Managing Stress While Planning for a Wedding
Planning a wedding is not child’s play. It is a daunting assignment and highly stressful. You can of course avoid all the stress and get married by eloping. For those not quite so adventurous and wanting a proper wedding as a once in a lifetime experience, some tips on how to manage stress will be in order. Irrespective of what causes the tension, stress and anxiety can be managed with some sensible action.
While it is good advice for normal living, particularly when going through a difficult period like planning for a wedding, the following steps will make for less stress.
• Eat properly. Keep away from comfort foods, sweets etc. This is the time for healthy and nutritious food, so that the effect of the tension on the body can be minimized.
• If you already exercise regularly, do not stop but if you don’t, it’s time to start. Exercise reduces stress by expending energy that actually drains the stress clear out of out physical system. You do not have to go in for some massive amount of working out. Just a good brisk walk at a convenient time, for about fifteen to twenty minutes will do.
• Breathe properly. You must be wondering what kind of advice this is! After all breathing is an automatic process, right? Pay attention. You are probably hyperventilating or taking quick shallow breaths. This happens when you are under stress. What you really need to do is to take deep slow breaths to bring your breathing back to normal. Do this seriously, by inhaling till you fill your belly fully and exhaling slowly emptying the lung completely.
• Do something to distract yourself and put away the wedding magazines and plans. Read a novel, attempt a crossword or jigsaw puzzle. Go for a walk, attempt sudoku. Take a break!
• Make yourself relax and here you will find that there are a number of techniques to help you if you do not know how to. Yoga, meditation or self-hypnosis, each or all together can be very effective to help you slow down and relax. Self-hypnosis is different from meditation by being more focused and directed. It is possible to program oneself to be relaxed during the day. You can use an anchoring device such as forming a ring with your forefinger touching your thumb, combined with a word such as “relax”. Resort to this when you feel stressed. You can use the services of registered hypnotists or hypnotherapists located in your neighborhood. Visiting one may result in getting for yourself a personalized hypnosis CD that you can listen regularly. There are many mass produced relaxation CDs in the market that also help in relaxing.