Is stress killing you softly with its kiss? As Relationship Therapist Tamra Mercieca explains, while stress is the number 1 killer in the world today, it is preventable.

Yes, stress is the number one killer in the world, responsible for 70% of all illnesses and diseases today. And why do I bring this alarming statistic to your attention? Because we don’t have to experience stress – we can learn to stress-less and live our lives from a place of ease and flow. All we need to do is change our mind-set.

And how we do that? The first step is being more mindful. And when I say mindful, I’m talking about paying attention to the NOW; engaging all five senses and allowing yourself to be present. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to sit in the lotus position for hours to experience this mindful state of bliss.

You see, when you live in the now, it is impossible to feel stress. We only get stressed about events/behaviours from the past or possible outcomes in the future. I’m sure you’re familiar with having a to-do list as long as your arm, then going into complete overwhelm just thinking about it. Where is your mind? In the future, thinking about not getting through everything. Overwhelm disables you in the NOW, which often leads to procrastination or sabotaging behaviours.

Now if you stay present to the task at hand, instead of putting your focus on the list of other things you need to do, then you’ll be more productive and get through things much quicker. The simple solution: Change your focus to the NOW. And there are a few easy strategies to help you do this.

Taking deep breaths, laughing and stretching are all cheap and simple things that will help centre you in the present moment. Everytime you feel yourself going into that stressful state, spend 60 seconds doing one of those exercises and notice how quickly the stress melts away. To help your body respond to stress quicker, you can also use natural products such as a good multi-B vitamin and Rescue Remedy.

Looking at the root cause of the stress is what will create the real magic, and do this, you need to investigate your childhood programming. That’s where we go inside and look at what beliefs we hold about ourself and the world around us. Once we have this awareness, we dislodge the negative beliefs, and replace them with positive beliefs.

One common stress-causing belief is ‘There’s not enough time’. The truth is; we all have the same amount of time, it’s what we do with that time, that leads to us making a decision on there being or not being enough time. What we think is what we create. If you honestly believe deep down that there is plenty of time, that’s what you’ll experience in life.

If you’d like to learn more techniques on how to stress-less, please join me Wednesday 26^th September at 7pm AEST for my ‘Stress-Less’ tele workshop. It’s free, simply email your name and location to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and I’ll send you the local dial in code for your area.