Sunday, March 24, 2013

How To Stress Less And Have More Fun

By Lachlan Haynes


Stress Is Natural

Stress is felt by almost everyone (and we have a feeling those that don't experience it are probably sitting on a deserted beach somewhere sipping on an ice-cold cocktail), so to experience stress and be impacted by stress is completely normal and understandable.

Irrespective of the stress that exists for you (small or large) the most important factor is how we (individually and collectively) react and respond to our daily stresses.

High levels of stress can really obscure our judgement and result in us behaving in ways that we would not otherwise behave. Behaviors such as anger, aggression, frustration and edginess all result from high stress levels. This change in behavior almost always impacts on the people around us - whether that is school mates, other friends or family members. However it can also impact total strangers if we are stressed enough.

The major challenge with stress is preventing the behaviors it creates from becoming habits. Habits occur when we consistently engage in certain actions or behaviors over a certain amount of time. Therefore, if the feeling of "being stressed" becomes a regular feeling it may actually become the norm feeling. When that happens the individual spends their entire life feeling miserable but they aren't even aware it's because they have formed a detrimental habit.

Therefore, this is a habit that needs to be reversed. Why? Well those with high stress levels creating high amounts of conflict in their life will find it very difficult to reach high achievement levels at either school or in life.

The Problem: The Voice Inside Me Puts Me Down

Negative self-dialogue is a consistent reaction to stressful situations. Responses such as "I can't do this", "I am going to fail", or "I don't know what I'm doing" only add further stress to the stress that is being experienced! It is a downward spiral. Unfortunately, this type of dialogue is also our most powerful dialogue and controls our responses to stressful situations.

Negative self-dialogue creates a negative self-fulfilling prophecy. What this means is that the negative self-dialogue creates an outlook that "everything is negative" and "everything that happens is negative" thereby resulting in a completely miserable life experience. However, this is just a result of a negative perception - it's not "the truth". In other words, if someone believes their life is stressful, then it's stressful! If they don't believe it's stressful then it's not stressful! See how perception creates reality?

However, when negative self-talk becomes a powerful force it has the ability to completely overrun the individual and can result in a lonely experience (because everyone has removed themselves from the negative person's presence). In order to address this, positive self-dialogue needs to become the new habit.

The Solution: Be A Positive Pete

When controlled and executed properly, positive self-dialogue can truly change your life. A constant state of positivism breeds positive experiences and connections with other positive people. The other major benefit of positive self-dialogue is that your outlook on your life will improve even if nothing about your life is actually different. However, the fact you feel better about yourself and your life means that you are far more open to the actions that are required to get you the results you want.

Keep in mind that a negative attitude breeds more negativity. So the opposite is also true. Improved relationships, improved health and improved grades are all results of simply changing your self-dialogue. Don't believe me? Try it! Use words such as "I can do this", "I will do this", "I can do anything I put my mind too", "Life has a way of working out for me", "Things always happen for a reason", "I am not discouraged". This requires no effort other than constantly being positive about yourself, your situation and everyone around you. Do this for at least one week and your outlook will have changed dramatically. Not only that, but those around you will appear to change as well. Why? Well you be treating them differently which will cause more of the same.

Only by understanding what is causing our stress can we take steps to address it. The reality is that many factors can create stress but understanding what is at the root is the most important step to resolving the internal conflict. The full article is available for you to read by following the links below. I wish you good luck.




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