Rates of stress are seemingly going up for large numbers of people at an alarming rate.
But what is ‘stress’ really?
It’s a label.
Beneath the label, what are we looking at?
Is my stress the same as your stress? How would we know?
Stress can absolutely be felt as a negative experience, and it can and does have physical and health implications.
But at the heart of it all, we’re still dealing with our relationship with thoughts.
It may not seem like it, but stress is always emphasised at the level of perception.
Here are some ideas that, when absorbed, will directly influence the amount of stress you allow in:
Stress is the feeling of tightness experienced in response to a stressful thought, not anything that happened ‘out there’ in your environment.
Things that happen in your reality — whether a difficult family member or a frightening deadline — are all neutral concepts before we apply meaning to them via our thinking.
We experience less stress when we see things exactly for what they are, without the labels we apply to them.
Our thoughts directly influence our emotional experience.
If we direct our thoughts away from things that create a feeling of stress, we will have less stress, regardless of what’s going on in your life.
We are less stressed when we see the benefit of life’s challenges instead of the ‘pain.’
Other people are only difficult when we believe them to be difficult.
Feeling overwhelmed is the result of entertaining many worries in our minds. To feel calm is to instead focus on what’s right in front of you in the real world.
We are more likely to worry and feel stressed when our bodies are out of balance, which comes mainly from processed food and not exercising enough.
Short walks will solve 57% of your problems. Long walks will solve 86% of your problems.
Accepting things for what they are, instead of wishing things were different will make you more relaxed, and therefore more creative and resourceful.
Most of our stress comes from being overly self-conscious. This means your ‘cure’ for stress is to be outwardly focused.
Putting your attention on making other people feel calm will bring you immediate relief.
Few people realise the astonishing wealth of insight and intelligence that exists beneath our thoughts; when we let go; when our minds are still.
To tap into our inner wisdom, we must be willing to stop forcing thought, and be ok in uncertainty.
That is when we are rewarded with the peace and effortless resourcefulness we were looking for all along.
There’s one underestimated thing stopping most from being more energised: self-respect.
I know because I struggled to get anywhere in my twenties, and couldn’t figure out the bottleneck until I realised it was a self-identity issue.
Learn the 25 little daily habits I use that reinforce a powerful identity of self-respect in achievable daily steps.
My book shows you how (comes with 3 awesome bonuses):
Get the Art of Self Respect book bundle here.
“One of the best self-help books I’ve read in a long time. Alex exposes, in a clear and concise manner, the behaviors we should study, practice, and adopt to develop better self-respect. This, in turn, leads to earning respect from others.” - Jean Pierre
—
Great list! Especially the insight that it's the meaning we attach to things that often creates the stress!