Coping with Stress

Stress is part of everyone’s life. There is not one person in this globe who is stress free, except ofcourse you are listing the gods and super humans or the super heroes (who also have stress by the way, not forgetting what Thanos did to them). Stress varies basis our Perception. One may think of her stress as less, the other may think of the same stress as more. One may think of his stress as non-existent, while the other is totally submerged under the burden of the same amount of stress. Stress is stress! There is never less or more of it, there is never yes or no of it. It is just there. We as the people of 21^st century need to first attain this eternal acceptance of stress being art of our lives. Instead of working on keeping stress at bay, we then shall start focusing on managing stress levels better, which in turn will bring relief, peace, calmness and respite in your life. I have therefore devised a few ways of helping us all cope with stress better!

1 ACCEPTANCE

This is the first step in managing stress. You need to accept that there is stress and there is nothing wrong in being stressed. Don’t shew the idea away resenting the possibility of stress even existing. At some point or the other in your life stress will emerge and will lead to its ancillary emotions of fear, worry, panic, apprehension or even depression. Before we deal with the problem, lets begin to look at the problem as something which has a cure and not as something whose existence needs to be denied

2 STAY POSITIVE

It is very easy to look at the adverse situation in the eye and get scared, upset and thereby stressed. But looking at an adverse situation in a positive way can help lower stress. The best way to do this is to ask yourself what worst can come from this present situation and analyze the outcome. You will realize that the worst isn’t all that bad and definitely doesn’t need to such over thinking. Then ask yourself what is the positive in the present negative and you will come up with some brilliant revelations which will as you continue practicing this exercise, will become your habitual mindset.

3 STOP Button Mechanism

Once you have accepted that stress exists, begin to become aware of its effects on you. What happens when you get stressed? Do you get angry? Do you lose your calm? Are there droplets of perspiration on your forehead? Do you start shaking? Do you get negative self harm thoughts? Do you feel like screaming, walking away or adopting avoidance technique? Observe the effects these questions or ideas have on your body. You will soon come to realize that your breath becomes faster, you are thinking more rapidly, you begin to fumble when you speak and you may feel weak, tired or simply sad for no reason at all. Now that you have figured the effects of stress on your body, you must work on stopping them. Immediately say the word STOP mentally to yourself. Say it aloud or say it in your mind, but do so when you become aware of stress taking over you. Stop all the effects that come with increased stress like all the chemical reactions your body begins to exhibit. STOP them all by saying out loud to your mind to stop it, truncate it then and there. Press the mental ctrl+alt+del together.

4 STRESS RELEASE TALK

Find a confidante, friend, guru, therapist, Coach who will hear you out. Simply hear you out and do nothing Else. I have realized in my practice, that most clients only need to hear their voices spoken clearly and loudly. Once they hear themselves out loud, they realize the problem, come up with solutions and I only make them accountable towards achieving these solutions. You must speak out, loud and clearly about what is stressing you or troubling. Communication is an age old solution and our ancestors resolved all problems through communication. There were no world wars then, no nuclear weapons invented and no cold war for sure. When you hear yourself speak, you will feel lighter, you will get more clarity and you will look at your problem objectively than anything else. The problem will exist outside of you and not in you. That’s when you will get control of your emotions which causes this tiny problem of stress

5 ME TIME

It is very important to give yourself some ME Time. This time could include anything that you love to do so much that doing it brings sheer pleasure. This Me time may include reading, working out, dancing, pursuing any hobby or simply being in the nature walking your Dog.  This one hour will oxygenate you and help destress. Stay as mindful as you can through this one hour of passion. But the key lies in doing this atleast a minimum of 4 days a week. Remember practice makes perfect and to make this a habit you must do this consistently. So without any further time, plan the ME Time schedule and give love to the most important person on the planet i.e YOU!

Karmel Nair is a Psychotherapist, Certified Life Coach and a 52 times globally published Author.  Please write to her about your views on Stress and other related topics to coach@karmelnair.com and she will be happy to hear from you.