There is a connection between stress and heart disease—failure to manage your stress properly can increaseyour risk of developing heart disease. Additionally, exposing yourself to constant stress can increase your chances of developing a cardiovascular disease.

So, what can you do to deal with stress, if you live a very stressful life? What strategies can you use to manage your stress so that it will not harm your heart?

1. Use Humor To Help You Relax

Humor is one tool you can use to manage family stress or financial stress in your life. Humor causes the brain to release endorphins into the body so that you can feel relaxed. Additionally, humor helps you to divert your attention from whatever is causing you stress, you feel light-hearted and that can help you to calm down and feel relaxed.

Therefore, make it a habit to focus your attention on funny things when you feel stressed.

Watch funny movies and concentrate on the movies instead of worrying about what happened at the office or what is going on at home, and laugh your heart out at the funny scenes—participate in the exercise with your whole mind so that you will reap the benefits of the whole experience.
Listen to funny broadcasts in your car as you drive to work in the morning, and as you come home from work.
Avoid being uptight with friends and family and instead choose to loosen up and be playful.
Look back to your childhood and the years when you were growing up and recall funny things that happened during that period. Laugh over some of them by yourself or with friends.
Try to look at the funny side of everyday events.
Be observant as you go about your daily activities so that you can notice funny things. When you do, spend a minute to laugh at what you saw.
Visit funny friends or acquaintances often or spend a lot of time around funny people so that you can hear jokes which will make you laugh.
Visit websites such as www.rd.com/jokes/romance, www.laughfactory.com/jokes, or www.short-funny.com, read some of the jokes there and split your sides with laughter and it will make you feel better.
Sit down, write jokes of your own, and laugh over them or say it to friends and laugh with them.

2. Wash Dishes

Washing dishes can help you to deal with mental stress, so that you can prevent coronary heart disease.

A study carried out by researchers at Florida State University suggests that washing dishes mindfully can help you to reduce your stress levels.

Therefore, instead of leaving your sibling or your spouse to do the dishes, participate in this activity with all your heart.

As you wash, pay attention to the smell of the soap, enjoy the feel of the water on your hands, enjoy watching the soap bubbles on the dishes, take delight in the feel of the dishes in your hands, and listen to the sounds the dishes make as you wash them. Additionally, observe the color of the dishes, and as you watch them, revel in the moment-by-moment sensations and you will feel energized to face life again.

3. Make Music

You can deal with chronic stress so that you can avoid developing heart disease, by making music when it seems as though everything is going out of control.

Research suggests that making music can turn off the stress response so that you can feel better mentally, physically, and emotionally. So, when you feel stressed out, create some rhythms and enjoy it—play the piano, if you know how to play one, play the flute or mouth organ, beat the drums in the house, or play a guitar and accompany it with singing.

Don’t worry about creating perfect music as that is not the main aim of this exercise. You must aim at having fun first and foremost. Secondly, you must aim at using music to distract yourself from your everyday thoughts so that you can feel happy.

4. Read A Book

According to research conducted by the University of Sussex, reading can reduce stress levels by 68%. This is because as you concentrate on what you are reading, the tension in the muscles of your body ease, your heart rate drops, and your breathing rate also goes down and that makes you feel calm and relaxed.

So, grab a book when you feel tense and anxious, and transport yourself into the imaginary realms of the fiction world so that you can create fantasies in your mind to help you relax.

As you read interesting tales, and as you follow exciting plots and interesting scenes, as you become absorbed in the books, you will escape the painful realities of the hustle and bustle of everyday living, which can be a great and pleasant distraction to help you feel relaxed.

Furthermore, as you revel in captivating scenes and as you enjoy the book, positive feelings will be induced in you which will help you to feel calm.

5. Take Your Spirituality Seriously

Some medical experts say that religion and spirituality can help people to cope with stress better. And that is supported by the Bible. In Isaiah 26 v 3, the Bible says, “Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee.” When you believe in God and you put your trust in Him when you develop a relationship with Him and obey His commandments, He gives you peace of mind and peace of spirit which help you to feel calm in the midst of trouble and when you are under pressure.

Additionally, say a prayer such as this one when you feel stressed, “Dear LORD, please forgive me for my sins. Merciful and gracious LORD, I thank You for Your gift of life and for the help You give to me every blessed day. LORD, I have a lot on my hands to deal with. My supervisor is demanding a lot from me nowadays at work. In addition, I have to attend the PTA meeting of Yaa and Yaw. My wife is also making demands of me and saying that I don’t spend enough time with her and the kids. The disease of my mother also bothers me and I worry about it sometimes. Then there are the bills to pay, the neighborhood association meetings I have to attend... I feel overwhelmed at times. LORD, please give me peace so that I can be calm just as Jesus was calm in the midst of a storm. Amen.”

6. Do Gardening

Do you like making your hands dirty? Have you grown cabbages, carrots, or egg plants before? Or, do you enjoy growing bougainvilleas, roses, allamandas, hibiscuses, or hydrangeas? If you don’t like making your hands dirty, or if you have never grown vegetables or flowers before, then you must consider making gardening a habit if you want to deal with stress. Research conducted in the Netherlands suggests that gardening can help a person to reduce his or her level of stress.

So, grab a used canned tomato can or a box and grow tomatoes in them. Or, grow chili peppers or lettuce or cucumber or garden eggs in your backyard.

Focusing your attention on the activity will help you to take your mind off the tasks you have to accomplish at work or the responsibilities at home and that will help your mind and heart to relax. Additionally, research shows that interacting with plants helps to reduce blood pressure, and so as you touch the crops, feel them, and view them, the pressure of your blood will drop, thereby reducing your stress.

7. Meditate On Matthew 11 V 28, 29 And Apply It To Your LIfe

This verse says, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” In other words, Jesus is saying to you that develop a relationship with Him, give Him a place in your life, involve Him in everything you do, do His work and allow Him to influence your life and that will help you to find rest for your soul, and peace for your heart and your mind amidst the struggles of life, and that will help you to feel relaxed even if your responsibilities and burdens are overwhelming.

Therefore, go to Jesus every day by making time to pray and mediate on His word. Furthermore, witness to others about Jesus, help the poor, support the sick, visit prisoners, give clothes you don’t need to the poor, feed the homeless, help to pay the school fees of poor students, help to pay the hospital bills of sick people and so on and you will feel joy in your heart and your body, soul, and spirit will all feel at rest even when there is great pressure on you.

8. Thank God For His Mercies

Thanksgiving will remind you that God helped you to deal with your problems yesterday and that that same God, who is still alive and whose power has not grown less, will help you to tackle the problems you face today. That can give you peace of mind and it can also help to quieten your heart.

So, every day, thank God by saying things such as, “Glory be to Your Holy Name, Heavenly Father, for giving me life to see this day. I thank You, LORD, that You did not let me die in my sins. I thank You, LORD, that You gave me food to eat last month, last week, yesterday, and today. I thank You Father that I can see the beautiful things You created. I thank You that I can hear the wonderful sounds that are created around me every day. I am grateful that I can smell flowers and fresh air, and I am also grateful that I can taste and enjoy the food You give me. I honor You, Most High God, that I can touch and feel the wonders of Your hand and the fearful, wonderful body of my spouse who You created for me. I thank You, Father, that I have a job. I thank You that you take me to work and bring me back home safely every day. Glory be to Your Name. I thank You, Great Jehovah, that You give me money to pay my bills. I thank You for my good health. I thank You for Your promises in Your word which comfort me, which give me hope, which help me to calm down, and which help me to feel relaxed even when there is turmoil all around me.”

Conclusion

If you want to deal with stress, watch or listen to something funny when you feel stressed out, wash dishes, compose a song and sing to it, read a book, take your spirituality serious, grow fruits, vegetables, or flowers, meditate on and apply Matthew 11 v 28 to your life, and thank God for His bounteous mercies and grace.