“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. — Haruki Murakami”

Times of uncertainty, shouldering too many responsibilities, facing big changes, or not having much control over the outcome of a situation. — When one of these happens, we normally feel stressed. The initial sensation of stress is unavoidable because that is our body’s programmed response to pressure.

However, the unnatural reaction is to cling and get lost in the negative feelings for days or weeks. As Japanese author Haruki Murakami well expressed, suffering is nothing more than a choice.

When I feel overwhelmed or down, I allow myself to take a short break from my worries with easy practices that I have picked from The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. All of them give me instant relaxation and only take at most 15 minutes to exercise. I hope they will make you feel good too! Here you go, here are those 4 practices:

Mindful Breathing

Duration: 15 mins Frequency: 1x/day Difficulty: Casual

When you are trying to calm yourself in a stressful moment, the easiest and convenient way is to focus on your breath. — Because you can do this practice from anywhere and anytime. While keeping your attention on the breath, take a long breath in and out. In each breath in, let your abdomen expand fully, and in each breath out, allow your anger or worries to go away.

Do this for about 15 minutes and see if you feel calm down. There is a bunch of evidence on how deep breathing can help cope with stress and anxiety.

Gaining Perspective on Negative Events

Duration: 5 mins Frequency: Variable Difficulty: Moderate

This short 5 minutes but very effective practice is my favorite. When something unfortunate happens and you feel down, instead of shooing away your unpleasant emotions, try to see yourself from an outside lens. If your name is John, for example, you would ask yourself, ‘Why does John feel this way? What are the underlying causes and reasons for his feelings?’

If you want to write down your answers, that’s perfectly fine too. This practice aims to gain a third-party perspective to evaluate the situation more objectively. Once you validate your feelings and reasons, it will be much easier to move on.

Goal Visualization

Duration: 10 mins Frequency: 1x/day Difficulty: Moderate

Daunting tasks usually bring stress, especially when you procrastinate. This exercise is all about visualization of those things you have been postponing, like clean the house, go for a run, etc. When you visualize, you automatically make it feasible to take action because it turns into a plan rather than just a pending task on your list. Try this 10 minutes daily for three weeks and see if you still have anything left undone on your to-do list!

Affirming Important Values

Duration: 15 mins Frequency: Variable Difficulty: Moderate

When life gets busy, which usually is, time gets even more precious. So no choice, but you need to prioritize what you want to do. And the best way to navigate right is to know what is truly important. As part of this practice, rank this list of values shared by The Greater Good Science Center from 1 to 11 in order of their importance to you:

• artistic skills/aesthetic appreciation

• sense of humor

• relations with friends/family

• spontaneity/living life in the moment

• social skills

• athletics

• musical ability/appreciation

• physical attractiveness

• creativity

• business/managerial skills

• romantic values

Then think about why some values are more critical than others. So when you are swamped, you can better allocate your time to what matters to you most!

Final Thoughts

While stress is a normal part of life, too much of it heavily affects the quality of our lives. Not only do unwanted feelings come up, but also it may cause health issues in the long run. That’s why it’s crucial to learn how to cope with stress the right way. We can make a big difference in our mental well-being if we choose to stay mindful and treat ourselves with gentle care. I hope the practices mentioned earlier resonate with you and bring instant relief whenever you feel stressed out!