Small Ways You Can Start To De-Stress

This topic was covered in this Sass, Smarts & Scotch podcast if you’d like to listen in.

My mom works more than anyone I know. She leaves for work incredibly early and probably gets into the office between 7 and 8am and sometimes stays until 5 or 6pm. She gets home, has dinner, and pulls out her work and keeps at it until she heads to bed (sometimes as late as 11pm). Weekends? Yeah, she works then too. Sometimes, I can see the stress coming off her like steam from a boiling pot of water. So when I was thinking of a topic to cover for the podcast, I thought of something that always pops into our lives (some more than others). Stress!
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Stress really just sucks and in the long run, can wreak havoc on your body. Here are some simple things you can do to help manage stress, or help make it go away altogether.

Make Your Bed in the morning. This should be something you can accomplish in a very small amount of time. There’s just something about leaving the room with a made bed in the morning and pulling the sheets down when heading to sleep at night.
Workout whether that means heading to the gym, walking the dog, sex, moving furniture, or playing a sport. We’ve all seen Legally Blonde, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy! Happy people just don’t kill their husbands.”
Practice Self-Kindness in whatever way works for you. Put a Post-It on your mirror with a great quote to wake up to in the morning. Say something you love about yourself to your reflection (out loud). Do something to honor your body. If you feel better, if you feel confident, stress will have a harder time finding its way into your body.
Make Time For You at your favorite coffee shop for 30 minutes a week. Walk your dog by yourself. Lock yourself in the bathroom and get in the tub with lit candles and a glass of wine. Plan a monthly dinner with friends. That time will help recharge your batteries and make it easier to deal with stress.
De-Clutter your closet, desk, pantry… Getting rid of things that don’t serve you anymore, and creating a cleaner, organized space will make that space more inviting. When you want to sit at your desk because everything is where you need it, and the pictures of your dog, or kids make your smile, it will be easier to get to work.
Get Off Your Phone & Read when you go to bed at night. Focusing on one story relaxes you, while sitting on Facebook, doing emails, or going through any other feed will fill your head with (mostly) irrelevant stories, some which may be upsetting, and stress you out more.
Give Praise & Compliment Others every day. Sending that kindness out into the world will improve your mood, and you’ll potentially make someone else’s day.
Write Down Your Goals whether they be big or small, short or long term. Make them big and work towards them. Having a goal down on paper makes it real, and knowing that you are working towards something makes everything else feel like a stepping stone to something you really want.
Reprioritize your daily to-do list. Do the big, ugly, daunting tasks first and get them out of the way. You’ll feel accomplished and continue through your list in a better mood.