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Although everyone is under stress every day, some stress is good for you. You can learn to manage your stress so that as soon as you become stressed, you can apply instant stress relief.

Here are five tips to help you to relieve your stress, and get your stress completely under control. When these five tips become a daily habit, you will sail through your day, and will know how to live your life without stress.

1. Breathe -- it's important to learn to breathe properly

Although breathing is automatic, when we are under stress breathing can be constricted, it may even stop altogether. So when you're under a lot of tension you hold your breath without even knowing that you are doing it.

2. Relax your body -- relaxation is important and it will make you more productive

Babies don't suffer from stress because they're naturally relaxed. You can regain the natural relaxation of babyhood, if you learn to relax your body -- become as limp as cooked spaghetti.

You can buy tapes and CDs, which will teach you the art of relaxation. They are well worth the investment.

The best way to use a short relaxation tape or CD program is to listen to it at night before you go to sleep. It will take you at least a month, of listening to your tape every evening, before it you can relax at will. However once you learn it to do this, you will be able to relax during periods which would normally have caused you extreme stress.

4. Identify your emotions, and let them go

We are often tense because we hang on to our emotions. You'll be surprised that when you learn to let go of emotions, they disappear naturally.

Here's how to do that.

During your day, stop what you're doing and ask yourself what you are feeling. Whatever the emotion is, feel it as deeply as you can, and then ask yourself just to let the emotion go. There's no stress involved with this and no attempt to push an emotion away, you're just letting the emotion go.

This sounds difficult, but it's actually quite easy. Try now. Just identify it your current emotion, and then let it go.

5. Keep a journal

The best way to work with your stress, is to keep a journal. Your journal helps you to get your emotions onto the page. You'll find once you've got your emotions on the page, they no longer affect you. It's a way of letting them go.

You don't need to write in your journal every day, but when you're under extreme stress, it's a good idea to write in your journal several times a day.

In your journal entries, just write down what ever it is on it your mind. You don't need to write complete sentences just try to describe what happened, and how you feel. If you wish, you can keep your journal entries on loose sheets of paper and burn them when you're done.

So there you have five tips from instant stress relief -- try them you'll be amazed at the difference they make.