Continuing our series on dealing with stress from Dr
Chaterjee’s book ‘The Stress Solution’ I
would like to talk, this time, about reframing your day.
Is your life a mess?
Do you hate your job? According
to Dr Chaterjee, if you consider these types of options (or any of the many
negative frames we put on our life) and spend all day reinforcing these ideas
then that is how you will continue to see your life. By dwelling on the negatives in your life you
will simply reinforce them. So you are
stuck in traffic, in fact you get stuck in traffic every day. You can get cross and rant or you can think
‘great, more time to listen to the radio / my audio book’. You can say ‘I have set off in good time and
I won’t be late and anyway, getting cross won’t shift the traffic’. Its about how you frame it.
If you think constantly about how much you dislike one of
your co-workers then will probably be unpleasant to that person and the
situation will get worse. How about
telling yourself ‘I don’t really get along with them well but I will be polite
and cheerful and not dwell on her nasty remarks’? I bet you will feel less stressed.
Dr Chaterjee gives some great examples of finding value in
your work (pages 40 & 41). One that
particularly resonates with me is that of a nurse. If we spend all our time moaning about the
fact that we are underpaid and overworked we will be unhappy and fed up. However, if we acknowledge that we are making
a difference to people’s lives we are much more likely to be less stressed.
Now the cynics amongst us will be unsure at this point – but
give it a go – find a positive in the situation and cling to it!
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