Step #1: Releasing Yesterday

Resolve right now to release every thought from yesterday and be only mindful of the now?. this thought only...this breath...this moment. Take in three very deep breaths and slowly release each one.

Use this special time and place to be calm. Free your mind and body of all worry, all regret, all disappointment, all anger and grief.

Now go to your inner quiet place. Go deep inside to a place where you feel that you are at peace and then just relax and breathe in deeply and enjoy the feeling of being at one and at peace within yourself.

At the same time feel each and every concern, each and every problem, and each and every unresolved moment, begin to dissolve. You can deal with them at a later time. For now, you are only to be in this very moment.

Step #2: Clean Up Your Diet

The very best thing that you can do for yourself is to eat, drink and rest ? to your health!

Stress is easily brought on by not eating and drinking properly. When you don't get the number of hours of sleep that you need each night, you are only setting yourself up for additional stress.

Limit the amount of salt, sugar, caffeine and alcohol in your diet. Drink plenty of clean, pure water each day and do at least moderate exercise each day. This will breathe new life into your skin, hair and will nourish all of your vital organs.

Step #3: Take Control

Often times when we have too much stress, we want to just give up. We must always hope for something better! When we give up our fight-or-flight seems to just fizzle and we become caught up in a maze of one unfortunate event following another.

You can take control today! Isolate only one particular stressor in your life and then work on it until you regain control. At the very least, have some new hope!

Being hopeful is a quiet confidence that eventually, all will be well. Write out a plan today about how you will tackle just one major problem in your life. Write it out step-by-step. Make an action plan about how you will tackle each of those points.

Slowly, as you begin to work on your problems, you will start to see that there is hope for a brighter tomorrow. You must believe that, otherwise, you will feel defeated before you even begin.

To actualize the hope you feel, sit in a comfortable chair and close your eyes. Take your mind to a place that pleases you and begin to feel every one of your muscles begin to relax. Command each muscle to relax. Constrict and then relax each of your muscles.

Have a beautiful picture in your mind. Imagine you are a part of that beautiful picture now and imagine that as you work on your problems you will become that beautiful picture. Your life will become that beautiful picture.

Sit and relax, deep breathing, seeing only that beautiful picture. See all of your most pressing problems resolved. See how you will work to resolve each of your problems.

When you sit up from your relaxed state, write out how you will tackle the problems you have just imagined.

Now, go about doing what you have written one step at a time. The ability to relax, meditate, imagine and plan to resolve a problem is a proven stress buster. You can take control of each and every problem in your life that causes you undue stress.

You can make the stress work for you!