ver had one of ‘those’ days – when you’re behind schedule before you get out of bed? Everyone needed it yesterday; your kids need to be in different places at exactly the same time and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. You feel the stress building in your body and you can’t wait to crawl back into bed…just to get up and do it all again tomorrow. The only thing that makes your day worse is running into someone who appears happy, relaxed and boldly suggests that you need to ‘lighten up’!

Well, as it turns out, they’re right. ‘Lightening up’ is a key to good health and medical research has proven that it reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, increases infection-fighting antibodies, stimulates brain function, exercises core muscles, and burns calories. Dr. Lee Berk, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, found that laughter and happiness inspire the body to produce white T-cells, which help prevent infection. And laughter diminishes the body’s secretion of stress hormones including cortisol and epinephrine, while enhancing the immune response. A good laugh can engage all 600 muscles in the body, with benefits lasting up to 12 to 24 hours.

Find the fun
As the Law of Attraction teaches, we attract to us what we’re feeling. In other words, when we feel good, we attract people and experiences that make us feel good. Conversely, if we feel bad, we attract similar people and experiences to us.Sound simple? According to Life Coach Robyn Moleiro, we’ve become very good at bemoaning our life circumstances. So, when obstacles appear, we tend to focus on what’s wrong – giving it our energy and attention. We convince ourselves that if the circumstances changed, then we would feel better. But it’s not the situation that makes us unhappy, it’s our perception of it. Science suggests that stress is a subjective experience influenced significantly by the way we perceive a situation.

“The key is realizing we’re 100% responsible for our own lives”, advises Robyn. “We create it all, so we have to decide what we want, and focus on that. It’s impossible to be excited about what you’re creating while you’re grumbling about what you’ve got. What you desire feels good, and grumbling feels bad.”

Change your thinking
‘Lightening up’ requires new thinking. Might sound easy, but changing any habit takes awareness to identify old patterns, commitment and tools. Robyn suggests trying these fool-proof, energy shifting tools when you’re feeling stressed, angry, frustrated, or fearful:

• Take a deep breath

• Say “No big deal” out loud and mean it

• Ask yourself: “What do I want to feel like?”

• Give people the benefit of the doubt

• Look for humour and/or gratitude in the situation.

“You may not be able to get to humour or gratitude right away,” says Robyn, “so create surefire ways to feel better. Play uplifting or empowering music; call a friend who’ll help shift your negative feelings rather than someone who’ll commiserate with you; meditate; go to a fitness class; walk around the block; dance. Do whatever it takes to interrupt the ‘bad-feeling’ thoughts.”

Most importantly, remember practice makes perfect. Don’t beat yourself up if you fall into old patterns. Like any new behaviour, you’ll get better over time. Before you know it, you’ll be having a blast and wondering why the other stressed-out people don’t lighten up!

H&L