In today’s modern life stress is pretty much unavoidable, but you wont have to let it get you down. Many things from money and family drama to larger concerns like politics can lead to our underlying stress levels. With some thoughtful steps you can keep stress from ruling your life and instead use the energy to help you be more of the person you want to be.
Like anything else at life, the best to get better at dealing with stress is to practice it, it might sound funny but scientists call this “stress inoculation”. Just like when you get a flu shot that exposes your system to a possible sickness and your body learns to overcome it. Regular exposure to small amounts of stress can inoculate you from the most serious effects of stress when you suffer a large stressful event in your life.
Educate Yourself – You and your body need to learn what to expect. If you have a stressful event coming up in your life such as divorce, chemotherapy or a setback at work you should talk to people who have been through it and learn what to expect going forward. The more information you have the less likely you are to be blindsided by stressors.
Practice Makes Perfect – You may not be able to rehearse life’s biggest moments but you can introduce things to your life that provide healthy stress in a good way. Things that might provide healthy stress might be training or competing in a marathon, planning and hiking a mountain or something intellectual like a poetry or short story reading or giving a public speech. Every person has different thing that provide stress, find things that interest you and take you outside of your comfort zone.
If you make sure to make choices that allow you to practice stress when a stressful event happens in your like you are prepared! You know what to expect, you have experienced stress before and you can get through this. Just remember, you got this!
