Feel Less Stress on Your Terms

What are the main causes of the stress in your life? It’s sometimes easy to see, sometimes elusive. In our current news addiction culture, it could be that external events are affecting your life in a way you aren’t even aware of. Whether rich or poor, partnered or single, parent, teacher, loner or social, job or jobless, stress is a non-discriminatory bully. Often, stress is magnified when people get engrossed about concerns and worries that are beyond the scope of what they can do, and a feeling of powerlessness enhances hopeless thinking. If any of this is familiar to you, awareness is a first step and there is a solution. This article's title, Feel Less Stress on Your Terms, puts the focus on YOU. The top 3 tips to handle stress, no matter what the external causes, are right there, even though sometimes we don't want to see the solution. TOP TIP #1: Take personal responsibility for your feelings of stress. This is a key to successfully doing anything in life, but especially this area. We can train our brains to be victims of circumstances, OR we can become challenged and empowered BY our circumstances. The choice is up to you. TOP TIP #2: You CAN do something about what you're feeling right now. When you feel stress, take just a second to consider your first thought. Take a deep breath in and out. The few seconds it takes to do this can give you a chance to become aware and regain composure. What importance does the circumstance that you are “stressing about” have on you and why? If nothing can be done right now about this, how can you change the way you are thinking about this immovable circumstance? What thought can you come up now with that gives you the feeling of relief? It may not be the first time, but with practice, you may surprise yourself in finding that doing this exercise takes no more effort than giving in to stress! TOP TIP #3: From the inside out, you can become calm, even in stormy seas! This process takes less time, more willingness to change what you've always done. The deliberate steps you take to train your brain when feelings of stress arise, will pay off quickly! Congratulate yourself whenever you notice. When stressful situations happen outside, and you will come to know what to do on the inside to calm your own internal storm.