Being Positive

Last week we talked about MSDs (Micro Stress Doses) and I was wondering what strategies we could develop for managing stress?

I am reminded of the times I get into a real downward spiral and the stress that comes with that.  You know how it goes;  ‘I am so disorganised and chaotic’, ‘people don’t like me’, ‘I am so fat’ and anything else that I can put myself down with.  This is stressful and so is battling with the traffic and shouting at our children.

There is another way, we can alter the way we think, we can change our reactions.

How about ‘I do get muddled but I am working on it and now have a system for getting tidied up’.

‘There is actually no evidence that people don’t like me, I am just putting together some assumptions and making them match up to what I think’

‘I am a bit overweight but I am exercising more and eating healthily’

Do you see what I mean?  Looking at things from a positive viewpoint can really help to manage stress.   Caught in traffic?  Take the opportunity to listen to more of your book, hear more of a podcast you follow, enjoy the radio, fuming won’t make the traffic move more quickly.  Feel like shouting?  Pause, breathe and let it go.  Shouting is so exhausting.

So the problems are the same but the way you are looking at them has changed – try it, it’s a great stress buster!