Know yourself: Learn to recognize your reactions to stress and think of them as a warning: some stressors are bothering you.
Research about such stressors: A cornerstone to cope with stress. Take a few minutes to elaborate a list of people, activities, events, things that bring in stress to your life. Specify the more immediate stressors: work, family, money? Is it possible to diminish the effect of the stressors?
Put things in right context: Maybe you are stressing about relatively small things which will be soon forgotten. No matter your stress, worries, results, your failure or your success, the world will keep going around. Think carefully about your stressors: they might seem catastrophic monsters, but they’re just problems which will be forgotten as time goes by. Therefore, don’t rush through life, learn to take things slow. Enjoy your family, your meals, your nature, your life. What have you done today to reward the great person you are?
Don’t anticipate scenarios: Ignore every thought of the type “what if …”. Our mind formulates plenty of images and catastrophic or pessimistic scenaries: we are wasting our energy because of futile thoughts about situations that never occur.
Avoid multitasking: Give and accept social support. Share the load. Attending a lot of activities at the same time is counterproductive, because it slows us down from focusing on an activity and fulfilling it.
Identify your limitations: Be realistic. You’re not a robot built for fighting ghosts. Accept the things you can’t change: it’s impossible to control the uncontrollable. Also, learn to forgive.
Exercise: Physical exercise helps to release the energy contained by stress. Go for a walk and spend time in nature. Get a massage.
Just Relax: Talk to a good friend, write in your journal, take a bath, play with your pet, work in your garden, listen to music, watch a comedy, take photos of nature, enjoy a nice book.
Avoid fake balsams: Drinking too much, smoking, overeating or undereating, wasting your time in front of the TV or computer, taking out your stress on others… those are really unhealthy behaviors which will fortify your stress in the long run and are also a highway to addictions.