Change your stress reactions – to work for you!

It’s safe to say that all of us want less stress in our lives. While this is a worthwhile goal, I’ve found that what we really want is less of a “negative stress reaction” to occurrences that absorb our energy and personal power.

If you want to stretch out of your comfort zone and Play Bigger, it’s important to understand the impact that stress may have on your ability to achieve your goals and dreams, by robbing you of personal power and energy.

But how do you do this given the “auto-pilot” busy life-style and pressures of the times we live in? In fact, many of us have learned to tolerate stress and our negative reactions and may not even recognize the affect it is truly having on our ability to stay in the driver’s seat of our lives. However, when we “react” to stress, we lose our ability to control what we give our precious time and personal power to. This lowers our confidence and belief in our ability to achieve more and it becomes a vicious cycle.

Can you totally eliminate stress? No. Stress isn’t something we can completely eliminate because in our society there are many circumstances that are, and always will be, stressful. Just watching the evening news can cause stress.  The likelihood of isolating ourselves from hearing about unfortunate events in the lives of friends and family is not likely to happen. Some stress isn’t bad and can create an appropriate sense of urgency, such as meeting a deadline. The point is—don’t focus on necessarily removing all stress; rather, pay attention to your “reactions” as an important part of life management.

To accomplish this, set yourself up to act and respond differently– in essence make your stress reactions “work for you” by doing things to position yourself to respond proactively.

Ten tips to change your stress reactions to work for you:

1)      Identify your triggers and patterns of stress.  Then, determine new strategies or learn new skills to respond more effectively. Even the smallest shifts will start to make a difference.

2)      Practice preventive steps. Learn to say NO, and communicate your needs, before you get stressed.

3)      Teach your body a “relaxation response” instead of automatic stress response. You can use a song or a quote to trigger the response.

4)      Pay attention to your “inner critic” and stop your negative self-chatter before those thoughts cause you to react.

5)      Create an affirmation that exemplifies what you “feel like” when you are in your personal power zone, read it to yourself and practice positioning your responses from this place.

6)      Get in control of your time with 15 minutes.  Get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning to allow for morning mishaps. Take 15 minutes and prepare for the morning the evening before. Allow 15 minutes extra to get to appointments.

7)      Stop tolerating.  Whatever is bothering you, not working right or is a constant aggravation, get it fixed or replace it.

8)      Get enough sleep.  If necessary, set a timer to remind you to get to bed. This is a big one. Doing so will re-energize you physically and emotionally, making you more resilient and less reactive.

9)      Check your breathing.  When feeling stressed, most people breathe in short shallow breaths that cause muscle tension and less oxygen available to the brain. Practice taking 5 deep breaths before you respond.

10)    For every one thing that goes wrong, there are probably 10, 50 or even 100 blessings. Count them! Even better, keep a daily success journal to remind yourself of what you are truly capable of creating.

Key point: The single most important point you can make about stress is that in most cases it is not what is out there that is the problem, it is how you react to it!

Learn more about reducing stress reactions and how to shift the energy to work for you in my New Book! Click the “Leaving Your Comfort Zone” link now!