By Trevor Johnson

Placed here by Janet Schlarbaum

Stress is a part of everyday life. Some people handle it a little better than others. If you find yourself unproductive or having difficulty getting through your day because of stress, you need to use some stress management techniques to alleviate the tension. Before you know it, you will have the care free attitude of a teenager again.

Meditation – It’s time to stop making fun of your buddies that take yoga and join them in their next class. This is one of many forms of meditation that are very effective in grounding you and alleviating stress. Getting your mind grounded and creating overall harmony of your body can do wonders to get rid of the boss hammering you at work all day.

Exercise – If you do not have a regular exercise program and have a stressful job, you need to start ASAP. One thing that you will find is that after a tough day, exercise gives you an outlet to rid yourself of stress. Take up kick boxing and put your bosses face on the heavy bag. A few good shots to his mug will do wonders for you.

Self realization – a lot of stress is brought on because we try to do too much. To realize that you are only human is part of the process in relieving stress. You are going to make mistakes and you can only do so much. There are other people at your job, let them do some of the work. As long as you are doing what you are supposed to and doing it well, you should be in great shape. The reason a lot of people fail at their jobs is because they take on too much or something that don’t understand. The next thing you know you are going home and kicking the dog. Stay within yourself and you will be amazed at the change.

Stress management takes many forms and self talk is but one of them The inner dialogue you have with yourself is going on all the time – but most of its just “below the surface.” That is, it’s going on below the conscious threshold of the mind. It happens without you ever being aware of it.

You could be taking a test, for example, and even though most of your thought processes are concentrated on the questions and answers, your old programs are still running in the background. They’re saying things like, “I just know I’m going to flunk this test. I didn’t study like I should have, and now it’s caught up with me. This will probably make my grade point average drop, my dad is going to really upset. Why couldn’t I have been born as smart as that nerd in front of me? I was born to be a big failure.”

Your subconscious mind is working right now, day and night, to make sure you become precisely the person you have subconsciously described yourself to be. If your internal program pictures you as having trouble earning enough income, your subconscious mind is doing everything it can right now, to make sure that you have trouble earning more money. If you have conditioned yourself to believe you can’t stick to a diet, you can be sure that your subconscious mind will make sure that no diet will work for you – at least not for long. Your mind can only do for you what you (and others) tell it to do.

During our formative years each of us is told “no” or what we cannot do, tens of thousands of times. Each of those “no’s” are deeply rooted in your subconscious mind.

Most of what seems to happen to you, happens because of you. Something you created, directed, influenced or allowed to happen. Let’s take a look at 5 steps that control your success or failure:

1. Behavior – your actions how you act, and what you do everyday. The right series of actions will end up making things work better.
2. Feelings – every action you take is first filtered through your feelings. How you feel about something will determine what you do.
3. Attitude – your attitude will effect how you feel, which in turn, determines how you act.
4. Beliefs – what you believe about anything will determine your attitude about it. Your attitude creates your feelings and direct your actions.
5. Programing – how your conditioned by friends and family from the day you’re born