There are many ways to fight stress: you can compensate for the moral damage of tons of sweets, head to computer games or simply pretend that everything that happens does not apply to you. The trouble is that the problems will not be solved. If you really want to learn how to manage your excitement, read the article and apply its tips in practice.
How to deal with stress
Responsibility and confidence
Tim Judge, a psychologist at the University of Florida, has proved that people who are self-confident and who believe that they manage their lives, ultimately, achieve greater material success. Such research participants not only performed their professional duties better and quickly mastered new tasks, but also had an annual income of 50-150% higher than their counterparts.
The study of Tim Jade revealed an interesting feature of confident people: they do not lose the presence of the spirit, even in the most difficult circumstances. So, they are also not at all, but the question is how they use their excitement.
Surely they know that the future depends on them, so anxiety only feeds on their fervor. Desperation gives way to drive, and instead of awe and fear comes perseverance.
Whether they have defeated the results of their long work or once again refused to hire, they do not hurry to raise a white flag. Life can throw out any surprises, but responsible people just double and triple their efforts.
How it works
Responsible for the degree of efficiency of work surpass all others, because the ability to control emotions and keep calm even in conditions of high stress is in direct connection with work capacity. 90% of the most effective professionals combine one important skill: they are able to manage their emotions.
In general, anxiety is absolutely necessary feeling. Difficult to do business, until we start at least a little bit worried about this, is already arranged by the human brain. The peak of our performance comes at a moderate level of anxiety.
The whole trick is how to overcome stress and keep it within reasonable limits in order to achieve maximum productivity.
We are well aware that constant experiences have serious consequences for our physical and mental health. So why is it so hard for us to overcome the excitement and thus improve our lives? Scientists from Yale University found the answer.
Strong stress reduces the amount of gray matter in the brain areas responsible for self-control. Lose self-control – you lose and the ability to cope with anxiety.
In this state, you not only can not prevent yourself from getting into difficult situations, but you also create them yourself (for example, reacting too violently to words or actions of other people). Decreasing self-control is especially dangerous when stress reaches physiological functions. It promotes the development of hypertension and diabetes, leads to depression, obesity, and also reduces cognitive abilities. It turns out a closed circle, where the increasing level of experience proves man to complete exhaustion.
What has to be done
If we do not know how to deal with excitement, we will never realize our potential. Each of us is nervous in difficult situations, but there are proven ways to overcome anxiety and fear of uncertainty – just five simple and incredibly effective steps. Before reading further, one thing is worth knowing: right now, nothing really is determined, including your future. How will it be? You decide
Step 1. Prepare for changes
No one can ever keep everything under control. Even the most responsible people in Jade’s research are sometimes left without work, and their business is in difficult times. The difference is that they are completely ready for change and are able to use what is happening for their benefit. You too can learn this.
Periodically list important events that may take place in the near future. The purpose here is not to predict all the changes that you have to encounter. This exercise improves your ability to adequately meet upcoming changes. Even if events from the list never become real, the practice of preventing change and early preparation for them helps to believe that the future is really in your hands.
Step 2. Focus on opportunities
All of us still in his youth firmly-firmly killed in the head that life is unfair. This phrase is a voice of anxiety, despair and passive inactivity. Let it not be possible sometimes to avoid unpleasant events, we are always free to choose how to respond to them.
In the list from the first paragraph, write down briefly all possible reaction options for each event. You will be surprised at how an arsenal of responses will fit into allegedly uncontrolled circumstances.
Step 3. Rewrite the script of your life
This is the most difficult thing – you have to give up what you have become accustomed to. Each of us has a certain scenario of behavior in one or another situation. So, if you want to manage your life on your own, you need to rewrite it.
Remember some of the difficulties you encountered. What then prevented you from turning the situation to our advantage? Write down everything that happens, it will be a failure scenario. Now imagine how worth it to behave, repeating this situation. This time you would not be mistaken, right? This is a Responsible Behavior Scenario, which should replace the previous unsuccessful option. In any difficult situation, compare your thoughts at this point with negative and positive scenarios. This will not only help you choose the right way of action, but will also change the way of thinking, and then life.
Step 4. Stop torturing yourself
Timely refusal of self-digging is an important step in combating stress and anxiety. The more often you get tired of negative thoughts, the more you give them power over yourself.
Most of our negative experiences are just thoughts, not facts.
As soon as you realize that you are starting to listen to the pessimistic forecasts of your inner voice, immediately write down what you think. Having muffled at least for a couple of minutes these sad reasoning, you can more rationally and soberly assess the degree of their truth.
In your reflections there are the words “never”, “worst” and “once”? Be sure these are fantasy, which to reality do not have the slightest relation. If thoughts in writing look rather plausible, let them be read by someone you trust. Let’s see if he agrees with you or not.
When it seems to us that any situation will last forever or, conversely, never happens, these are just the brain teeth that one likes to do with an elephant fly and exaggerate the frequency and significance of a particular event. Defining a clear boundary between facts and hypotheses will help escape from a closed circle of anxiety and start moving to new heights.
Step 5. Be thankful
To give time to realizing what you are grateful for life, God, or people is important not only because it is considered a good tone. This behavior reduces anxiety and significantly reduces the level of cortisol, a stress hormones. Studies at the University of California at Davis have proven: people regularly express gratitude, noted a noticeable improvement in mood and force.
The main thing to remember: an all-consuming concern and the expansion of their own capabilities – the concept of mutually exclusive. Whenever stress kills your ability to work, just follow the five steps listed above to realize your strength and regain control of the situation.
Picture Credit: geralt