Overwhelmed, agitated, unable to cope? Who isn't all too
familiar with these feelings?
I am sure that there isn't an adult in the Western World who
doesn't feel stress, at least on occasion.
So, what do we get stressed about?
Our job, family relationships, Christmas, financial
constraints, sitting in the banked-up traffic when we should
be at work, an illness, fearing the worst and so on…….
There are 1001 things that can cause us to become so
overwhelmed that we can no longer move. What needs to be
understood, however, is that it isn't the things that cause
us stress, but the meaning we attach to those things, that
stop us from breathing freely. Thus, stress begins in our
thoughts and as we all have control over what we think, we
can also control our stress levels. How do we go about doing
that?
The first step toward effective stress reduction is the
identification of our major stressors. Often,
writing them down helps to identify them. When our list is
complete, we need to avoid the temptation to try and deal
with every stressor at once, but determine to attack one at
a time. To begin with, it's a good idea to select the one
that will make the biggest difference or we feel best
equipped to change. Then we need to decide how we can best
achieve this change, formulate a realistic and workable
strategy, and put it into action.
Some stress reducers are:
