How to deal with stress

16 Jul How to deal with stress

If you are reading this because you feel so stressed out that you can barely see, I have some advice for you 🙂

1. Keep busy 🙂

Our minds are wonderful things, but they will be on the lookout for danger and in my experience, the best way to get through a bout of anxiety is to get into work, or DO something else, like cook dinner, go for a walk, or do your taxes. It is great to get distracted, because your mind will tend to forget that some big nasty is around the corner and once you are distracted, it is like a craving for a cigarette, it will pass and you are sure to feel better.

2. Think long term

You are feeling anxious and sometimes it feels like in order to feel better you need to remove the thing that is stressing out, but you are going to feel anxious anyway! It is important to think about your long term goals, and to feel the anxiety and to ‘do it anyway’.

It might be less painful in the short term to not do whatever is causing you anxiety, but in the long term you will be no closer to vitality.

3. Mindfulness

During times of stress it is helpful to practice mindfulness, so that you can observe the anxiety and not get hooked up in it. There are some great mindfulness practices available on the web, but the practice essentially involves focussing your attention on your breath and letting all the invasive and troublesome thoughts go, as you continually bring your focus back to your breath.

4. Enjoy!

I read something the other day that said that if you are scared, you are probably doing the right thing. I am not sure about that, but I do think it is true that change is stressful, but you can grow through change and be a better person for it.