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There are ways to reduce the stress in your life that are natural and simple.

Did you know that when you are under stress, your brain releases chemicals that feeds the anxiety and holds you in that condition of stress? And that it's only when we can slow down the intensity of the stress that this chemical stops?

Our senses play a unique role in helping to reduce that intensity of stress and relax you.

Listening to quiet relaxing music is a perfect way to reduce stress. Music has the ability to calm the anxiety levels very quickly by relaxing both the emotions and the muscles.

Listening to the birds and the quietness of nature is another way to reduce stress. These sounds can be very calming, and as well, the feel of the breeze on your skin is relaxing.

The sense of smell has a great affect on stress. Perhaps your home fragrance is actually helping to increase stress, adding to your anxiety. There are some fragrances such as lavender that have a relaxing affect in reducing stress.

As well, lavender oils in a warm bath will relax the muscles and the emotions, and is an excellent way to help reduce stress.

When we breathe in fresh air, we exhale all the toxins from the dead air that can clog our minds. Sometimes just a few deep breaths of fresh air will help us to think more clearly and reduce stress.

The sense of sight greatly affects our thinking abilities and so it's really important to have things around us that are pleasing and peaceful to look at. Perhaps it's indoor plants or an outdoor garden, or perhaps it's photographs of people you love. They will give you a sense of gratitude as you look at them and begin to meditate on the positive things in your life.

Physical activity is vital to combat stress for several reasons. First, it allows you to physically relieve your frustrations so that you don't keep them bottled up inside you. Second, when you're breathing in the oxygen, it clears the mind and rejuvenates the muscles, while relaxing your thoughts. Whether it's going for a walk or a taking swim, exercise is a great anxiety releaser.

The sense of taste is also important because we lose it when we're under stress and we tend to either eat everything or nothing. The chemicals that our brain deploys when under stress causes our body to store more fat as a protection to our organs from this unknown invasion to the body, which is stress. Eating a lot of fresh fruit and veggies helps to calm down stress whereas many carb foods add to the stress.

When friends and family "dump" their troubles onto us, it's likely because we have a good listening ear (or it could be just that they like to talk about their problems). We need to be a sounding block and not a sponge.

We should never allow the problems of others to become our stresses, but rather, pass them on to the appropriate avenues for help. You can direct them towards a person to help them or an agency of some sort, but don't hold on to the problem.

Praying is great to reduce spiritual stress because, after all, God said to cast all our problems on to Him and He would give us peace. And it works because He can do something about the problems when sometimes all we can do is hear them.

We can't often prevent the stresses of life from coming at us, but we can reduce the affects of the stresses by letting our senses direct us.

Learn more about this author, Ronnie Dauber.
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