How Do You Handle Stress?

Everyone must learn how to deal with stress in order to enhance their long-term relationships. When you get overwhelmed and can’t think of ways to answer your question, “How to save my relationship?” the following suggestions might help you:

1. Stop whatever you are doing, sit down, and close your eyes, Breathe deeply. Most of us live life taking shallow breaths that don’t fully oxygenate our brains. More oxygen will help you come up with the creative solutions to any issue in your relationship.

   Take a big breath that inflates your belly. Count 3 as you breathe in. Hold your breath for 3 counts. Then exhale for 3 as you contract your belly. This simple act of breathing and counting is automatically calming. Repeat 3 times or more.

2. Eat well. Physical and emotional health is how to save a relationship. Have you been eating too little or too much? Eat the kinds of foods that nourish you and make you feel energized, and that’s different for each one of us. If you have food sensitivities or allergies, eliminate those foods from your diet. Eating too much sugar and drinking too much caffeine can adversely impact your capacity to handle stress, making you jittery, unable to calm yourself down.

   Don’t forget to drink plenty of water to hydrate the brain.

3. Movement and exercise are proven ways to reduce stress. Do the kind of physical exercise that you enjoy. You need strength to grow a relationship – and to have sex. Walking is the simplest and best of all exercise. Just 20 minutes a day is enough to keep you healthy. More and more research is corroborating that being sedentary is actually harmful to your physical and emotional health. Researchers have discovered that exercise can help you as much as anti-depressant medication.

It’s simple: How to save your relationship is easier if you remember to stop, breathe, eat, and exercise.

What is the greatest stressor in your life?