23 Ways to Lower Stress that Don’t Work
I feel stress when people tell me to relax.
A little stress is good. A lot of stress eats you alive. Stress in large doses makes you stupid. Chronic stress shrinks your brain. Prolonged stress kills.
23 ways to lower stress that don’t work:
- Never inconvenience yourself for others.
- Procrastinate more and make lame excuses. “The sun was out. I didn’t have time to work on your project.”
- Argue against everything.
- Honk your horn at people even if they didn’t do anything wrong. Horn-honking is a great way to lower stress.
- Compliment people when they do stupid things. “Good job, knucklehead.”
- Gossip until you run out of bad things to say.
- Pretend everyone is hard of hearing. Talk loudly.
- Tell your boss, “Thank you for being the worst boss in the history of humanity.”
- Point out bad qualities in co-workers.
- Yell at people and shake them real good. (Only do this if you are bigger than the person you shake.)
- Enjoy not liking people.
- Light matches. Lower stress by doing things mom told you not to do.
- Make stuff up. Spread lies.
- Create a mess.
- Say, “Because I said so,” when people question you.
- Keep saying, “Your lack of preparation is not my emergency.”
- Cut in line at the grocery story.
- Tweak everyone’s work.
- Brag about yourself.
- Give unrequested advice.
- Blow off meetings.
- Interrupt people.
- Drive fast. Break the speed limit.
The #1 way to lower stress:
Don’t get stressed out about being stressed out.
Beating yourself down for being stressed is like pouring gas on a fire.
The second way to lower stress is to have fun making a list of stupid things people do and calling it ways to lower stress that don’t work.
What are some ways to lower stress that don’t work?
What’s your #1 way to lower stress?
A Realistic Approach to Stress Management that doesn’t cause more Stress
8 Tips for Dealing with the Stress of Leadership
10 Ways Strong Leaders Manage Stress
How Chronic Stress Changes the Brain – and What you can do to Reverse the Damage
D > CS = SR—— That’s my simple formula for managing stress.
When your demands exceed your coping skills you have a stress reaction. So either reduce your demands or increase your coping skill or do both.
Here is my video on the formula.
Thanks for extending the conversation, Paul.
Really nice video Paul! I feel like with years I’ve started to care less and less, probably falling into “reduce expectations” category 😀
If you are happy with the situation that is going on, keep going! Don’t overthink it. If you are not, change something. Too often I feel like I try to change things when they are not needed, which then cause me stress.
Good point Kyle. It’s not necessary to improve everything.
The quote currently on my wall is “Not my circus, not my monkeys”. It is there to remind me that if it isn’t my problem, I don’t need to volunteer to clean it up.
Thanks Jennifer. Well-meaning managers take on jobs that others should do. One of the worst things you can do is someone else’s job.
Reading today’s article lowered my stress cause I laughed out loud through the list. And I enjoyed the skylarking post Saturday. Thank you kindly!
Thanks for the good word, Karen. Laughter helps lower stress. 🙂 Cheers.
I would like to recommend tea as an all purpose stress relief tool You can go for strong and black with sugar — useful for when stress feels like the Blitz. Or consider jasmin and slow down while breathing in the floral tinted steam. Or a fire and a good book and a cup of earl grey can make you forget stress exists.
Wonderful suggestions, Elizabeth. Environment matters. A warm drink feels soothing.
Option 10 made me laugh so hard. I misread number 18 first as ‘twork everyone’s weak’!! I knew that couldn’t be right even in a list of silly things to do. That being said, I am guilty of number 18 with my children. Worse than raising everyone’s stress level, it makes them question their own abilities.
Thanks Kay. It’s easy to fall into the tworking habit. Or should I say, tweaking. 🙂 Enjoy!