GALLUP TELLS US THAT STRESS LEVELS are at record highs.
How are you feeling it?
• Gut issues?
• Overwhelm? Your to-dos have to-dos have to-dos.
• Intrusive fears?
• Poor sleep and waking up in the middle of the night with racing thoughts?
• High anxiety and blood pressure?
DISPUTE AN OUT-OF-TIME BRAIN
I know what you’re going through as one who has tangled with this beast in my life, as all humans do—and as someone who teaches stress management and work-life balance to folks at organizations from IBM to Pfizer, and across the world from Mumbai to Bogota.
The message of my workshops and programs is that, despite how intensely we feel the false beliefs set off by a brain that wants to panic us into running or fighting or freezing, we don’t have to buy the hysteria. It’s a false alarm unless you’re going to die that second.
We can contest, dispute, and shut down the stress response, along with the fear, panic, fixation on bad events in tenses we’re not in, and the medical bills that come with it all.
The problem is that the culture teaches us next to nothing about how to manage our mind and the negative ruminations that drive stress.
The only thing we get is: “Suck it up!” Now, that’s a big help. Thanks for nothing.
How many times have you had that said to you or had that inference? What does that feel like? It just adds anger to the racing thoughts and pounding pulse.
It makes you think there’s something wrong with you because you can’t take it and everybody else can. All you have to do, though, is look at the sales of Paxil and Maalox. It’s everyone and everywhere.
SUCKING IT UP IS GREAT IF YOU LIKE STRESS
When we suck it up, what happens to the stress? Does it go away? No, just the opposite. We think about it. And think about it. That negative rumination is precisely what causes stress.
Unless you control the source of stress and the story you tell yourself about it, stress controls you. Your thoughts. Your mood. Your emotions. Your sleep. Your heart rate. Your blood pressure. Your cardiovascular system. Your digestion system. Your immune system. Your life through serious health conditions and making you un-present for it.
You don’t have to take it, though. You don’t have to suck it up.
You can spit it out.
There are many evidence-based tools to help you do that.
Here’s an example. When stress sets off fearful, anxious, extreme thoughts in your brain, challenge and vet the thought immediately with these three questions:
Is it accurate?
Is it useful?
Is it physical life-and-death?
Then take the stressor and the stressful thought it has fed your brain and finish these two sentences:
That’s not true because ……………………………………………………………………….
A more helpful way to see this is ………………………………………………………..
Contesting stress puts you in charge over the wacky features of a brain that thinks it’s 100,000 B.C.
The goal is catching yourself and staying non-reactive on the road to mental toughness.
If you would like to manage pressure and unbounded stress everywhere, click the button below or reach out to 310-570-6987 or joe@worktolive.info for details on my Manage Any Challenge Stress Management program.
