How to Stop Being Too Strict

Break the habit once in a while. ^[9] When you take a detour and let other things disturb your regular routine, you become more and more comfortable with life’s fewer surprises. What’s more, you experience more of some of the benefits that progress to unplanned things, like meeting some rather fun new friends at the pub you decide to get to know.

• Even small journeys out of habit, such as a new route to work, will remind you to pause and focus on the things you often overlook. Small changes even help us to stop thinking about it (and thus distract us from the worries that make us serious) and focus on the present moment.

Learn ways to deal with stress . When you’re under stress, there’s a good chance you take things too seriously; Stress is when your body is ready to react in a violent way. ^[10] This establishes a stress cycle from taking things too seriously and reacting to reinforcing stress too seriously. It is important to learn some mental and physical methods to reduce stress. Here are some examples: ^[11]

• Make long-term healthy lifestyle changes, like diet and exercise
• Use a to-do list
• Stop talking to yourself in a negative way
• Practice muscle relaxation continuously
• Learn about mindfulness meditation and meditation

Express yourself through movement. Relaxing yourself – literally – will make it easier to approach life with a cheerful attitude. There is a range of moving arts that can relieve some of the physical stress that often accompanies a severe mind. Depending on your interests, you may want to learn dance, yoga, aerobics, or an expressive art like improv comedy or basic acting.

• Taking a class on any subject can be more helpful than teaching yourself because letting others be present freely can be more of a source of encouragement than trying to learn alone.

Bring music to life. Listening to music regularly can be a great way to change your mood because it helps to increase certain emotions. ^[12] This means that if you are trying to live a peaceful life and focus on the happiest parts of your life, listening to upbeat music can bring the brighter aspects more clearly into focus. .

• Try listening to music with a fast beat in major key. Any genre will work as long as it makes you feel comfortable and at ease personally.

Find opportunities to laugh. Intentionally helping yourself to laugh more will help you remind yourself how much humor you have in every situation. Here are a few simple ways to make yourself laugh more: ^[13]

• Watch a funny movie or TV show
• Go to a drama club
• Read the comic section in the newspaper
• Share funny stories
• Be a game night host with friends
• Play with pets (if any)
• Go to a “laughing yoga” class
• Play with children
• Make time for fun activities (like bowling, miniature golf, karaoke).

Joke to combat minor frustrations. ^[14] There will always be some inconveniences in the way, but you always have the option to turn them into jokes. If you don’t think there’s anything to laugh about then, say, you found a hair in a bowl of soup, laughing about the very real story that something so small has the power to thwart your plans. or make you whisper to the waitress…).

• You can get worse and blame yourself for the fact that the printer is malfunctioning, or you can joke about what you deserve for still having an old 90’s inkjet printer.
• Trying to make something big on purpose just to see when you do something by accident is silly. ^[15] Loudly shouting about breaking a nail or dropping 25 cents on a grate as if it were a serious thing in the world. This way you’ll get an outsider’s perspective on how you can perform when you’re really serious.

Indulge in fun and uplifting folk songs. ^[16] Perhaps the easiest way to remember not to take life too seriously is to join a group of cheerful, life-loving people whose presence takes the seriousness out of you. Notice the friends you already have and the people you just met who seem to easily smile and encourage you to do the same.

• Even if you’re not with them, imagine what they’ll think if you’re taking any of the latest issues seriously. How did they react to the same problem?
• Furthermore, shared laughter is an effective way to keep a relationship going strong. Smiling with others builds similar bonds that share the same emotions, but with some added aspect of joy and vitality. ^[17]

Think about the pursuit of perfection. ^[18] Sometimes aggravation can come from trying too hard to live a particular way. Say you’re very focused on your goal of healthy eating, eating a gluten-free, superfood meal for yourself. Chances are that if someone gives you some cake on your birthday, you will become cold, uncomfortable and give lengthy explanations about the diet. Imagine what the person who gave you the cake and they thought, “Hey, it’s just a piece of cake. What’s the big deal?”

• While some goals are great, pursuing them with such enthusiasm can make small setbacks seem like huge obstacles, causing a few things that the more minutes pass, the more important you become. weighting.
• Research has actually shown that perfectionism is associated with less success and competence because it is often associated with procrastination. ^[19]

Ask the question if you’re trying to prove yourself. ^[20] Sometimes rigor occurs when we see things as evidence of our ability and worth as human beings. Remember that students doing small assignments is just as important as taking the final exam? Even a few signs of bad grades indicate that he is a bad student, on the verge of failure.

• When everything feels like an achievement of your worth, even trivial tasks or errands become the moment when you need to prove yourself.
• Also try to choose whether vulnerability is difficult for you or not. At work or at home, we are delicately asked to give our full strength, operating professionals where all aspects of life are involved. As a result, we become reluctant to show any signs of uncertainty or emotional response to stress.
• This can even be obvious if you have deceivingly high expectations, or if the people in your life have seen you achieve high. Are you working to maintain your reputation as a do-it-all and hard-working employee?

Considering our culture rewards goal orientation. The great focus of capitalist society on efficiency and productivity, being able to set and achieve goals is given the highest regard. ^[21] It is easy to overlook the fact that this is just one tactic that is particularly good for business. When it applies to all areas of our lives, we can be convinced that we know exactly what we need to do and how to get it done.

• Being a cultural outcome is a wonderful thing, but being aware of where this attitude comes from can help you use it responsibly rather than forced.
• This attitude can severely limit your ability to be the best student in the world and take what life throws at you with ease and delight with pleasant surprises.

Notice when rigor becomes defensive. ^[22] The main source of rigor is a dangerously enhanced sense of well-being. Then you can’t relax and watch anything light if you’re caught assuming you might need to protect yourself from dangerous threats. Try to reduce the severity by looking for the positive aspects of what you encounter and consider how you will benefit from encountering new things.

• Many people are encouraged to build an overly positive conscience from their parents. ^[23] Even if your parents’ intentions are good, some constant warnings about potential harm and the importance of being careful can lead you to see (or focus) on this aspect of your life. the serious and menacing side of things.