Stress Solutions

It IS What You Think

I was reminded this week how important our thoughts are. Thinking is the
basis of almost all feeling, and our thoughts are definitely the jumping off
point for building up stress. If we think positive and happy thoughts, we
usually feel happier. Check this scene out, for example. You are motoring
down the highway on a driving vacation; the weather is horrible. You
haven’t been on vacation for a good year and were really looking forward
to a beautiful time. But, it is windy and overcast, raining. Your thoughts get
darker as the frustration of your spoiled hopes roll around in your
thoughts.

Similar scenes are familiar to most of us. In general, people do not
recognize that they begin to feel stressed because of their negative
thoughts. Fear of something bad happening or fear of getting sick is hard
to combat. Getting angry because someone did something that you
disagree with or you are frustrated with a situation can stir up those
feelings and release more cortisol into your system. People can get
trapped in their head with thoughts. The more one stays in their head, the
harder it seems to stop doing it.

Psychologists and other mental health workers see this kind of thing and
related problems all the time. People with high levels of anxiety can reach
a point where they have trouble falling asleep because their minds do not
shut down. The thoughts can become like a dog worrying a bone. Even
people without high levels of anxiety or depression can easily become a
victim of their thinking. And, professionals who spend a lot of time trying to
help other people relax, be less anxious and worried, less depressed, and
so on, fall prey to their less than positive ways of thinking.

Why is it so hard to stop that cycle from negative thoughts to negative
feelings and then the ultimate physiological effects of stress? The first
reason is that most people do not recognize when they are having the
negative thoughts and they certainly fail to understand that they can
change the way they are thinking and therefore feeling. We really are
capable of creating our own reality. And, it all starts with how we think
about what is going on around us.

Once you come to believe you can create your own reality and that you
can master your thoughts by stopping negative thoughts and replacing
them with more positive ones, you become a master over stress.
Learning how to stop and think about more positive things or
reframe your current negative thoughts into more positive ways of
looking at something is the KEY to a longer, happier and more
healthy life.

 

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