Quick Fix Tips         

While life often seems complex, it can also be amazingly simple - if we will just allow it to be. Saying that life can be simple is not the same as saying it is easy. Life is not always easy, but creating the habit of an uncomplicated approach will make most things work better. Here are a few ideas:

Daily struggles, petty problems, sensory overwhelm, other people’s moods, stuff to do – all these conspire to make even the most positive people feel deflated. Even if you are confronted with challenging events you can change your emotional state almost immediately in few simple ways.

• Pay yourself a compliment each day. And while you are at it, pay someone else a heartfelt and genuine compliment. Their pleasure will make you feel great.

• Walk like a person who is enthused about life and happy. If you throw your shoulders back, look at eye contact level rather than the ground, put a spring in your step and greet people, it is virtually impossible to feel down.

• Do something completely irrelevant to your everyday life. Decide that this is the day you are going to: learn to juggle, balance a ball on your nose, rollerblade or skateboard in the park or knit a tea cosy.

For more Easy Ways To Feel Good click here

Clutter creates a sort of ‘visual noise’ which keeps the volume turned up all the time, and this is pretty stressful. You may have no idea how stressful your clutter is – until you get rid of it. If you are keeping the clutter under superficial control you may not be thinking about it but it can still deplete you of energy – better to get rid of the clutter in the first place. If on the other hand the clutter is controlling you – a sure sign is that hunt for an essential piece of paper among three teetering piles of papers – then you will definitely be adding to your stress load.

• Clutter is principally:

Things you no longer use: such as stacks of old magazines, clothes you might one day slim into, cups and saucepan lids without handles or broken equipment.

Things you no longer love: the old tea-set you inherited but don’t really like, sale bargains that did not seem such a good idea when you got them home, or collections of objects that once seemed a passion but that passion has now faded (no I do not mean you spouse!).

• You need four strong boxes. Give each one a label: Junk For The Tip; Charity Shop; Repairs/Alterations; Things To Sort Out. Every time you come across an item that fits one of these descriptions chuck it in there. When the box is full, cart it off or sort it out as a priority. In your Things To Sort Out box you could also put items that you are in two minds about and if you miss them after a few months re-instate them in your home. Keep the boxes on the go all the time, though hopefully after the first deluge it won’t be quite so much to deal with.

• If you can’t persuade your kids to clear up their room don’t let that be another stress. Make a three important rules they adhere to: 1. They always keep their door shut so you don’t have to look at their mess. 2. They are responsible for picking up dirty clothes and bed linen and putting them out for laundry on a given day of the week. 3. They don’t come complaining to you when they can’t find something. If they break these rules – the penalty is that they have to clear up their rooms!

For more order out of chaos tips click here

Eating healthily at on the run or at work can seem a bit of an obstacle course. Sandwiches are grabbed, sugar-boosts are craved, business lunch menus are tempting and meals are often skipped when under pressure. Forty per cent of calories are eaten out of the home these days, and work-time meals account for a lot of this.

With a little forethought and planning healthy eating at the office can be quite easy. As a result you will improve your energy levels and ability to concentrate and feed your body the nutrients it needs to deal with work-day stresses.

• If you can’t break the habit of eating on the run grab some of the following as healthy options: A banana or other piece of fruit, a bio-yoghurt, a few oatcakes, some rye crackers spread with nut butter or a toasted bagel and a cup of tea from a sandwich shop would be better than the coffee and danish.

• Snacking is necessary to keep our energy levels up and to keep us alert. But a chocolate bar will just perpetuate your stress levels and lead to energy dips later. In your desk drawer keep some muesli bars (you can find healthier choices amongst all the sugar laden ones), packets of mini-rice cakes or oatcakes and nuts and raisins. You can keep an attractive fruit bowl on your desk to munch from. If you snack healthily there is a greater chance that you will avoid the post-lunch 2-4pm energy slump that so many people suffer from.

• Healthy take-away lunch options include: Baked potato stuffed with baked beans or tuna; Sushi boxes; Sandwiches made with wholemeal bread; Salad boxes (avoid those drowned in mayonnaise); tortilla wraps with low-fat ingredients.

For more Healthy Eating On The Run tips click here

A great myth of our time is ‘You Can Do It All’. We work hard, we play hard, we give ‘quality time’ to our children. But if you find that you are becoming exhausted by attempting to keep all these balls in the air, it is probably time to make some choices. Trouble in finding an acceptable balance between work and home life is one of the most common causes of stress.

• Set yourself a fixed time beyond which you do not stay at work. And stick to it. If you find that you are always bringing work home , you need to develop the ability to compartmentalise your various activities and get into the habit of creating cut off times.

• Sometimes it is easier to value successes at work rather than at home. This is, in part, because it is how we earn our living and also because there are recognised reward schemes (such as salary increase, promotion and customer/boss satisfaction). Valuing your successes at home, as well as at the office, is an excellent step towards recreating some balance. Successes might be a loving relationship, enjoying your children, a vibrant home atmosphere or a few really good friends to count on – think of those successes that are relevant to you.

• It can be particularly difficult to juggle parental responsibilities with work life. Rather than wait for a crisis to happen (illness, feelings of guilt, tiredness, needing to attend sports days/school plays), evaluate what you need to do for your children and negotiate in advance with your employers about how you are going to handle this.

• No one ever went to their grave saying ‘I wish I had worked harder’. It is more likely to be ‘I wish I spent more time with my loved ones or doing things I enjoy’.

For more Work/Home Balance Tips click here

As the pressure mounts in the office, disassociating yourself from it for even a short while helps to preserve your sanity and keep you focussed and energetic. People are not automatons and if you don’t ‘take five’ from time-to-time you run the risk of depleting your spirits and your health.

• Take time out every hour or so to run through a five-minute destress routine and make yourself feel better. You probably do this to a degree anyway – many people hang around the water fountain or coffee-machine, or take a trip to the loo, for just this reason. But your destressing can be more creative and productive for you.

• Staring at a VDU encourages eye strain and may trigger tiredness and headaches in susceptible people. Take a regular break by adjusting your eyes and looking into the distance. Use soothing eye drops.

• Take a brisk walk around the block.

For more Five-Minute Destressing Tips For The Office click here

These tips are taken from 500 Of The Most Important Stress Busting Tips You’ll Ever Need. Click here for more information.