Many of the people I coach have been living with stress for so long (chronic stress) that they’ve become used to the effects. They’ve forgotten how much better their life was prior to stress. For many people it takes some kind of wake-up call, like a relationship break-up, the loss of a job or a physical illness to make them aware that something is wrong.

In my work I encourage people to take a proactive approach to managing stress and preventing the suffering caused by chronic stress. Prevention is the best long term solution.

To be in a position to proactively manage stress and prevent the onset of chronic stress you need to:

  1. Develop an awareness of the current state of your mind body.
  2. Learn to recognize the early warning signs that indicate that you are experiencing stress.
  3. Respond to those early warning signs by taking proactive action.

Here are three examples of proactive stress management action you can take, starting today:

  • the 7/11 breathing technique. With daily practice this diaphragmatic breathing technique will soon become a habit and will become your default response once you recognize your stress warning signs.
  • Mindfulness is another highly effective strategy to improve well-being and performance. Regular practice will help reduce stress, boost your immune system, and improve your concentration and attention, among other benefits. To begin building mindfulness into your everyday life, here’s a simply ten minute mindfulness exercise.
  • Reframing. ‘Reframing’ involves putting another perspective around something. As I’ve written many times before, it’s not the event that results in us experiencing stress, rather it’s our perception/appraisal of an event as a threat to our physical and/or emotional well-being. Having the ability to reframe our perceptions enables us to explore whether an event is actually a threat – perhaps it’s a challenge, or an opportunity or something neutral. Here’s a link to a simple tool that will help you to practice reframing (click here) and help you develop your ability to be more flexible in your thinking.. The tool is not perfect, but I think you’ll find it useful.

I recommend you don’t wait for stress to give you a wake-up call.

Be PROACTIVE!

Take action, and begin developing the life skills that will enable you to control and reduce your stress level. Just imagine how good it will be to once again enjoy a life free of chronic stress.

What Next?

Helping people to reduce stress and gain control over their stress level is my passion. If you'd like to explore how I can help you or your employees to become calmer, more productive and healthier, let's have a chat. Contact me now on 021 056 8389 or email me at tony@tycoaching.nz

 

Until next week,

Go well
Tony

Tony helps individuals to harness the power of their mind to achieve success and well-being in life, work and business. Tony's particular area of expertise is in helping people perform under pressure and gain freedom from worry, anxiety and stress. Tony’s solution focused approach to coaching uses a range of techniques drawn from the fields of co-active coaching, hypnosis, positive psychology and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

Contact Tony today to discuss how he can help you, or if you think Tony could help someone you know, you might like to encourage them to get in touch with him.

 

 

 

Tony Yuile
Tony Yuile