Let go of the old thoughts and habits that hold you hostage and take your mind captive.

Let go of the old thoughts and habits that hold you hostage and take your mind captive. Apply these 16useful tools to combat stress and anxiety today!

Are you able to identify the stress that cause you worry and anxiety? What are you doing to work through your triggers and prevent relapse or manage recovery? Our problems, situations, circumstances, or past relationships, experiences or environment may be the root of our stress. The symptoms of stress and worry can cause some sort of anxiety and traumatic affects that could change the trajectory of your life forever. It could possible affect how you think, feel or behave which ultimately affect your outcome or your responds in a negative way. Practicing better habits of patience, discipline and self-control through master of self and maintaining of balance in your life is key in combating stress and anxiety. If you suffer from mental illness or have had an life altering experience, or have had to live with some hard life changing events and you are still work daily to overcome; trust me, I empathize with you. Your feelings are real and it is valid. If you found yourself reading this article you, You are trying and it’s difficult and you feel you are doing your best but it has not been enough because you still have the headaches, the chest pains, the muscle tightness the frustration, the racing thoughts, the sleepless nights, the back, neck and shoulder pains. Your face is all broke out ,your heart is racing and your physically health is compromised. You can’t let go no matter how much you keep trying. You results are fleeting and only bring temporary relief. Well I am hear to tell you there is still hope. All of those things you are able to overcome if you just let it go! Believe you can and take action. Don’t live there; allow yourself to experience it, acknowledge it and get over it. All you have to do is believe and make the conscious decision everyday by choosing a mindset that grow you and push you forward and help you work through the hard and difficult times. When you are having feelings of anxiety and stress ask yourself; What is that you really want? For example, Do you want to be more organized and live in simplicity. Then get organized and declutter. Let it go! Continue to ask yourself, What is important to you? Have you use those things in the past two years? Write down on paper, What is that you really desire? What is that you really need? Are you doing the things you need to do to get what you want? It’s time to try something new. The way you work through stress and anxiety is to try, grow, and learn the new skills to transform yourself daily. You may be feeling anxiety and stress from some type of external or internal factor. For example you maybe a person that don’t like confinement, limitations or commitments. But yet, you are having financial difficulties. You like to feel in control. But you are being used and manipulated by others and feel they crossed boundaries and is out of control and took your freedom and confidence. Well brainstorm some ideas and immediate behaviors you can change to regain your peace, freedom and confidence. Lastly, you like to do things that feel of importance to you and have purpose. But you are working in a dead in job. The key to solving this is getting started, set some small goals and identity action steps to position yourself in a career you can be successful and flourish. To start think about your personal character, personal behavior, the things that make you tick? Or the things you need to change and start working on changing it. It all start with a decision to do better. Once again, What do you value? What is important to you? You may like control, order and systems. You like to see results and the benefits of putting good ideas and valuable time to use. It has to make since, but you feel like must of what you do don’t make sense or align with what you want your desired outcome to be or you find you don’t have the motivation or inspiration within and you lack the drive to take action in the first place. You become frustrated when you find it hard to succeed at what you dream or envision for yourself. You self sabotage. You doubt yourself. You think negatively about outcomes before you even really get started. You have difficulty finding the resources and creating opportunity. Why?! Do you have to feel desperate or have despair or have no options before you lift yourself up and get to doing the things you desire in life. Are you to responsible but not responsible enough that you drop your responsibilities easier then you try to work trough it. Remember, It’s okay to cry, scream, get mad upset angry and feel pain. It’s normal. What is not normal is staying in it and living there for long periods of time or even in short intervals. Stop lying to yourself and except your reality then get up and do something about it. Here are 15 healthy tips to get you out of your rout and help you eliminate stress and anxiety. 1. Find Joyful Moments in the middle of your storm; choose a better mindset and attitude today. Shift your atmosphere from negative to positive. Change your fix mindset to growth. Remember you create your atmosphere and you determine your mood. For example, you feeling a little less confident then you do on most days. Stand in the mirror and speak confidence posting affirmations to yourself. Tell yourself, I am enough. I am beautiful. I am loved. I look good today. I am confident. I am strong.!i am a champion. Give yourself some compliments! Listen to some uplifting feel good music that will raise your spirit, dance, jump around for joy. You have to create Joy! 2. Talk to someone you can trust and be open and honest with. Remember being open in honest with someone about areas where you weak and struggling helps you gain the strength you need to recognize your weaknesses and get help to improve it. Talking to someone will help you stay aware and keep you accountable for pushing through life storms. 3. Find Success In what you are working on fixing or changing. Its the small gains that will eventually bring you big wins. Stay focus on your task while celebrating the small accomplishments in between. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Acknowledge yourself and what you have accomplish and reward yourself. You deserve it. Rather it’s a Love note to yourself, a small treat from your favorite restaurant or a nice handbag. Always remember to pay yourself first. 4. Be grateful and thankful for something today. It’s in the middle where we need to keep hope, faith and trust. Sometimes that can be very difficult pending circumstances but we always have to remember trouble don’t last and we are never given more then we can bare. So, think about what you have overcome or what your are blessed to have in this moment and even what you have to look forward to and find gratitude and appreciation for it. Remember having a grateful, humble and joyful heart is what helps you keep perceptive in life. 5. Relax and Create a Healthy Distraction. Get lost in a activity or hobby that you can loose yourself in for a hour or two. Find something you enjoy that helps ease your mind and shift your thoughts to something more enlightened and positive. Read a book, play a game, watch a movie with humor and Lots of laughter. The goal is to focus on relaxation and releasing tension and feelings of overwhelm and/or anxious to do more.

6. Journal Your thoughts and feelings. Remember writing it’s a good habit to help you release and let go of what you have bottle up in you internally. It is even good to jot down things you need to do for the day or the next day. Remember setting your priorities is important in creating your day and it keeps you on task and moving toward your goals. 7. Assess yourself! Work toward doing something to fix why you feel the way you do. Give yourself a daily self check and ask yourself what do I need and what do I don’t need and what is it that got me feeling this way today. Assess yourself in all areas physically, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally and financially. Find out the root of the problem and fix it with the best possible solution. Remember to use good judgement and be patient with yourself. It’s not always easy! 8. Practice deep breathing. Closing your eyes and taking some deep breaths slowly and releasing out is a good technique to use when you need to relax and calm your nerves in the moment. Another technique is holding one nostril close and alternating breathing through each nostril one at a time. This practice is a good tool to use and I find it most useful in high impact moments where you are looking for a quick two to three minute fix. Last, technique that is extremely helpful is focusing your attention on a specific object, shapes, color and being present with your thoughts and feelings in that moment. If you have about a good 5 to 10 minutes this will help calm you down and gain refocus. 9. Don’t feel rush and Prioritize Focus! Please remember you cannot be everybody everything and it is okay to say No. Your mental stability, your physical health and your peace and happiness is important and enough to say NO if it take from you more then it fills you up. 10. Say No and Do nothing, Let’s practice... Say the word out loud! No! No! No! Say it again, absolutely No. Mean it, No! You don’t owe anyone a explanation! Own your No! Accept what it is and admit what you need and why you need it. Now this is the time to be absolutely selfish with yourself, your time and your needs. Remember you can’t do anything for anyone else until you are good. 11. Hope, Believe and Trust you will get through this and it will pass. Whatever you do not despair and give up Hope. Trust and believe things will workout for your good. Consider the following bible scriptures if you are a spiritual person and believe in the higher power. 1Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares. Proverbs 12:15 A anxious heart ways a man down but a kind word cheers him up. Philippians 4:6-8 do not be anxious for anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God.

12. Don’t allow people expectations or situation to get you out of character today. Chose how you respond to people and circumstances that may stir you into negative thoughts or bad behavior. If someone is talking negatively about something or gossiping one thing you may want to do is change the subject, shift the conversation by dismissing what was said and say something positive to lighten the conversation. Find Beauty In today.

13. Find something good about today that help you through the day or transformed you. Maybe it’s something you learned, you taught or received but you can Identify with it being positive, uplifting and shifting you into alignment. It’s important to have forward thinking.

14. Maintain balance and simplicity. Learn to keep it simple. You don’t have to have complete control but finding balance in your life is important to being healthy and living healthy. Allow your surroundings, environment and relationships to excel and propel you. Let go of the other things that cause you more stress and make your life chaos. It’s not only important to do things right put finding the best possible solution and being intentional in your habits and thinking that really matters

15. Get a health checkup. Be sure to put your health first and never ignore your signs and symptoms. If you need help. Get help! If you are doing good keep your preventative measures in place rather it’s monthly check ups or seeing your specialist as needed. If you feel something is wrong don’t second guess it; find your nearest emergency hospital and follow up with a physical immediately. You have insurance. Use it! If you don’t have insurance don’t worry that’s a issue that will work itself out so never put it before your health and being treated.

16. Practice being calm, control your mood and choose your attitude. Everyday you wake up it is your choice to choose how you will feel, what you will think, and what you will do for yourself or someone else today God willing. Therefore, choose to wake up with the right mindset and attitude for it is what will set your day and maybe those around you as well. In conclusion, We all have our pity parties, Life is hard! You have to let go and let God help you. We all need a life source higher then ourselves. Choose your attitude, behavior and mood. Use wisdom, think about what’s right and what’s absolutely best even when its hard. Do not allow others circumstances, task, people, school or obligations to overwhelm you to the point of giving up on yourself. Choose joy and choose peace. Well your probably thinking to yourself how do I do all this; you just except what is and understand we all have issues, problems and hardship. How we choose to deal with it and the lessons we learn or don’t learn is what push us forward or hold us back. Create a atmosphere of peace and siren. Get in a quite space and sit for about 30 minutes and pray, meditate and listen to the spirit within. My home is that for me. You have to get in a place where you can hear from God and take the pressure and expectation of yourself. Create your atmosphere! Some other things you can do that’s I find helpful to distress, unwind and inspire me includes quite moments alone Drinking Hot Tea, Listening to Music, Taking a Long Baths, Taking a Nap, Taking a walk in the park, Sitting in Nature, Giving yourself a facial, hugging your kids, cuddling with your pet or significant other, calling a close family member, watching a funny movie, cooking your favorite meal, learning a new recipe, enjoying some desert, going to have a meal with a friend, playing with the dog, doing something for somebody else, checking on someone else, going to church, serving your local community, and time alone writing, journaling and getting to know yourself and your wants, needs and desire better.