stressed out again and eat the sweets or drink the alcohol, etc. Soon we begin to get excited about getting stressed so we can have a good excuse to have sweets or drink alcohol!

Of course, most of us are already stuck in the stress cycle to some degree, but we can easily break free from it if we are willing to make some simple changes. The first change you need to focus on is recognizing what causes you to be stressed out. When you get that stressed feeling step back and notice your breathing, your facial expression, your muscle tone. Once you begin to recognize the stressors you can then move onto the next step of responding to them appropriately.

It is in the responding appropriately where the cycle is broken. You have probably conditioned yourself to desire that stress relieving substance when you are under stress to calm you down, but now you have to change what relieves your stress to something healthy and follow through with that EVERY time you are under stress.

When your boss is at odds with you, your spouse is not being agreeable or your kids are out to do you in, don’t down that candy bar or grab that cigarette, but do those jumping jacks or drink that glass of water. When you trade out the unhealthy habits for healthy ones you will soon find out that you are better able to cope with stressful events and overall you will become less stressed!

When your stress levels are down because you’ve managed them in a healthy way, you can clearly see the benefits.