Over the past couple of months, I have been often approached by people that were looking for effective stress management strategies, one that would help them make sustainable changes to ensure they live a healthy, happy and fulfilled life. Many organizations around the world are recognizing their employees are feeling overwhelmed, unhappy, and unfortunately burn-out is becoming a real issue.
It is quite ironic that in the past decade or more, despite increasing awareness about the negative impact of stress and efforts to prevent burn-out, as well as significantly more wellbeing information and resources being available, the effect we observe in our society is in fact the opposite of what we were hoping to achieve. And unfortunately, when stress becomes chronic (which is the case most of the time today), there are devastating consequences for our health, impacting our whole body.
Some argue stress is not all bad. Maybe. It is said that small amounts of stress are needed to push us forward. Maybe.
Negative emotions could be useful as signals about something going on in our life. But experiencing them for an extended period of time can be very detrimental.
Personally, I prefer to feel excited about something, even when it is pushing me out of my comfort zone, rather than feel stressed about it. I’d rather live my life like this, whenever possible.
Here are 4 effective strategies to diminish or eliminate stress from your life:
1. Eliminate the causes of stress
It is probably the most simple and efficient way, although it might not always be possible.
Sometimes it appears to require a lot of courage to decide to let go, and make a change.
In my personal life and work experience, if you can move away from a stressful situation, factor or person that is negatively affecting you, make that your number one priority. I promise you, in the long run, it will always serve you well.
2. Train your brain to experience life differently (build your mental fitness)
In my view, this is by far the most important change you need to make.
The way we perceive life creates our entire experience. And our brains, our minds are the instruments doing it for us.
A lot of the stress we feel is in fact self-imposed, meaning it is mind-made (psychological stress). We tend to stress a lot about our image, self-worth, changes in our lives or at work and so on. We tell ourselves that in order to be happy we have to achieve a certain objective. We focus on worst-case scenarios that haven’t happened yet, and try hard to control the uncontrollable named LIFE. And we let past experiences define who we are today, and who we want to become in the future.
You can not think yourself out of stress. By training our mind to recognize the lie of the negative thought patterns we entertain (saboteurs), and activate our sage brain that brings up empathy, curiosity, decisiveness, purpose-driven living and joy, we are forging new neural pathways that allows us to experience a stress-free life.
How do we get there? Practicing meditation, mindfulness, PQ reps or other techniques that allow us to relax and pause our incessant thinking, helps build up our command mental muscles that activate our sage brain when we most need it.
This is where the PQ program by Positive Intelligence comes in as a critical tool to learn how to master our minds.
3. Stay active
It is already well documented that moderate physical activity is effective in reducing stress levels, and ensuring a better sleep. Equally, taking walks in nature is not only keeping you active, but also calming your mind, and helping you become more present. And if you can take friends or family to accompany you on these activities, it’s a great added bonus.
4. Nourish yourself on and off-the-plate
During stressful times, we tend to ignore what is serving us. Eating healthy foods, adopting an anti-inflammatory diet (check my other blog on this topic), and remembering to take care of yourself in other ways as well (e.g. plan for activities that make you happy, create a self-care routine etc) are very important lifestyle aspects when confronted with stress.
When experiencing stress, remember that our entire body is affected. Taking good care of it and remembering to love ourselves is key.
If you need advice or help with stress management in your life, you can always approach me, and I will be very happy to support and help you change your life for the better.
Sources of information for this blog and useful readings:
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