Coronary Disease – How to Decrease the Stress in Your Life – Part 1

In the previous posts, we went through stress and how it affects the heart and what the symptoms of stress are.  In this post, I will give you some ideas on how to decrease the stress in your life before it continues to wreak havoc on your heart.

Do Physical Activity – Many people who exercise on a regular basis will tell you that they do it to stay in shape and for overall health.  However, just getting active also decreases stress by helping to take your mind off the stress (if playing a sport, for example), having fun, “burning off” that anxious feeling, and giving you more overall energy.

Learn to Say, NO – The pastor of my church leads a very large congregation and is always being invited all over the world on speaking engagements.  He has said that there are a lot of good things that he could say “yes” to,  but sometimes he has to say “no” to things as it is not good to spread one’s self too thin.  It’s the same thing for you and me.  The world will not come to an end if you cannot volunteer for every committee or event that comes your way.  Even if you are a perfectionist, learn to delegate tasks rather than always having to control everything yourself.

Retrain Your Type A Personality – As a follow-up to the last statement, learn to let go of some things.  Decide what really is important, and prioritize those tasks that need to get done first.   Then any extra things you do after that are just bonuses.  Remember that Rome was not built in a day, and things can wait until the next day.  When deciding what is important, figure out if it is really important.  For example, do you really need to fold the clothes as soon as they come out of the dryer?  I don’t know, but the last time I checked, no one had ever died from a few wrinkles on their clothes!

In the next post, I will continue on this topic of ways to decrease the stress in your life.  See you then!