There are two types of stressful situations: situations you can’t control, and ones you can at least do something about to improve the situation. First figure out what is causing you to feel agitated and if it is something you can or cannot influence.

Is the stressful situation caused by circumstances you can’t control? If it is, remind yourself you can cope with whatever happens, if indeed it happens. Now is the time to take care of yourself as best you can. If possible, remove yourself from the stressful environment. It may be that relatives are arguing, for example, and you can step away from this situation and find a more peaceful, nurturing environment. Take several slow, deep breaths, and perhaps even meditate or listen to a relaxation tape. Find distractions that are nurturing to you and healthy for you. You might for example, spend time with your pets, go for a long walk outdoors, take a soothing bath, or do something creative like paint, play music, or work in your garden. Gently bring your thoughts away from what you cannot control, to things you can control.

Is the stressful situation about things you can or need to do something about? Take a few, very deep breaths and try to relax your shoulders. Remind yourself you are a capable person and you can only do your best. When you are stressed about something you need to do, the best way to relieve stress is to take some action immediately. Often, the situation is very overwhelming, or you would not be feeling stressed. You may have doubts you can accomplish what you need to do. This is why it is important you remind yourself you can only do your best and that you will try. Procrastination is a common reaction, but that only increases stress and worry. Try to distract yourself from thoughts of negative possibilities. It helps to break the task down until you are only looking at the first little bit ahead of you. If, for example, doing your taxes is making you feel anxious, make your first task just to gather your materials together on the table or desk where you will be working. You will feel some relief as you begin. Then, you might just fill out the top part of the form. Take breaks as you need to, but keep returning to it when you find you are worrying. In this way you can break down any task into more manageable bites. Praise yourself and reassure yourself each step of the way and give yourself rewards for what you accomplish.

Everyone has situations they must deal with that are stressful. Find a healthy balance between dealing with what you must and giving yourself situations that make you feel good. Too much avoidance will increase your stress, but so will pushing yourself too hard, so switch between the two in a balance that is right for you, and always be kind to yourself. Try some of the above tips and advice and watch the calm come into your life.

We all feel a little off balance at times. Maybe we’re having difficulty sleeping or we’re stressed or getting emotionally sensitive and finding there is drama in some or all of our relationships. Often during these times our life is focused area too much in one or more areas. Dividing our attention between different activities and finding routines helps us to restore balance.

Here are some tips that may help you to restore a feeling of balance:

1. Limit your online time (emails, forums, instant messaging) to two hours a day.

2. Leave the house every day in the morning, even if you don’t need to be somewhere. You can go to a coffee shop and read the paper, visit a library or a museum, or go for a long walk or bicycle ride.

3. Keep regular sleeping hours. If you are having difficulty sleeping, at least assign certain hours for sleeping, resting, reading, or quiet television (if that makes you drowsy).

4. Save the last hour of the day for quiet and reading books or television – no phone, no computer, no work.

5. Step away from people who are pulling you off balance with drama or their own negativity. Usually you only need to do this until you feel balanced again.

6. Occupy your thoughts and time mostly with positive ideas and activities.

7. Have an assortment of healthy friends in different niches of life. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” or all your social time into one friend or one group of friends. This way when there are problems, and there almost always are occasionally even in good relationships, you will be able to have some enjoyable time or get emotional support from other friends.

8. If you have been watching a lot of television, limit your television to no more than 3 hours a day, at least for a week.

9. Balance the time in your day between different activities and efforts, even at work or college. Too much of one type of activity can make you feel more stressed or dissatisfied. Pace yourself with deadlines so that you won’t have to do marathon sessions to catch up.

10. Don’t work on personal healing or self improvement too much. It gets too intense and ultimately does not help.

11. LIGHTEN UP! Don’t take things too seriously… practice laughter, and ESPECIALLY laughing at yourself!

Each and everyone of us have the tendency to suffer from depression, but we all have different levels of tolerance to handle it. One person’s ability to handle and fight depression may not be the same as yours or mine. Now the question is, why do some people never even have to complain in having to fight depression at all, at the same time, manage to enjoy a happy and stress free life?

Although you and I just like everybody else out there hate depression, we must admit that it is a normal part of being human. However, anything that goes beyond what is normal is definitely not healthy and thus have to be stopped immediately before it causes any permanent damage. While other people immediately resort to doctors’ advice and drug prescriptions, there are certainly better ways you could handle or fight depression in a much wiser and natural method. The tips I am about to share with you below are no magic formulas, just very natural and wise methods, but they are definitely real and proven solutions that some people constantly apply to keep them on guard from emotional challenges such as worry, fear, stress, anxiety, and all other factors alike that would eventually lead to depression if not properly dealt with from the very start.

1) There is no better way to have a much pleasant and calm personality than having a healthy and matured spiritual being. This is no secret. Ever wonder why do religious or spiritual leaders seemed to always be calm, steady and healthy? You do not have to be really religious and all that, but the main point here is that your spiritual maturity will reflect in your physical being. So, do find ways to improve your spiritual life. Join religious groups or be part of some similar communities that will help you grow spiritually.

2) Always keep a positive attitude. Now this is another no secret kind of thing. In fact, there has not been any motivational book or talk that would not mention this very common piece of advice. The only obvious question that people may always associate with this solution is, “how do you keep up with an always positive attitude?”. A very precise answer to this is, “do not entertain negative thoughts and emotions”. Try to practice this attitude as hard as you can on a daily basis, even if you fail most of the time, until you eventually adopt that positive attitude and then it becomes natural to you already.

3) Never lose hope. Losing hope is a grave mistake you could ever put yourself into. When you lose hope over anything at all, it destroys your system and begin to cloud your mind which eventually leads to depression. Now with this one, if you followed tip #1 then I am sure you are no stranger with the word faith. Go learn about this powerful word, cause if you have faith, you will discover that nothing in this world is ever hopeless. Believe that this world was created out of love and so things will always turn out to be good. Plant that in your heart and really do believe it.