Dance it out – When you feel tense and unsettled you can stand up, twirl around and dance it away. Stress happens, but don’t allow it to bring you down and change your mood.

Go for a walk – Sometimes you feel very overwhelmed. If you feel so stressed that you let it affect your performance at work or your behavior turns sour, just go for a walk. It’s amazing how walking it off can relieve many feelings of stress.

Talk about it – We tend to hold our anxieties inside or feelings of hurt and anger. We just need to let people know how we are feeling and why we seem so unbalanced at the moment. People are more understanding than we believe and that can be a relief to talk about it.

Breathe – If you feel a load on your shoulders just sit back for a moment. Relieve the built up tension by slowly breathing. Taking a break for a few minutes to loosen the tension that is causing stress can be enough to get your second wind to move forward.

Go to bed earlier – Many sleep depraved nights can leave you with the feeling that life is hard and you may feel the struggle more so than getting a longer night’s rest. Sleeping is healthy, and what didn’t get done the day before will still be there when you get to it. Just get to it more refreshed and it won’t seem as daunting.

Focus on what you can control – For so many of us the feeling of being out of control in situations can cause stress. We really have to make the conscious effort to realize that some things are just out of our control. If we get in a different mindset, have faith that God’s got the wheel. We can let go...and let God.

Reminisce about good times – How fun is it to talk to old friends or even new friends about the good ole days? Laughter is known to be the best medicine! Even funny stories now may not have been funny at the time, but we can always choose to look back at some things in our lives and laugh at ourselves. It’s better than the alternative, don’t you think?

Ask for a hug – It’s hard for some people to hug. It simply invades people’s space to get into their comfort zone. But, a hug can heal and release tension that is built up from stress. Even if it feels awkward at first, after a while hugging it out will come naturally.

Look for opportunities in life’s challenges – Learning new things, taking advantage of opportunities that don’t come our way very often, and being open to what comes into our world can be a life changer. Take chances and live a great life!

Smile – It’s true that when you smile it’s hard to be sad. When we smile at others and get a smile back it feels great. So, smile more, stress less and make this year the very best!