James E. Porter, President of StressStop.com suggests ranking your problems on a scale of 1-100 in order to keep your stress in perspective.
Flatten out your hand and hold it at arm’s length. Picture that your hand is your problem and you can see it in perspective. Now 
slowly bring your hand right up to your nose. When you do this, about all you can see is your hand, which of course, represents your problem. We spend much of our lives with our noses totally buried in our problems. But when you extend your arm back out, all of a sudden your problem doesn’t seem so big any more. Even though the size of your problem doesn’t change, you now see it in perspective – at arm’s length – and it doesn’t seem overwhelming any longer.
It helps to ask yourself: How likely am I to remember this stressful situation a week from now, or a few days from now, or even a few hours from now? If the answer is not likely, then you know it’s a minor problem and you could cognitively decide to let the problem go – right this minute.
Humor also really helps keep things in perspective. Humorist and stress expert Loretta LaRoche explains, “Stress is funny!” She likes to poke fun at herself whenever she feels stress. “How serious is this?” She always asks herself in a delightfully lighthearted manner: “A wet towel left on the bed is NOT the same as a mugging!”
When stressful things come up at the end of the day, here’s another way way to keep your stress in perspective:
Promise yourself that that you will tackle the problem first thing the next morning. But, here’s the most important part – don’t think about that problem one bit while you are away from it. Your perspective comes from TRUSTING that you will readily solve the problem the NEXT day. Overnight, your unconscious mind goes to work on solving it – specially when you’re not consciously thinking about it
You’ll be surprised at all the solutions you come up with when you tackle the problem the next morning when you’re fresh – simply because the next morning, you can see your problem in the proper perspective.
November 4, 2015