How do you define stress? What does it look like for you? Is it a new job, a breakup, Monday mornings, deadlines? Is it the 5:00 am ring of your alarm clock or the bills and laundry piling up?
People are usually surprised when I say that not all stress is bad. The truth is stress, at times, is actually necessary for change to occur. With that being said, some things I deem stressful may actually be the catalyst to transition and growth or a source of pleasure in someone else’s life (i.e. the stress often associated with planning a wedding, the pressure of a championship game, the upcoming graduation of a high school senior for a parent, etc.), and vice versa.
Stress is not really about the actual stressors– those external events or frustrating circumstances– as we have often been led to believe. Instead, it is our internal response to these circumstances that represent the culprit of stress- related illness, unrest, and eventual emotional and physical meltdowns in our lives.
So, if stress is truly our inner response to external circumstances, the task then is to tap into the way we personally perceive that which challenges us to change. Afterall, the only thing that remains the same is change! So to avoid a perpetual hamster wheel of stress related anguish, make a decision to accept your circumstances and choose to see them and the impact of them on your life from a different vantage point. BELIEVE that you have the prowess to handle stress before the external pressure becomes an internal hindrance.
Remembering these keys points will help you through the process:
- Not all stress is bad.
- Too much stress is bad!
- What you perceive to be stressful to you…is!
- You can choose to control much of the stress levels in your life, you can choose to discover why you are stressed out, and you can choose not to be stressed out.
Continue to become informed about stress and changing your thinking to maintain a more positive outlook, by following my daily posts on Instagram @shannonwhite_lifecoach.