After my last few newsletters about stress and the destructive effects this has on our bodies, I received quite a few comments all along similar lines.
Basically, people were saying that they had no choice but to be stressed, they had stressful jobs, had to take care of people, were too short of time, not enough money, their circumstances through no fault of their own were making life stressful etc etc, so yes they acknowledged they were stressed but they also stated that they couldn’t do anything about it.
You might guess that I don’t follow with that line of thought. I’m not saying that we don’t have lots of ‘stuff’ to cope with, deal with, but it’s more a case of how we perceive these events. I think its summed up really nicely in Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
” Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”
Of course we can choose, that’s part of what makes us human, the ability to apply our definition to a situation – that’s our freedom of choice.
What we need to do is be more aware of how we are behaving, feeling, reacting. It’s not about getting rid of these emotions, but if we become aware of them, then we have the ability to choose……for example, we can choose to let fear spiral get bigger and bigger or be aware that this is happening and therefore not allow our minds to go down this route.
Remember a lot of FEAR is only our stories about what might happen, yes based on experiences, memories, even social proof BUT that doesn’t make it a TRUTH!
We all know how quickly we can let our emotions spiral out of control and as discussed in the last newsletter, we know that when we’ve allowed ourselves to be in a state of stress (in our sympathetic nervous system) then that leads to all sorts of physical and mental problems.
Emotions create physical symptoms – fact!
But, if you start to become aware in the MOMENT, then you have the power to choose how you will react. Just having that awareness, that power to choose, already starts to reduce your stress levels.
The first step is always awareness…….next time you’re aware that your stress is rising, don’t go with it, but stop, mentally take a step back and breathe, belly breathing just for 30 secs, then carry on, calmer and more aware. It is far easier to not allow yourself to go down that ‘stress’ route in the first place.
Summed up in a book I recently read “Man’s search for Meaning’ by Viktor Frankl
” Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances……..”
YOU have the choice!