You can't always control the circumstances that life throws your way, but you can control how well you take care of yourself. And practicing this type of self care can help you to feel more empowered so you can see stressors as a challenge rather than a threat, and tackle them as such. Taking proper care of your body, soul and mind can keep you in optimum shape for handling stress. The following are some important basic mental and physical self care strategies that can keep you functioning well and ready for life's challenges.

Say no to anything that is not important to you Laundry, phone calls with your mom, demanding girlfriends – this is not the time to be nice and “responsible”. Give yourself the permission to focus on what’s important. Getting the unessential responsibilites off your schedule will not only create som extra time and space, it will also lighten the burden you’re feeling to keep up with it all.

whenever i feel the tickle I start chugging echinacea like my life depends on it, and if I get sick I'm then convinced it's because I did not respond within the proper time window. It's a sensitive time window. Even though the media says it's all in our heads. WHATEVER.

Calm music will help you calm down and upbeat music will help you up your game. Pick music that won’t distract you (like music without lyrics or in a foreign language). Your favourite music will boost your mood and keep you happy, no matter how tired you are.

I know it’s tempting to order pizza, but it really pays off to take your time to cook and eat nutritious and healthy food. Not only will it help you achieve better, it will also boost your mood! I truly recommend heading over to The Stonesoup for some quick and easy recipes. Most of these recipes can be made in less than 10 minutes!

If you start your day in a stressful way, you’ll probably feel stressed for the rest of the day as well. Make sure your morning starts with 5 minutes of silence and ease. Stand up and stretch your body to make you as tall as you can be. Then bend over and touch the ground. Stretch again. Try to just feel your body and pay attention to your breath. Starting the day in a way like this will make you more relaxed as well!

You might be busy and think that every minute is valuable time to put into your work, but some extra minutes of walking might be a better way to spend some time. If you live close to where you’re going, it’s better to walk than to use public transport (or your car). Not only will the exercise be good for you, you also get some important fresh air and daylight. If you have to commute, get off public transport one or two stops too early, or park your car further away than usual. The extra minutes of fresh air will save you lots of time when you start working and feel more focused.

Take 5-minute mini-breaks every hour You can’t stay focused all the time. No matter how efficient you work, you’ll always get distracted, let your mind wander or end up spending time reading e-mail (and blogs) instead. A better way to spend this time is to get up from your chair, walk outside and take a 5-minute break. The change of place, the change of physical posture and the movement will make it easier to start again when your break is over. You’ll also give your brain a chance to relax and process information, which is essential for your well-being.

Instead of juggling all your to-do’s and must-remember’s, write them down on a piece of paper. Then make a plan of how you are going to manage everything before your deadline. You may have to schedule a lot of tasks on certain days, and it may seem like too much to do, but at least you’ll know that everything will get done. Make sure you stick to the plan, every single day. Don’t fall for the temptation to start on tomorrow’s tasks today, trust that the plan will take you there, and enjoy some free time on the days when you finish your tasks early.

Write a daily gratitude list A daily gratitude list is really helpful to shift your focus and help you appreciate the situation. It doesn’t have to be long, a few sentences will do. If you keep a gratitude journal, you can also look back on your previous entries whenever you need a little boost of happiness and motivation.

Spend your lunchtime as sacred you-time … and enjoy your healthy food with a little journaling, blog-reading, or people-watching. See it as a way to nourish your soul on several levels. It’s important to eat, but it’s equally important to be inspired, creative, silly, whimsical and happy.

Lovely blog and I love this list. Well-written and very true, I feel like printing out your post to pin up at work :)

Wow, this is all such wonderful advice! I’m a PhD student, so my daily life is pretty high stress in a pretty silly way. I’m not training to be a medical doctor, so I’m always aware that the stress of my job training is not really as high stakes as it feels (I mean, no one’s life is ever in my hands), and somehow, that seems to make things worse at times. “Quick!” my brain yells at me, “think brilliant and novel things about that book before you fail at everything!” This is not a good way to get things done. So your advice is really well taken over here and I really do plan on implementing what I can from this list. Thank you!

This list ist just what I needed at the moment. I’m crazily busy and things just seem to be mounting up. I’ll try out your tips that suit me, starting tomorrow. Thanks. :)

Thank you & this is a great list! I think the only one I’m not too sure about it the worry list? I agree writing worries down is a good idea, but I’d much prefer to do some thing positive about them like decide on the next action, if there is one, rather than worry about them. Or I say what’s the worst thing that can happen & try to put it in perspective.

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