Here are a few great tips for personal and spiritual wellness:

Source: Wired Magazine: Top ways to Beat Stress Up and Down The Block:

1. Confront Your Fears. What’s the worst that can happen? A norwegian study shows that paratroopers forced to jump out of perfectly good airplanes (with a parachute, of course) undergo stress for hours before and hours after, but with repeated jumps, they only experienced stressed while actually in midair, when they actually need it – as it helps them be more alert, focused, and careful.
2. Make Friends. Studies in the US and EU have conclusively found that people with few friends and family have shorter life expectancies, akin to smoking. Studies with monkeys show isolated animals have higher stress, reduced immune response, and higher mortality rates.
3. Meditate. More than anything, this is about breathing deeply, and consciously taking control of your thoughts. In 99.9% of cases regarding our work, nobody is going to die if you sit tight for 10 minutes to gather your thoughts.
4. Drink – but in moderation. Obviously if your religious beliefs, personal values or choices based on personal history lead you to not drink at all this won’t apply. For those who do drink, relax a bit about it – moderate drinking has been shown to reduce heart disease and definitely cut stress. Heavy drinking will do the opposite. Personally, this is unsupported unscientific thinking, generally speaking most drinking is done with friends and/or family – and that real human connection where you fully relax a bit is really where that value comes from.
5. Exercise – but don’t force it too much. Mice forced to run in the lab have their stress hormones spike. We all know the value of exercise, but if you’re feeling stressed, you may be doing more harm than good if you push yourself too far. Whatever level works best for you, even going for a walk might be just the trick – then hit the gym harder when you’re fully in gear.
6. Sleep! Not sleeping enough triggers all sorts of reactions in your body. Cortisol levels increase, causing your body to store fat, and oddly enough, your body’s response to stress makes it harder to fall asleep. This can create a cycle of insomnia, then more stress, then more insomnia, then weight gain, more stress, more insomnia, depression… – and host of other problems. Exercise will help you sleep better, then feel better – and keep the cycle of the mind well tuned in harmony with the body.
7. No Fighting. Sometimes this seems easier said than done, but the path away from fighting is being rock-solid crystal clear about expectations, making super clear requests, then being clear about accepting or declining requests. This can make you sound a bit robotic at times, but it can lead to clarity with a lot less emotion at stake. Studies with baboons showed a link between stress level and the ability to walk away from a provocation, that would ordinarily send some of the other higher-stress baboons into a snarling fit. The less aggressive baboons stayed in power three times longer than those easily provoked, and had a lot more sex to boot – itself a great stress reliever.
8. Sunshine. Put this together with mild exercise like a walk, some social interaction (walking with a friend) and it all makes for a great way to refocus and regroup. Many europeans take a “paseo” (the nightly walk around town for a bite and seeing friends) as a near daily ritual – and it’s something the rest of us do well to adopt.

Remember: A car with 3 perfect wheels and one flat one won’t get very far.