There is no way to escape it – everyone has at least some type of stress in their life. You might have mild, moderate, or extreme stress depending on a number of different situations. Stress comes from just about everywhere, including at home, relationships with significant others, family or friends, work, school, finances, and so much more.
Not only is it normal to have stress, but it is also normal to struggle with your mindset and have it impact your stress levels. Here are some things to know about how your mindset might affect your stress, and what you can do about it.
A Negative Mindset Creates a Negative Life
Regardless of how much or how little stress you have, having a negative mindset is only going to make it worse. Your life tends to spiral a little when you have constant negative thoughts going through your head. This is why it often feels like it “keeps getting worse” and your mind gets stuck in a negative thought loop pattern. Sometimes this is just bad luck, but a lot of times it is all about how you perceive and react to things.
Stress Can Produce More Stress
Yes, there is a reason why when you’re stressed, the stress just keeps piling on. It is because misery loves company, and the same is true when you have high levels of stress. It might seem silly, but what can happen is the stress you have is actually causing more stress! You know that you are dealing with something, and you are becoming frustrated at how stressed you are and don’t see an end in sight, so that in turn causes even more emotional stress in your life. This is another reason why changing your mindset is so vital.
Using Stress to Your Advantage
There are some instances where a little stress can be a good thing, but again this all depends on your mindset. If you look at stress as just a challenge or a sign that you need to switch something up in your life, it can actually motivate you to grow and change and get better, instead of just causing you to become an anxious, frustrated mess.
Techniques to Decrease Stress
Stress can be relieved by doing various techniques in the moment as well as rebooting your overall nervous system by additional daily practices.
For immediate relief, repetitive breath work as simple as pausing to take a few deep breaths can really shift the intensity of stress. There are other techniques like the 4-7-8 and 4-squared breathing as well. Meditation can be helpful to calm your nervous system down overall so when stress does arise, your body doesn’t perceive it with the same intensity. Practicing mindfulness helps you to come into the present moment of what is ACTUALLY happening versus how your mind is pulling you into the chaos, and other thoughts in-sighting the stress response.
If you’d like to work on reducing your overall stress and need some help, Please contact me for a FREE discovery session to learn more about how we can work together to get you feeling stress free again!
