Stress Management

5 steps to a stress free life (part 3)

Step 4 – I gave my inner control to someone else … take it in your hands – stress is commonly caused because we allow another person or situation to control our thoughts, feelings and attitudes. Imagine you were told that in the whole day you will lift your hand or shut your eyelids when someone told you to do so. Would that thought not make you feel uncomfortable? don’t allow someone else or an external situation to move or control your thoughts, which give rise to your feelings and attitudes. Take the control in your hands. What that means is we create our thoughts but don’t let thoughts be negative reactions to actions of others or to event changes around us. People will be negative and situations will not be as I desire at times, but my thoughts should be positive, peaceful and powerful at all times. Stress will disappear when we begin to be our own masters at every moment. So create a stress-free affirmation every morning – I am the ruler and controller of my own thoughts. Today my every single thought will be my own positive creation. I will not allow anyone or any difficult situation to overpower my mind and weaken this creation. I will respond positively, not react negatively. 

Step 5 – stress is normal … it’s high time you challenged this belief – freedom from stress will never take place until you stop accepting that a little bit of stress is good or normal. We are all used to holding on to stress and allowing it to overpower our mind so much that it suffocates us mentally and emotionally. Stress is an unnatural emotion. The reason why we feel it is normal and good because we have been conditioned by the world around us, the information it provides and the lifestyle it has set for us. Problems and challenges are normal in our current lifestyles. But we feel that it is impossible to overcome them by keeping a light mind, which is free from stress. For some, stress thrills, but do remember that in the long run it kills me and the efficiency of the tasks I perform. For some, stress motivates, but at some point of time it also dominates me and people around me to make relationships difficult. For some, stress strengthens, but as you go on, it creates illnesses in the mind and the body which weaken you.