(Hilary Valdez)
Regardless of one’s professional or social status or academic achievement in life, all humans have stress. Transforming your thought patterns and behaviors is essential for effective stress management. By reevaluating your beliefs and attitudes, you can challenge unhelpful ways of thinking and adopt a more constructive mindset. This process involves putting yourself in a receptive mode, focusing on the bigger picture and actively working on your mental resilience.
As we know, defensive behavior leads to resisting change. Stress management involves recognizing, accepting, and processing our emotions. Suppressing or ignoring negative feelings can worsen stress and lead to increased psychological issues. Allowing yourself to experience and express your emotions in a “healthy” manner, you can prevent the accumulation of stress and promote emotional healing. This take practice.
Gulping down emotions, doesn’t work. Our inner emotions always find ways to be expressed. When irrational or impulsive acts begin, destruction starts. When you are out of control and driving like a maniac, and your beast voice overtakes your rational voice, you’re out of control. Our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected, each affecting the other. Negative stuff in- Negative stuff out. By examining your perceptions, your pattern of thinking and assumptions about what you are seeing, you can identify irrational thought patterns and replace them with more rational thoughts, this can help with becoming positive. Just don’t give yourself bad feedback.
People process information and communicate differently. The wait-think-respond approach is critical for effective conflict resolution and stress management. Turn the corner on adversity. If you feel threatened, you’ll react that way. If you are defensive, you’ll react defensively. Be cordial. Be patient. Sweeten up. By adapting your communication style to meet the needs of others, you can promote understanding, build trust, and reduce stress in your relationships. This can be difficult since people are at different levels of functioning. But you need to stay in control of yourself.
Effectively managing stress is an essential component to enhance emotional well-being and personal growth. Stress can manifest in various forms and intensities, ranging from normal emotional stress to crisis-related and critical stress. Be aware of your level of stress. Normal emotional stress, is loss of interest, feeling overwhelmed, irritable; crisis related stress is anxiety and panic, anger, helplessness, self-medicating; critical stress includes apathy, panic states, rage, suicidal thoughts. By differentiating between stress levels, you can better gauge the severity of your stress and use appropriate responses to address it. Pick your appropriate intervention. Don’t stay stuck.
Your foreground is connected to your background. Look at how you were raised. By developing self-awareness, leveraging your intuition, and embracing a positive approach to life’s challenges, you can manage stress and improve a more balanced, fulfilling existence. It all begins by trusting your inner wisdom which is your instinctual reactions or gut feelings which often hold insights into your emotional state. By paying attention to these subtle cues, you can better understand your needs, root causes of your stress. Cultivating trust in your inner voice lays the groundwork for effective stress management ... your karma is at work.
Practicing oppositional thinking and exploring alternate outlooks can help challenge your assumptions and change your attitude and life experiences. By considering another viewpoint, you can develop a more balanced outlook and overcome the rigidity that often adds to stress. When you share your feelings there is an inner release of good faith. Acknowledging your emotions and finding healthy ways to express them is crucial for managing stress and maintaining emotional balance.
Strengthening your psychological “muscles” requires consistent practice and a focus on progress rather than perfection. Developing emotional intelligence enables you to navigate life’s difficulties with greater self-awareness, empathy, and resilience. By managing your emotional reactions, you can respond to stress more effectively. It comes down to learning stress resolution skills which is a multifaceted approach prioritizing self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and adaptability: pay attention to your inner wisdom.
Lack of understanding human nature causes conflicts and disagreements. Perception of the person determines the level of stress. Don’t wait until communication shuts down and you start breaking the furniture.
Understanding your behavior and life goals involves gaining insight into your unmet or unsatisfied needs. Developing a supportive network of friends, and family, is helpful for managing stress. And don’t feel shy to seek guidance from a mental health professional.
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Hilary Valdez is a freelancer living in Tokyo, Japan. He is an experienced Mental Health professional and Resiliency Trainer. Valdez is a former Marine and has worked with the military most of his career and most recently worked at Camp Zama as a Master Resiliency Trainer. Valdez now has a private practice and publishes books on social and psychological issues. His books are available on Amazon and for Kindle. Learn more about Valdez and contact him at his website or email. Follow his YouTube channel Hilary’s Quick Talk for more insights.
