Donna Marie Consulting
“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” -Unknown
Research in Positive psychology suggests that a cluttered life makes us feel restless, frustrated, and stressed out. Finding it is difficult to focus and to be productive. In an environment that is filled with clutter signals our brains that our work is never done.
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We all know how overwhelmed we can feel when we have too many thoughts bouncing around in our heads. Your grocery list, work to-do’s, people to call back, birthday gifts to buy…the list goes on and on. When all these thoughts start to pile up it’s hard to feel positive about yourself and your life and your brain may turn to irrational or negative thinking. While it is easy to slip into this kind of thinking, it’s important to recognize when this is happening and turn your thoughts into what they should be; encouraging, loving, and positive towards yourself and your life.
Our minds and bodies are talking to us all the time; they tell us when we are stressed, or upset, or unhappy with a situation. By listening to our body’s reactions to a situation we can control how we react to it, the problem is, most of us don’t listen. But, it is possible, through a technique called Mindfulness to be more aware of our bodies and our feelings throughout the day and therefore control the thoughts and actions that lead to stress.
Stressful situations arise all the time and most people assume it is a particular event causing us to feel stressed while in fact it is because we feel we have no control over the situation. These situations and our reactions to them occur so often they have basically become habit. We don’t realize we are tensing our shoulders or grinding our teeth until our bodies become too pained to ignore. Our reactions to stress become as out of control as the situation.
One thing we can have control over is our thoughts. So, to avoid habitual stress, and to become more in control of our thoughts, feelings, and reactions, we must begin to practice mindfulness throughout the day. Being mindful simply requires taking some time to become aware of what is going on around us at any given moment. Not trying to change or control a situation, but simply concentrating on what is happening and the feelings or thoughts you are experiencing.
Being mindful, without trying to control or change, can take some practice. Try this; if you are feeling particularly stressed or out of sorts, stop what you are doing and focus on your thoughts; what were you thinking about that caused you to feel like this? Take a moment to clear your head and concentrate on the here and now, not the future or what needs to be done.
Practice this habit throughout your day. Before you go into a meeting take a few deep breaths and don’t focus on anything else except those breaths. While sitting at your desk, focus on the task at hand instead of what you need to do later. Use all five senses to be totally aware of the present moment and what your thoughts are doing to your body. Once you are aware of your thoughts, you can begin to control them. Using this control you can change how you perceive a situation and what it does to your body.
Don’t let stress control you and your body; take back that control by simply being mindful.
We know we can feel sad or upset when we are stressed, but did you know that being sad or upset may be making you more stressed? In turn, being stressed can weaken our immune system and increase our chances of disease. Anger, anxiety and sadness can all trigger our stress response and wear down our bodies.
Luckily the damage done by stress and anxiety can be undone by the ongoing practice of changing our state of mind.
Positive Psychology has found several emotional states that can contribute to greater emotional resilience, health and fulfillment. Just like we need to work to make our bodies stronger, there are ways to work to keep our minds and emotions stronger; to focus on positive feelings instead of our daily stresses, which can often consume us.
By taking time when we are stressed to focus on ourselves and channel our emotions, we can learn to calm our stress levels. Once we learn to get ourselves into these states of positive thought regularly, our stress levels can be lowered, our overall outlook changed and our health improved.