If stress is a choice, then we can choose not to have stress. If you feel like your stress levels are off the charts, author David Zerfoss has a new perspective for you that can change your life.
Inside (ad) Stress is a Choice, David provides ten rules that provide an inspired road map to simplify life and to choose less stress.
Less stress in life is a goal for many and the (ad) Stress is A Choice booklet offers concrete tools on how to simplify life and relieve stress.
The following of my own tips, also make a difference when experiencing stress.
I have included links to a few tools that could support leading a life of inner calm. Many of the ideas you have heard before. It’s great to be reminded again and again, so that these might become habits that feel as automatically a part of your day as brushing your teeth.
1.
Simplify life by getting clear about the distinction between a “need” and a “want”. Often we might reach for “having things” or achieving targets that are not at all necessary. Check in with yourself and see which of your desires are driven by expectations outside of yourself, by external forces.
2.
At every opportunity “be present”, “in the moment”, in the “here & now”! When you stop the automatic mind chatter, what do you see around you? Did you even notice that stream of sunlight across the room, the color red in a nearby flower, the sensation of a breeze across your arm? Look for opportunities to exchange stress, for moments when you could choose to feel gratitude or joy.
Look for opportunities to exchange stress with joy or gratitude Share on X3.
Include meditation in your morning routine. You’ll find that it has a flow on effect throughout your entire day. To get you started, here is a breathing exercise you can use to quiet the mind and increase your level of energy, health and enjoyment of life.
4.
Take care of health the best way you know. Drink plenty of water, exercise, (ad) eat nutritional meals and (ad) definitely sleep well. When your energy reserves are depleted, so is your resistance to unpleasant events or moments of tension.
5.
As situations arise, slow down and choose to “respond” rather than “react”. Give yourself permission & room to think. When requests are made of you or invitations extended, allow for a time buffer by entering it in your calendar and let the person know when you’ll get back to them with an answer. Better yet, get them to ask you again within a certain time frame so you can check your current commitments.
6.
Revisit all the structures you have in place to help prioritize & organize your activities. Do you have the most effective tools and systems at your fingertips? I recently read (ad) Bit Literacy and I think it will make a difference to you also. In fact, that booklet and the “Stress is A Choice” movie, both prompted me to write this post for you.
7.
Learn to recognize and to change limiting beliefs that have you pinned down and unable to act powerfully when faced with challenging circumstances. Check in with how much of a situation looks worse because your imagination has been allowed to roam wild, then determine “what IS actually so”! Decide on a specific action, just one for now, that will (ad) move you forward and out of the state in which you currently find yourself.
8.
When times are great & you have some breathing space, take the opportunity to learn some strategies that you can “have at the ready” next time a not-so-positive situation shows up, or the next time your mind takes you down those dark alleys of fear and tension! The one I use most often is (ad) Thought Field Therapy (TFT), commonly known as tapping.
Remove the word “stress” from your vocabulary, completely Share on X9.
Remove the word “stress” from your vocabulary. (ad) Re-frame or relabel it, perhaps by using a term like, “challenge”. I cringed a little when writing this post and deciding on a title/topic. “Stress” is not a word that I have used for many years. I chose to use it for this piece because the term is still so widely used & recognized, visitors would immediately understand the purpose of this article. It doesn’t mean that we stick our heads in the sand, it just gives us a little more power to move beyond the currently undesired state and into a place where we might “see” something different and therefore be enabled to move forward and beyond.
10.
Do those things that you know will boost your self confidence and self esteem. We all have our own little rituals and unique ways of lifting our spirit. The (ad) Quantum Confidence Method is a great place to start if you’re out of ideas for the moment. It also really helps to look outside yourself and check with where you could feel the satisfaction in having made a difference to another person.
There are thousands more ideas where those came from, however 10 seems a good number at which to end a list! Share this post with anyone you know, who could use it right now.
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Hi, I'm Thea Westra at Forward Steps (forwardstepsblog.com)
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