You Have The Power To Change Your Stress Mind-Set
How stressful your stress is, is up to you
INSIGHT : How Stressful Your Stress Is, Is Up To You
When I prepare a photography workshop event and it is getting close to the point when all the participants arrive, I get all stressed out. Or, so it feels.
When I think a bit more about this “stress feeling” I realize, I am thrilled, excited, and positively nervous. I want everything to be prepared well and the participants to feel well taken care of. So, I stress about the million little things contributing to the whole.
Remember this: We only stress about things that we care about.
And then we have a choice if we get stressed out or if we perceive the situation in a different, optimistic, positive way. My preparation and caring are actually positive stress and motivate me to give my best.
The Good Stress
We know of "positive stress", the “good stress”. Situations where we are overwhelmed with too much action and pressure, but we enjoy it because it feels motivating, invigorating, and inspiring. It fires us up. It’s dopamine and it kicks us in the butt - in the positive sense. We feel excited, fulfilled, satisfied, and on a roll. It helps us stay motivated, work toward goals, and feel good about life.
A lot of things we stress about are more about how we think about stress. It’s your mindset about the stress that makes a big difference in your health and happiness. And usually, when we think about stress we think of it as negative.
There are suggestions, and research studies, that we can twist negative stress to positive one.
It is in your hands how you can change your perspective on an unpleasant situation. For example, seeing a difficult new project or task that is handed to you not as stressful but rather consider it as a challenge, feeling encouraged to leverage your skills. You can learn and gain some new experience on how to tackle this kind of issue which is handed to you or standing in your way.
The positive outlook on stress is: You grow and can add another problem-solving tool to your how-to-tackle-life toolbox.
This is a helpful and positive way of looking at a seemingly "stressful" situation. It is rather about dealing with your mindset than with a “difficult” issue at hand, changing your perspective on the unpleasant situation at hand.
The Stress From A Rushed World
Now, there is on the other hand stress that our time-pressured, hurried, always-do-more, go faster world tries to impose on us.
But indeed, mindset is also the key here, to become aware of the situations and to give ourselves permission to not give in to this rather destructive form of stress.
Then there are things popping up in our lives that happen and were not on our agenda. We don’t have control over it. They make us feel stressed because we feel helpless, overwhelmed, and not in control.
But even here we might not be able to turn it into “positive” stress, but we do have control over how we look at it and how we respond to it.
The Mindset Shift
It is up to us if we get all stressed out about it or not. Being aware that getting all upset and stressed is not helpful for the situation is a first step. It is your decision if you want to “suffer” because of a stressful situation. You shift your focus on the dilemma and disaster fearing and wondering how on earth to solve it. That makes you feel stressed. Or, you can choose to think ‘I am not stressing about this’ and focus on the parts that are under your control, including your feelings, and believe that you can figure it out.
You have the power to change your stress mindset.
IMPULSE : Promote The Good Stress (And Call It Differently)
The Good Versus The Bad
You may not be able to eliminate all your stress, but there are often ways that you can minimize or avoid some of the stress in your life, and this can make it easier to handle the rest. You can add positive activities to promote “good stress” – this article (in verywellmind) describes the good stress versus the bad stress.
Just Don’t Get Sick From Stress, Will’ya
We cannot always avoid stress, but there is no need to get sick from it. It is about the perspective and how you perceive situations.
You can view stress as something that is wreaking havoc on your body (and it can) or as something that is giving you the strength and energy to overcome adversity. Read about the perception of stress here in the New York Times / Well section about it.
INJOY : Follow me on Instagram
If you like to see how I enjoy Less Stress in daily life and like to take some inspiration with you follow me on Instagram.