Learn To Cope Without All Of The Stress

If you’re like millions of other Americans, you’re putting a lot of energy into coping, staying on top of things and fighting off the negative vibrations of other people. If you could only learn to manage stress, you’d be free to be more creative, more sensitive to others, and more motivated and eager for a challenge.
Even more important you’d be happier and even healthier. Stress not only gets you feeling down in the dumps, but it also does the same to your body. Stress is a killer. When under stress, your heart rate increases, your adrenaline flows, and your blood pressure soars. Your body’s stress reaction can cause headaches, sleeplessness, chest pains, an inability to concentrate and a variety of psychological problems including anxiety and depression.
Prolonged stress exhausts your body, making it susceptible to illness – anything from colds to ulcers to heart attacks to arthritis. Researchers suspect that stress can even increase the risk of developing cancer.
Stress is a natural reaction, but it’s largely inappropriate in modern times. Man’s early ancestors, when faced with danger, developed the “fight or flight” reaction, in modern times, the reaction often happens automatically even though it’s not needed for physical protection. For instance, if stress hits when you’re faced with psychological conflicts or unpleasant situations, it serves no purpose except to make you miserable.
Most “coping” mechanisms are self-destructive. On a ”bad” day, people will eat more, smoke more, drink more, bite their nails more, swear more.… They become dependent on things that hurt, not help. When things get tough, you must learn to be your own best friend – not your own worst enemy.
You must recognize that the intellectual and emotional arts of the mind react differently to stress. You can use the intellectual part of your mind to recognize stress symptoms rapidly, to be aware of your subconscious reaction, which is invariably uncomfortable. Once you’re aware that something is wrong, either physically or emotionally, ask yourself, “What are the other choices?”
The other choice always is to confront. You must have the courage to confront the problem area or person involved to resolve the problem. If resolution is impossible, you must then decide if your goal is greater than the aggravation – in other words, is the stress something you choose to put up with? If so, you must terminate your negative emotional reaction to it to terminate the stress. That’s why people get divorces, change jobs, stop drinking or move away from their relatives.
You don’t have to let stress ruin your life. You can overcome this modern malady as easily as ACT – be Aware, Confront and Terminate. To ACT is the key.

Tranz Talkz puts positive emotional power in your life.
This week:
1. Practice awareness: Recognize when you are reacting to something with stress, either physically or mentally.
2. Practice choosing: Analyze choices to prevent stress.
3. Practice confrontation: Take the responsibility for change.