7 Ways to Live a Stress-Free Life. Even if Your Work is Stressful!

What would it look and feel like to eliminate ALL the stress in your life? How would life be different if you could stop dealing with so much pressure and anxiety?

Living a stress-free life begins with replacing the people, things, beliefs, environments, and memories that cause stress with those that give you a sense of calm, allowing you to live a happier, peaceful life.

Maybe you're asking yourself, is that even possible. Or, better yet, you're thinking, is it possible for ME? The answer is, YES, it is possible for you.

Here are 7 skills to help you do precisely that.

Let Go of the Past and Develop a Present Mindset.

I understand that sometimes it's hard to let go of our suffering out of a fear of the unknown. We prefer suffering that is familiar to us. It's a challenge to let go of some of the things in your past. There are memories in your past that you cherish, and rightfully so.

Unfortunately, we tend to hang on to and meditate over those that speak negatively to us. You know, the things that make you feel empty and unhappy.

The negativity of the past wants to define you, label you, and discourage you from believing that you can do great things. Negative things like:

Relationships you’ve messed up or lost.

Career decisions you wish you could do over, or start over.

Opportunities you wished you’d taken advantage of, but missed.

Situations where you embarrassed yourself.

I understand; I've made all of the above mistakes in my past and, for a time, allowed them to define who I was, what I was capable of, and what I wanted in life.

However, with a change in my thinking, every one of these proved to have happened FOR me rather than me. I was able to use them for my benefit.

Remind yourself often of ALL that you've learned from your past experiences that you're a much wiser person. The past was instrumental in bringing you to today, and because of those lessons, you are who you are now.

Be happy that you're a much more motivated, dedicated, and confident person due to all you've been through. Celebrate that your past has no bearing whatsoever on who you're becoming and where you're going.

Be Grateful For What You Have.

Gratitude makes sense of your past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. — Melody Beattie

A grateful heart and mind create positive emotions that grow and continue to grow until they begin to decrease the negative emotional experiences of envy, victimization, and jealousy from your past.

Gratitude and thankfulness generate positive memories that are catalysts to help you move away from the stress of your past and on to enjoying your life.

Gratitude produces internal energy that aids in achieving your life and career goals, making both your personal and professional life more productive and causing you to be a person people want to be around.

Humility and gratitude are the keys to a happier way of living. When you commit to being less boastful and proud, you allow your success to do your talking.

Stop worrying about your image; dare to risk and try new things. You don't have to be perfect because you're not stuck needing people's applause anymore, or even your own, for that matter.

A simple?"thank you"?expresses extreme gratitude and humility. It acknowledges the people in your life who've had a hand in your success, teachers who inspired you, coaches and mentors that pushed you to be your best.

It says YOU care more about the success of the people around you than you do your own.

Surround Yourself With Happy People.

One of my favorite mentors, Jim Rohn, said,?"You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with."

So, who are the five people in YOUR Life?

• Do they make you feel happy, positive, and optimistic?
• Do they inspire and motivate you to be the best version of yourself?
• Do they support and encourage you to achieve your goals?
• Do they make you smile and laugh?

One of the best ways to live stress-free is finding and surrounding yourself with people who know how to nurture, create happiness, and share it freely. Spend time with these people, and you'll begin to see the world differently.

Surround yourself with positive, successful people willing to share their empowering beliefs and encourage you to see that Life is happening FOR you rather than to you.

For the same reason, you benefit when you surround yourself with people who make you happy. You also suffer when those in your business or social circles are negative, pessimistic, selfish, and narrow-minded.

Instead, surround yourself with intelligent, motivated, inspired, and dedicated people who believe in what you're doing and are willing to HELP you get there.

Fall in Love with Your Job, or Find One YOU Can.

Working hard at a job helping you accomplish your goals and reach your future is something to be passionate about!

Stress-free living should begin the moment you wake up. What wakes you and gets you out of bed every day ready for work? Whatever?"that"?is, is more important to you than you can know.

Your enthusiasm about where you're going, who you're becoming, and what you're going to accomplish makes you?enthusiastic?about your job.

Your job is a means to an end, and it's helping you move toward your dreams and goals. Connecting your purpose and future to your career is significant to your overall health, happiness, motivation, and job satisfaction.

Here are some questions you should be asking yourself to discover your purpose and your future:

• What gets you fired up? What parts of your job or career get you excited and make you lose track of time?
• What is the part of your job that allows you to help others?
• What are your strengths? What are things that you have always been good at? Are those translatable skills in the workplace?
• What would you teach others about your career if you were given a chance to teach others?
• What part of your job would you be willing to do for free?

When analyzing these answers, you are looking for where your passions, strengths, and purpose intersect. Once you find that intersection, use it as a daily focus to get you up, ready, and fired up for work.

When your JOB becomes the PATH by which you reach your goals and dreams, it changes how you look at it.

Schedule Your Priorities

To say yes to your priorities, you have to be willing to say no to something else. — Anonymous

How often have you set New Year's resolutions, only to forget them a week later? Or create some goal for your health that you wind up quitting after a few weeks. These kinds of behaviors cause stress in your life, and this occurs because we've prioritized our schedule rather than scheduling our priorities.

Each morning, before you leave for work, decide your priorities for the day.

Put those 3 priorities on your schedule to be completed first. Your top priorities are the 3 most important things that must happen today, and these should also include things that are moving you towards accomplishing your goals.

Reflect on your current routine and consider how you can enhance it. Spend your morning planning effectively, and the rest of your day will be far more productive and stress-free.

Keep adjusting your schedule and priorities until it becomes easy to complete the 3 most important items you have every day.

Forgive Yourself and Others.

Sometimes we forgive not because we are wrong, but because staying angry robs us of happiness — Anonymous.

Living in the past steals from your present and taints your future. A great future requires you to be hyper-attentive in the present, which is impossible if you live in your past and hold onto past wrongs.

Creating and maintaining negative thoughts about things that occurred in your past leads to negativity. Failing to forgive people and situations from your past creates misery.

Holding onto a grudge or anger is like punching yourself in the face and expecting the other person to bleed!

Forgiveness supports an optimistic mindset.?ALL?of the research shows that forgiveness and forgiving people make you happier, more productive, and able to accomplish goals faster.

Life is happening right now at this moment. Every moment you spend in the PAST is lost forever. Reclaim your happiness, and start moving toward who you want to be and what you want to accomplish by forgiving and moving on.

Agree, That All of Life is Happening FOR You.

Life happens not to me but for me. — Tony Robbins

Imagine that everything in your life was working FOR you.

Of course,?"everything in life"?entails the good, the bad, the happy, the sad, the disappointments, and all the situations. On top of this, what if you believed that all of these were placed in your path to help you get to where you are supposed to be?

So when imagining this, would you get mad when things go wrong? When bad situations come your way, would you think,?Why is this happening to me??Would you be disappointed by your situation and or perceived failure?

Of course not, because it's beneficial.

Author Byron Katie puts it this way: "Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don't have to like it…. It's just easier if you do."

You can stop battling all that bothers and frustrates you when you have the perspective that Life is happening for you.

You can accept that although things might not always go the way you want them to, there is always something better in store. You can breathe easy, live easier, live simpler, knowing everything is happening FOR your good.

Final Thoughts

An astounding thing happens when you release stress; you're able to be yourself without judgment. Your life slows down. You stop wishing for the weekend.

You stop merely looking forward to special events. You begin to live in each moment, and you feel like a human being. You ride the wave of this moment with a feeling of contentment and joy.

My genuine prayer for you is that you find joy, peace, and self-love in each moment of each day.