Your health is in YOUR hands
“The awareness that health is dependent
upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history
that to a large extent determines its own destiny.”
~ Jimmy Carter
What is your unique antidote to stress?
What was the result of your experiment last week? What was your stress count for the day? What had more impact – the little, but more numerous, stressors or the bigger ones? What is your awareness level of the stress in your life now?
I imagine you’re probably well – very well – aware of what your days look like on the stress meter. Where are you on a scale of 1-10, one being virtually no stress and 10 equaling you’ll soon be down for the count? Keep that in mind as you move on so you can measure again later to see your progress.
Now we need to move on to antidotes to that stress. Next week, again, I’ll give you my tips for battling stress. But your way to deal with stress is the real ticket. You may get more ideas next week from what I list, but I’m sure you also have what you need at hand – in mind – right now.
Here’s your assignment for this next week: Instead of listing what stresses you out, start becoming aware of what doesn’t. What makes you smile? What makes you feel relaxed? What are you doing when you feel like you have the world by the tail? What do you do when you feel the need to just escape? What helps you feel calm? Peaceful? Your feathers get ruffled at times — how do you unruffle them?
Anything on this list counts. It doesn’t have to be big. The small things we do to address our stress often are the best. One, because they can fit more easily into your day. You can’t exactly take a week’s vacation to a quiet island every time you feel stressed! Two, they often can be done in the moment of stress. Stress hits; stress is negated. In that instant.
I’ll give you a hint about what might be your biggest antidote to stress: It’s your brain. Consider that as you’re on your fact-finding mission for anti-stressors.
Always try again
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.
The most certain way to succeed is
always to try just one more time.”
~ Thomas Edison
Stress awareness 101
Stress … arggghhhh!!! Is that how you feel a lot of the time? Like pulling out your hair? Screaming? Quitting your job and moving to an island … by yourself?
You’re not alone, that’s for sure. Stress seems to be an ever-present factor in our lives anymore. And I know you know already — it’s probably at the root of most disease.
The problem is that you most likely recognize the huge stressors, but you may be missing a lot of others that, when combined, produce a pretty big impact on how well you’re feeling.
So, instead of tips this time (next week, I promise!), let’s start here:
Put in a little time becoming aware. Awareness is the first step to changing anything. If you’re not even aware of what’s going wrong, you simply canNOT change it.
For the next week, keep notes about anything that makes you feel stressed out, whether it’s big or tiny. What was it? What feeling did it produce? Where did it start? What did you do about it? What did it lead into? Note the date and time. Note how many times a day, at the end of each day, you felt stressed out, big or small.
Don’t make this into brain surgery! Piece of paper, computer doc, spiral notebook, whatever. And don’t wait until you find the perfect stress-keeping journal to start! Start now.
This exercise will give you power — and a place to start working on lowering or eliminating your stressors. You need to become enlightened (about what’s happening) to lighten the load.
You don’t know until you try
“You may be disappointed if you fail,
but you are doomed if you don’t try.”
~ Beverly Sills
