ou think you are stressed out now? Well here are the 5 most efficient ways to push your stress level over the limit. If you already are doing any of these, stop now! The consequences can be dire.

1. Ignore your problems.

Make like an ostrich; stick your frazzled head in the sand. Don’t try to identify any of the average 50 stressors a day you encounter. Making a list of your stressors (positive and negative) and stress triggers will enable you to figure out how they affect you and help you devise coping strategies to relieve and eliminate the anxiety they cause. But it’s probably better to just ignore all that and get back to the worrying.

2. Think negative thoughts.

Those awful self-fulfilling prophecies aren’t going to fulfill themselves if you snap out of your usual pattern of thinking. Restructure your thinking to transform inaccurate destructive thoughts into more realistic, neutral or positive ones. Beware—these thoughts could change the outcomes in a positive way. So if you are not ready to let the good times roll, tread lightly.

3. Start overreacting.

Attack every problem you can find with a vengeance, like a hawk. If something doesn’t seem like a problem, make it a problem and then attack it. This is sure to raise your blood pressure and heart rate, mess with digestion, and create hypertension. Eventually, you’ll be so tired and depressed that you won’t have the energy to fiddle with your heart rate monitor, let alone be stressed out.

4. Feed your anxiety.

(preferably with comfort foods steeped in fat, bad cholesterol, processed sugars, and empty calories) Sprinkle your issues with the day-glo orange residue from a whole bag of Cheezy Poofs and wash them away with a gallon of Glug. Now you can forget about stress and focus on a weakened immune system, weight gain, prolonged viral infections, and accompanying aliments that can lead to depression and even psychosis.

5. Don’t do Yoga.

Do not do any mind-body exercise and especially avoid Restorative Yoga. Restorative Yoga activates the “relaxation response”, a term coined by Herbert Benson, MD, a renowned writer in the field of stress reduction. Avoid those asanas and steer clear of the “ physiological state characterized by a slower heart rate, metabolism, and rate of breathing, lower blood pressure, and slower brain wave patterns." It will only lead to you forgetting about your problems long enough to get them into perspective.

Are you ready to get serious about stress reduction?

Check out these expert articles on how to reduce stress the natural way:
Stress and Wellbeing
Understanding your Stress
Reduce Stress with Restructured Thinking