When you’re stressed, you go into a Fight or Flight mentality. This reduces access to your brain’s resources, and compromises your ability to think straight. Here are 5 ways to calm down your overactive stress response so you’re able to respond to situations in a more constructive way.
Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved
by Linda-Ann Stewart
However, when you’re able to focus on one thing at a time, it allows access to more mental and emotional resources. For example, driving the car without talking on the phone or texting is safer and less stressful than dealing with those distractions. Working on a project without interruptions means you’re able to bring all of your creativity to it.
Being fully engaged in a conversation means you’ll hear what the other person is saying and be able to respond appropriately. If you have to reply to an upsetting email, having the time and space to rationally choose what to say is better than reflexively shooting out a nasty response.
When you learn to be more mindful and more present in your life, you’re able to engage much more of the brain’s creativity, abilities, perspective, problem solving, and flexibility. You open up channels to the Universe and allow more of Its guidance and wisdom into your life.
Take some time to turn off all the technology in your life and shut out the distractions. Focus the light of your attention on one task. Immerse yourself in it.
If it’s washing the dishes, don’t watch TV at the same time or focus on hating the chore. Just do it without giving it much emotional energy or distraction. Consider it time for your mind to recharge without having to think ahead. Just be. The same technique can be used for a project at work, or a task at home.
Instead of tying up so much of your resources in your day-to-day scramble, learn to be more focused and mindful. This allows you to release more of the talents and creativity that are innate within you.
Affirmation
I commit myself to be in the present. The past is over, the future is yet to be. When I have a task, I focus on it and it alone. This gives me more mental, emotional and spiritual resources. It allows me to hear Divine Guidance more clearly and use it to make better choices. So I choose to shut out distractions and be right here, right now.
Read part 1 of Stop Multitasking to Reduce Stress.
Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved
by Linda-Ann Stewart
Most people are overwhelmed by the amount of distractions in their lives. When you’re trying to work, you’re interrupted by phone calls, texts, or a problem suddenly needing an immediate solution or decision. All of this diverts your attention and keeps you from focusing on one thing at a time.
You’re trying to multi-task to be more efficient and you’re accomplishing exactly the opposite. Your attention is split between all of the distractions, and nothing gets your best effort. So everything suffers from a lack of your full capabilities.
Unfortunately, your fast-paced lifestyle promotes stress and anxiety. This engages the Fight or Flight mechanism that causes you to be in survival mode. Everything that happens is then considered to be a threat. You can’t keep things in their proper perspective.
For instance, let’s say you’re expecting a busy day at work. In the morning, you take the trash bag out of the trashcan and the bag breaks. Now you have to clean it up before you can leave. On the freeway, you’re caught in an unexpected traffic jam and get to work late.
You’d planned to have plenty of time to print out a report for a meeting. But because of the morning’s delays, you’re hurrying to get it done. The printer jams and you’re ready to throw it through the window. Due to the accumulated frustrations, an insignificant problem (the printer) has been blown up out of proportion. It takes on monumental importance, when it actually may simply take a couple of minutes to fix.
When your mental reserves are completely used up and you’re in survival mode, stress monopolizes resources in the brain. It’s like a huge program that consumes all the available memory in a computer. There’s nothing left over to make rational decisions.
Being stressed and in overwhelm means that you can’t think straight, be creative, resourceful, or plan effectively. You’re reacting from your past experience and conditioning and can’t choose a different response.
Read part 2 of Stop Multitasking to Reduce Stress.
Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved
Anger can be a positive force for good in your life. When you are able to stay conscious enough to recognize anger is a signal, you can rationally decide how to address the issue. Here are 5 questions you can ask yourself so that something constructive can develop from the situation. For explanations of these questions, watch the video.
1. Are they a frequent offender who isn’t valuing you?
2. Do you want to cut the ties with this person?
3. Did they step over an important line for you or were they aware of it?
4. Were you somehow culpable in precipitating the offense?
5. Was it a misunderstanding? Did you filter what they did through a sensitive area of your own?
Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved.
Television, ipods, and Internet all take up our attention. Texting, email, and cell phones keep us connected to each other all the time. All the noise, contacts and distractions fill up our consciousness to make a never ending din that prevents us from having any privacy or quiet time.
It takes time and energy to stay current with all our social networks. Unfortunately, it also keeps us from turning inward and listening to our inner selves. With this much social interaction, there’s little mental space left to be introspective, creative or productive.
Businesses and schools encourage group interaction to learn and create. But creativity blooms in solitude and quiet. “An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude,” says Julia Cameron, author of “The Artist’s Way.”
In “The Artist’s Way,” a 12 week course for blocked creatives, there is one week where the reader cannot read anything or watch television. This assignment allows the mind to fill the well of creativity. If the mind is drunk on others’ creativity, it gets lazy or overwhelmed. Details drug the mind and it won’t have enough resources to hear the still small voice of the inner self.
Many companies are now insisting their workers have time away from email, phones and other interuptions. They’re more efficient and able to get more done in less time, because they’re more productive.
Social interaction, teams and groups have a place and a role to play. But if individuals are to be more productive, they need to have some privacy. They need to be alone with their thoughts and their projects to let their mental processes simmer. Once they’ve had time to work, they can surface to bounce ideas off of friends and coworkers.
Too much solitude encourages stagnation. Too much collaberation discourages individual ideas. We need to balance both. And if we want to be able to listen to our inner selves, we need to turn off all the devices that constantly scream for our attention. Instead of our focus being outwardly directed to our social networks, we need to turn it inward and allow the well of our inner life to be filled.
Inspired by:
The Rise Of The New Groupthink
Tame The Email Beast
~ Linda-Ann Stewart
Jeff and I visited the Grand Canyon again. This time, we hiked five of the eight-mile long Rim Trail. We’d already hiked the other three miles of it last November.
In November, there were a few patches of snow on the trail in the shade. That doesn’t sound bad, until you realize that the path is on the edge of the cliff. We were nervous traversing the snow and ice because if we’d slipped it would have been a long way down.
This time, as we hiked on this narrow trail on the edge of a steep drop, I realized it was a good metaphor for keeping your vision on where you want to go. It’s a good thing to be aware of the dangers, so that you can avoid them. But if you focus on them, you’re all too likely to walk right into them.
For instance, we couldn’t look at the beauty of the Canyon and walk at the same time. We had to stop when we wanted to appreciate the view. It was too treacherous to look at the Canyon and keep moving.
When we walked, we had to keep our eyes on the path so we wouldn’t begin to drift towards the drop off, trip on a root, roll our boot on a rock, or lose our balance and fall off the cliff.
The same thing can be said of success. Be aware of the pitfalls so you know what to do to avoid them. Stop and assess them. Plan what to do to deal with them. But when you’re moving, keep your eye on your goal. Focus on it alone. If you don’t, you just may walk right off the cliff.
We’ve all had days where nothing seemed to go right. And the harder we tried to make things better, the worse they got. Unfortunately, by focusing on the negative, it just creates an atmosphere that draws more of it to you. The fear something will go wrong makes sure it will. Here are 3 tips to get out of that frame of mind and back on track.
Copyright 2011 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved