Someone else’s stress is relatively easy for me to relieve. However, this week when I personally felt overwhelmed, helping two of my kids move out while juggling my other duties, along with a guest on my radio show who failed to show up, I felt the cumulative effect of stress both physically and emotionally. With allergy season here like tree pollen at record levels, restoring balance had to be the subject of my life story or else succumb to the symptoms of stress.

Symptoms of stress: Rapid shallow breathing, vague aches and pains, existing symptoms worsened, distraction, waking up in the middle of the night, fatigue, negativity, irritability, inattentive listening and anger leading to more conflicts.

Here is how I reset my own natural rhythm:

• Awareness – Take a personal inventory of symptoms to identify the pattern. For me I was being an over-doer. I unplugged a few people who were plugged into my energy socket. I have a right to my authentic life. Their emergencies do not have to be my emergencies. If I were not around, they would find another way.
  
• Healthy balanced meals and snacks along with adequate water intake - To be balanced you have to eat and drink balanced. I made sure to drink a great inflammatory, 2 cups of green tea daily. During times of stress I tend to eat more colorful fruits and vegetables to maximize nutrients which are quickly depleted.
  
• Outdoor walks – Reset your natural rhythm by taking your five senses outdoor. I walk off stress hormones and relax my mind which is overloaded by technology by taking a neighborhood stroll – no matter how tired I am.
  
• Create a daily time and space for a technology free zone - no wristwatch, emails, googling, ipods or phones. I could feel my breathing and heart rate relax. I was rebooting my system.
  
• Change verbiage from negative to positive - Don’t let the words, “frazzled,” or “crazy busy” trip off your tongue. Instead I complimented myself liberally on what I had already accomplished.
  
• Accept yourself and others - when my radio guest did not show up, I had no time to feel angry or sorry for myself. I had to solve a problem and think fast. So, I became the guest, “Debbie Mandel interviewing Debbie Mandel.” Just that morning a woman confided how disappointed she was in her brother, a physician, who did not help her with two parents both in different cardiac rehabs. I told her story on air, along with how to reframe her brother’s invisibility, so that she could release her resentment. After all, the anger would not help her parents recover from their individual heart surgeries. Most likely, this specific radio show would help other caregivers in similar situations!
  
• Regarding allergy season, make peace with the flowers and trees – getting along with nature instead of perceiving it as the enemy: Less stress, fewer allergy symptoms for the general population who do not have life-threatening allergic reactions. I threw away my allergy meds a decade ago and am living proof of balanced living reducing inflammation.
  
• Vacation – Every day I schedule time for spontaneity and joy in the form of mini-vacations. They improve my creativity and actually help me to accomplish more efficiently. Most importantly, they are a rehearsal for bigger vacations.

---

For more information on managing your stress and reclaiming your life read my book, Addicted to Stress: A Woman's 7 Step Program to Reclaim Joy and Spontaneity in Life. To listen to archived radio shows with guest experts visit Turn On Your Inner Light Radio Show