How to keep stress at bay

Teaching is not an easy job. It may be ranked as one of the most stressful jobs nowadays. As a teacher, I have always been on the lookout on how I can de-stress myself. The problem starts on my being very critical of myself and on the way I do things. You would think that I am a control freak. I worry too and feel very anxious about a lot of things. However, all these traits are not helping me any on my goal to have a happy and fulfilled life. Oftentimes, I feel like I don't enjoy life at all. There are mornings that I still dread going to work because going to school is like going to my prison cell. This past week, I did some changes on how I think and it really helped me a lot. I am less stressed and I feel happier. What I do is that I usually pause everytime I feel the stress pains in my abdomen and just breathe. I try to force myself to think that everything is going to be okay because I am doing my best. All I need to ask myself is whether I am doing what I think I am supposed to do and if my answer is "yes" then I just leave it at that. Knowing too that all this is temporary is also a lot of help for me. I am still trying to practice what they call as just living in the now. Everytime I catch myself dreading the future, I just go back and focus on the NOW. All these little steps had helped me a lot lately.