Stressing about school? Work? Family? Don’t feel like you can handle the stress of all that life is throwing at you any more? There are ways that you can take stress and turn it to a positive or find a way to relieve that stress. A lot of people like to head to the gym and work out their stress, but there are times that just does not cut it.The minute you walk out the door of the gym..bam! It is back and all you can think about. Kelly McGonigal has some ways that might be worth trying.
Some of you might be thinking “I’ve heard all the psychologists tell their different ways to make my life better, why is she any different?” Sadly, she might not be any different, but we all process stress differently and so we all need different opinions and ideas on how to deal with stress. One person might find that going to the gym to work out for an hour makes it all better, but can you just drop whatever you are doing such as work, school, or kids to head off to the gym whenever you want? No most of us can’t tell our boss “well I’m feeling very stressed right now so I’m going to go to the gym for an hour and I’ll be back.” I’m pretty sure if I said that to my boss he’d give me a look like I was crazy for thinking that was an option and wonder why I can’t wait to do that till after my shift is over. McGonigal has some different ways to help a person cope with stress in the moment.
First off I like how McGonigal flat-out says that she has been causing more harm than good when it comes to stress. There are not a lot of people, let alone psychologists, who like to admit they have been wrong about anything. She expands to explain why she was wrong and going about helping people cope with stress by telling them it was harmful to a person’s health instead of trying to change their mind about it. McGonigal no longer wants to help a person cope with stress, but find ways to make you better at stress.
I find this approach appealing because everything out there talks about how bad stress is for a person, the millions of ways to cope and relieve stress, and so much more, but none of them want to make you better at stress. There is no sure-fire way to deal with stress or get rid of it so why not try to understand stress better to make yourself better at dealing with stress. Stress is just another challenge in life and being able to remember in times of stress that you can make your mind think of stress as another hurdle or challenge to get over can create a reaction where your body believes your mind.
I don’t think this is something that a person can create over night. You can’t snap your fingers and all of a sudden every time you are stressed out you think about jumping over a hurdle, but with practice I believe a person can change their mind about stress and have a healthier response to stress. I’ve been trying to do this and from my experience it does take time to change how you handle stress, but it can be done. This is another thing that someone can do to make their life happier because a happy person is more productive than a stressed out worn down person. We believe in a lot of things so why not add believing that you can change the way stress is viewed and change the way your mind and body respond to it for a healthier life.
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