Is stress wearing you down? Are you worried about the bad economy? Your job? The mortgage? Your health? Your family? If so, you are not alone.

Life is always changing, and that can feel very stressful. But often, seemingly bad things will happen in our lives, that will actually turn out to be the catalysts to something positive. It's very true that when one door closes another will open. Although it never feels so great when that one door closes. Recently I've had several doors close on me. But as hard as it's been, I can already see that these things needed to happen to bring me closer to where I am meant to be.

There are three things we can do to help relieve the stress in our lives...

Number one is acceptance. We need to accept that life does not always go the way we perceive to be best.

From This Journey - Stress or Sadness...

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

1. Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.
2. Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
3. Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
4. Drive carefully. It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
5. If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
6. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
7. It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.
8. Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.
9. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
10. Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
11. The second mouse gets the cheese.
12. Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
13. You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
14. Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
15. We could learn a lot from crayons… Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
16. A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

Number two is gratitude. Take time to recognize all that you have to be grateful for.

From Britt Bravo - Keeping a Gratitude Journal...

One tool to help keep life in perspective is a gratitude journal where you write down a few things each day that you are thankful for. They can be big things, like I'm thankful that I have a warm, dry place to live in the midst of this crazy California rainstorm, or small things, like I had a really yummy hot chocolate the other day.

Number three is your inner game and positive affirmations.

What is your inner voice saying to you? Have you developed the habit of saying negative things to yourself? If so, this is a habit that needs to be broken.

From Family Matters...

Whether we speak out loud or we are in silence, our brain is in continuous chatter. We have thoughts about things to do, feelings, expectations, ideas, reminders, theories and conversations.

. . .

Much of our mind chatter is thoughts we have been given by others, thoughts based on past experiences we have had (as kids), things we have seen in the media and interpretations of what has happened around us. The real challenge is to switch from negative thoughts to positive ones.

From Creating Effective Affirmations...

Taking a wealth/prosperity affirmation as our example, it’s unlikely that a wealthy person would tell someone “I’m a very wealthy person” or “I’m a multi-millionaire,” but they might tell someone “I’m never in need of money” or “My finances are better than they’ve ever been before.” Think of a way in which you’d tell your friends and family about your wealth, and use that as your money mantra. If you use a lot of slang or colloquial phrases, fashion your affirmation that way. A person who refers to money as “dough,” for instance, would probably be better off writing her mantra as “I’m rollin’ in dough!” than as “I have a lot of money!” Keep your own speech pattern in mind when you write out your affirmations, and they’ll be much more powerful for you.

From Angela Booth's Writing Blog - Affirmations For Writers...

Here's how to create your own empowering affirmations: create them from your mind tapes. Just switch the old tapes from negative statements to positive ones.

For example:

* Writing is hard, I've never been good at writing BECOMES: "Writing is easy and fun for me, I've always been great at writing";

* I can't write BECOMES: "I write easily and effortlessly, I'm an excellent writer."

Try it. Affirmations enhance your creativity and your income. Why walk around with old, damaging self-talk? Start changing your self-talk today, with the power of affirmations.

Here are some videos on the topic of positive affirmations that your might find helpful...

Your thoughts create your future...

From affirmation cards by Louise Hay...

An affirmation video...

A healing affirmation video...