How to Relax: Stop Being Busy, Take a Break and Get Better Results While Doing Less

by Martin Meadows

LET IT GO: QUICK RECAP 1. Negative thoughts, such as replaying in your head how your boss yelled at you a week ago, can instantly make you feel stressed out – even when you’re supposed to be relaxing. Unless you learn how to deal with these thoughts, you’ll never fully recharge your batteries. 2. One of the most effective ways to stop letting negative thoughts affect your state of mind is to reduce their intensity. By turning the negative image into a ridiculous, absurd situation, you’ll change your emotional association with the situation. When you break your behavioral pattern this way, you won’t reinforce the thought in your head, thus making it easier to throw it away. 3. Use the same technique during a stressful situation. It will reduce its intensity and help you remain in a resourceful, positive state instead of stressing out (and replaying the situation in your head many times later on). 4. Prevent future negative thoughts by taking a 7-day “Change Your Thoughts” challenge. Become more aware of your negative thoughts and deal with them instead of brooding over them. It will help you change your default responses and go from a person who stresses out over a past situation to a person who forgets about it seconds after it happened.