Helping You in That Stressful Moment

Last week, I wrote about the toll of chronic stress with a few lifestyle tips. Today, I would like to give you a tip for the moment stress starts. It is funny, sometimes, the smallest thing can set me off balance. I may be running late for an appointment or I may be on time but the other person is running late. Maybe I went to the market for a specific item and ended up buying everything else but the thing I really needed. Sometimes bigger things are at stake like finances or one of my kids having trouble in school. These are times I need to reset.

The first thing I remember is that it isn't up to me to control what happens in the world, but it is up to me to CHOOSE how I respond - that choice is my right, that choice is my power. When I refocus my thoughts to this, it really helps. There is so much power in the shifting of what I am responsible for. I try for that moment to no longer be responsible for things that are out of my control, but I have to accept responsibility for how I respond to everything.

I understand it can be hard to choose the power of choice when it comes to responding, and the reason it can be so difficult, is because many of our responses are habit. It is a pattern of response that is habitual and unconscious. So, how do we shift this?

Here's a way that might help. The second you feel yourself in an emotional state of stress,fear or doubt, try these 3 steps:

1.Acknowledge that you must be responding in a habitual and unconscious way that makes you feel badly.
2.Ask yourself what is the habitual response you are using here.
3.Ask yourself how you can choose to respond differently. It does not have to be a big change. We are only choosing here. The awareness alone will start the shift, and then when you add to it the power of choice, you are on your way to creating the POWER within you to respond instead of react.

It may sometimes only be a small victory, but our life is made up of many singular moments. The total of those moments create the life you have.

Stay healthy & well, Lisa