How Does Stress Affect Health

Stress is not created by problems, but the reaction. It’s safe to say that the majority of us face the same day to day challenges – with our health, family, money, career or just the daily stresses of life.

But its really up to a person whether to decide a situation is a “stressful” one or merely a challenge. If you approach obstacles with a positive attitude, you will get a positive outcome – the reverse is also true.

Here are 5 things to keep in mind when dealing with a challenge.

The 5 Rules Of Happiness:

1. If you like some­thing, do it, enjoy it and savor it. This goes for hobbies, tasks, food – anything. If you think and believe something is good for you – it is.
2. If you don’t like some­thing, don’t do it and avoid it. If you hate grocery shopping – pay extra to shop online – think of what you could do with the extra time! If there is a task at work that you don’t particularly like doing – mention it to your boss and suggest that your talents are best used focused on a different task. You will soon see that not everything is set in stone.
3. If you don’t like some­thing and can’t avoid it, change it. Unfortunately, you can’t avoid some things, like going to the dentist, having an unhappy spouse. So its up to you to CHANGE it. But remember, you can never change a person, only yourself.
4. If you can’t or choose not to avoid or change some­thing you don’t like, then accept it. Acceptance is the only path to true inner peace. If you have problems accepting certain things in your life and finding inner peace, try meditating (try out guided meditation or the silva method if you are a beginner).
5. Changing your perception of a situation can help you to accept it. How you perceive reality IS your reality. Simple as that. If you perceive being stuck in a traffic jam as a waste of your time, it will be. If you perceive it as the time of day to balance your checkbook and schedule your next day, then you will perceive traffic jams much more differently.

Sounds pretty sim­ple right? Its all too easy to forget these 5 simple rules to happiness.

Alot of the time, its easy to forget that we do everything by choice- we choose who to surround ourselves with, where to work, what to eat and most importantly HOW to feel.

So next time you find your­self in an unhappy or stress­ful sit­u­a­tion, run through these 5 rules in your head and see if you’re break­ing any of them. Trust me, they’d really help you see what you can do to rem­edy the sit­u­a­tion and be happy.

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