HOW TO MAKE STRESS YOUR ALLY?
Did you know that stress was meant to be a part of life? That is the precise reason why mother nature has built a stress response system inside your body to counter the stress experienced in life. Some stress is good for us. Exam stress for instance...a student will not burn the midnight oil and prepare for months if he was not stressed about his upcoming exam. Sometimes we pay money to experience a little stress. we queue up in lines for the roller coaster ride, and the more dangerous it looks, the more thrilling it becomes. Without stress, life would be like a straight dull boring line on the Electrocardiogram! And by flat I mean dead. So stress helps us to take up challenges in life, engage more with life, and come out as a winner!
We don't need to fear stress, we need to befriend it. Make stress our most trusted ally. That brings me to the core of this discussion: How do you exactly do that?
Well, we start by acknowledging the presence of stress and the feelings associated with it. Only when we acknowledge the presence of something we actively engage ourselves in tackling it to the best of our ability. Brushing things under the carpet doesn't help here. In fact it amplifies the problem manifold.
We focus on things that we can actually change. The focus has to be shifted on those things which are under your control and you have the power to change them The major problem of stress which makes it particularly distressing for some is the locus of control which is often outside the reach of an individual. As rational intelligent beings, we have been blessed with the capacity to classify life situations in two broad kinds- Ones which are under your control and the ones which aren't! Often we waste our precious time and energy focusing and deliberating on things that are beyond our control and in the process we miss out the opportunity to focus on those things which can actually bring a positive change in our lives.
It is a given that humans survive on challenges and obstacles. we need continuous stimulation and challenging goals to achieve our self-worth. But more often than not, I see people striving for unrealistic goals with no real meaning or significance for them. Your mind can become your most powerful tool only if you learn to harness its energy in a systematically defined way and fuel it with passion for things that really matter to you and not things that are planned only to impress others and carry no personal significance whatsoever.
We need to practice healthy coping for situations where we cannot do anything and we cannot run away from. Getting into toxic relationships, hitting the bottle, binge eating, sitting on the sofa watching some series endlessly, gossiping, bitching, trolling online, shopping incessantly are all examples of toxic coping. For more healthy coping styles, a commitment needs to be made to yourself that I am important to me and I deserve to care for myself physically and mentally in the best capacity possible. I will not undermine my own physical and emotional needs to meet the ridiculous emotional demands of others. 'You cannot pour from an empty cup' So make a promise to yourself today - I will love myself the most! And don't feel guilty about it.
I am going to say NO to demands and situations which violate my boundaries and undermine my mental health. Do you know the most difficult word to pronounce in English is a very simple two-letter word called NO. Today, I want to emphasize that it is completely okay to say No to people who constantly trespass your space, time, and life in a negative way. There is irrefutable research that says that if you don't say no with your mouth, your body will start to do that for you. Most of the chronic diseases like diabetes, heart problems, and mental health problems strike those people who have the uncanny ability to say Yes to every damn thing in the world. There is a saying that Good people die young...and now you know why!
I will try to find one positive moment in my life every day. I will try to create and remember positive moments in the small little joys of life. And I will be grateful for all these moments.
I will try to be mindful which means living in the present moment. Not in the future, not in the past. Most of the time we are living in the past or the future. We are unaware of NOW. And this has become so ingrained in us that we take it for granted.When we become more mindful..we connect more with ourselves.. our body as well as mind..our whole existence! And then we move from impulsive reactivity to more mindful responsiveness. It is a skill which each one of us can master with dilligence and practise.
More on mindfulness in my next blog. Do stay tuned...
Meanwhile.... Stay happy and keep doing Mann se baat!
Comments
Post a Comment