Believe it or not, there is both good stress and bad stress. Some stress can provided motivation and focus while bad stress can cause a host of uncomfortable physical symptoms and even disease. How each of handle our stress determines how the course of our lives go. Read the below article to get some tips and tricks for how to properly handle all the stress that exists in your life.

You should control the level of stress in your life as much as possible. Prolonged high stress levels can cause some serious health problems, like high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, stomach ulcers, depression, insomnia and sore muscles. You will be less stressed if you sleep well, and less likely to develop any of these illnesses.

Take the time each day to get ready for tomorrow, and you will find yourself feeling much calmer in the morning. Each thing that you do during the course of a day increases your stress level, so doing something simple, like preparing your lunch for work a day in advance, will get you started on the right foot in the morning.

Use visualization to overcome feelings of stress and being overwhelmed. You can envision yourself in a body of water or bath and imagine the water whisking your stress away. Other thoughts to conjure up to relieve your stress include thinking of a favorite destination, a pleasant person or anything else that causes you to feel good.

Use a ten point system to rate the things that give you stress in your life. Use a rating system to determine how important the stressful things in your life really are. This can really help you learn not to stress over minor details.

A professional massage can help you eliminate some of the stress you might be feeling. Muscle tension is a physical manifestation of stress. A thorough massage relaxes your muscles and rubs away accumulated stress.

Being a pet owner has been known to alleviate the stress of everyday life. Even the simple act of petting an animal has been proven to be a stress reliever.

A lot of activities can increase your stress even if you do not see the correlation. For example, playing video games for hours may take away from the time you should spend taking care of yourself, thus increasing your stress level. You could be ignoring your body’s need for healthy, restorative sleep and nutrtious meals eaten at regular intervals.

If you are stressed out at work, try to listen to comforting music if possible. Play softer sounding music to help make you calm and relaxed. Louder, upbeat music is riskier because the noise could trigger stress, so make sure the lyrics are happy and positive.

Try drinking some relaxing tea to reduce your stress. Select a tea with ingredients that are known to be very soothing, such as chamomile or passionflower. Leaving it to steep in hot water for ten minutes will produce a strong tea. Have a cup when you feel the effects of stress.

A variety of productive, healthy methods are available for dealing with stress. Over-eating, for example, can easily be turned into a quick walk or a few push-ups as a means of combating stress. When you replace a bad habit with a good one and stay healthy, you will see that the stress in your every day life is significantly lowered.

Short-term stress leads many times to more focus, motivation and adrenaline to get tasks accomplished. Ongoing stress is a ticket to depression, obesity and vascular diseases. Apply these tips to avoid these symptoms and start living better.