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How to Be Laid Back By Following These 9 Simple Strategies

By Operation-Meditation

Do you envy the people who don’t seem to let anything bother them? How can someone manage to be so cool and calm in today’s stressed out world? What’s their secret?

Life is filled with work and home obligations, errands to run and to-do lists that never seem to get done. Add that to dealing with family that can be difficult and coworkers you want to kick right out of your office and it’s no wonder so many people suffer from stress related issues.

And yet, some people seem to be unaffected by it all. A house can be on fire on one side of them and an earthquake on the other and they still seem calm and collected. How do they do it?

Here are nine simple strategies that you can follow that will have you so laid back, you’ll forget what stress feels like:

#1 – Be comfortable with who you are. It’s easy to get your feathers ruffled if someone criticizes or critiques you and you aren’t confident about yourself or your abilities. You take their words personally, which may leave you feeling hurt, angry or disappointed, and ready to fight.

However, if you’re comfortable in your own skin, it doesn’t matter what others think. Their opinion is irrelevant because the only one that matters is your own. So, when they give you their two cents about what they think about you, let it slide right off you instead of getting angry and upset. You know who you are, and who you’re not.

#2 – Process things before you just react to them. When something happens and you are tempted to just react, stop yourself. Take time to process what you saw or heard. It’s easy when you act impulsively to make the wrong move, creating a situation that is worse than it has to be.

Most situations don’t require immediate responses, so take the time to figure out what the appropriate response should be. Once you get past the immediate emotion, you’ll find a greater ability to be rational.

#3 – Don’t say “no” without considering your options. Sometimes when you’re spread too thin and someone asks you to do something, you don’t think about whether or not it would benefit you; you just jump to a “no” answer. However, if you take the time to figure out if it’s beneficial to you to say “yes”, you’ll be more likely to just go with the flow.

#4 – Take time to enjoy life’s little pleasures. It can be easy to get so caught up in your daily obligations that you fail to see the beauty of things that lie before you. Maybe you’re still dwelling on something that happened last week, or perhaps you’re concerned about an upcoming appointment. When you aren’t present in what you’re doing at the moment, you miss out on life’s little pleasures. Celebrate all that you have right at this moment in time.

If you have a hard time staying in the here and now, meditation can help. It decreases activity in the part of your brain that is responsible for your sense of space and time, essentially resulting in a sense of “no space and time.” This allows you to live in the moment with ease.

#5 – Know your priorities. Decide what’s important in your life and what isn’t. If something happens and you determine it’s a molehill compared to a mountain, you’re more likely to let it go without wasting precious time and energy on it.

#6 – Let go of the need to multitask. Society today rewards those who do ten things at once. To feel accomplished, you need to be doing the dishes with one hand while texting with the other and helping your daughter with her math homework at the same time.

Don’t do so much at once. Focus on one area and use all your energy there until that task is complete, then move on to the next task. This will help you work more effectively and efficiently without getting all stressed because you’re stimulated from every direction.

#7 – Don’t over pack your schedule. Instead of trying to jam as many things as you can in your day, allow excess time in your schedule so you’re not constrained if something runs behind. If you end up with a couple minutes of free time, so be it. Take a second to just breathe.

In addition, set aside some time in your schedule to do something that is relaxing to you. Get a manicure or pedicure. Take a long walk or enjoy a quiet bubble bath with a glass of wine. Do something to rejuvenate your body and soul.

#8 – Keep things in perspective. If you sweat every little thing that happens to you, you’ll spend all day long frustrated and stressed to the max. Small problems become big problems, big problems become huge and before you know it, you can’t solve any of them.

If something bad or major happens, ask yourself if it’s the end of the world. Can you survive it? If the answer is yes (which it should always be), figure out how you’re going to make it work and do it. Freaking out about it isn’t going to help anyone.

#9 – Remember that you have control over your own life. If you feel like life is chaotic and beyond your control, it’s easy to get worked up and in a dither. However, that’s rarely the case as most of the time you have choices. Some of them may be difficult, but they’re yours nonetheless.

When you feel like life is spinning faster than a tornado, remind yourself that you can do things to change your circumstances. When you do this, you’ll take the wind right out of the storm and are able to weather anything that comes your way.
Being laid back is a matter of choice, not chance. If you do things to keep your calm and put things in proper perspective, it will happen automatically. Pretty soon, you’ll be the one that’s envied for being cool as a cucumber.

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