The following techniques can be some of the greatest ways to remove metric tons of stress in almost no time at all. Without needing to move halfway across the country and becoming a Buddhist monk, you can feel like an entirely new person just by making a few adjustments to your daily routine and the things that you prioritize when left to your own devices.

Quit comparing yourself to others

Stressing over the things you have compared to what others have is the number one silent killer. Without being aware of it, you could be stressing yourself into an early grave right now, just by flipping through social media updates. Feeling good about life doesn’t need to be a matter of trying to fill the void with price tags and bragging rights.

Exercise

As a disclaimer, it’s important to mention that this kind of exercise doesn’t need to be the kind that gets you ready for a bodybuilding competition. As a matter of fact, exercising only so that you’re able to look better than someone else will create more stress than it alleviates; on the other hand, exercising to get high off of the endorphins is like taking a legal drug.

If you have a highly technical and mentally taxing job, then exercising can serve as lubricant for all of those precious brain synapses that need to constantly be firing for you to perform to your best. You will sleep more comfortably, you will think more clearly, and you just might find having control over the weight that you lift makes up for the lack of control you might have over other things in the world.

Remove toxic people from your life

Everybody has an opinion, and unfortunately, not all of these opinions are actually worth the carbon dioxide emission. Every day, millions of people make their own lives a million times harder by lending one-millionth of their attention to useless comments and perspective offered to them by passive aggressive hobgoblins.

If there is any person in your life doesn’t add value, or actively goes out of their way to take away from the value in yours, then you should feel no guilt at all by refusing to associate with them. Instead of looking for validation from every person out there with an insecurity complex or chip on their shoulder, dedicate your emotional energy to those who are truly there for you and not just out to bring others down.

Get rid of clutter

A powerful step to take towards no longer feeling like your life is a trashcan is to stop physically living in one. This can be made easier by investing in local self-storage to put away all of the things you don’t use for anything other than tripping over at night and inventing curse words. Your physical space, no matter what may or may not be in it, will color your mental space. Keeping the former clean will make it easier to keep the latter pristine as well.

Some of the most stressful things in our lives are like hummingbirds slowly picking you to death; not violent enough to be excruciatingly painful, but just annoying enough to make existence a lot less enjoyable than it should be. Don’t let the little things build up to the point where you are ready to implode. Take a moment every now and then to take stock of the things that don’t need to be there, whether it’s the presence of a negative person or a bunch of boxes that haven’t been moved since last year, your preserved sanity will be worth it.