Practical Stress Manegement

Stress Mastery: 3 Key Response Choices

And it’s almost always a choice…

In our last episode, you discovered how to know and change your stress numbers. You can still catch that episode here.

Today you’ll discover 3 key response options to stress that will take you from stress management to stress mastery.

The waves at the beach are very much like stress. They are powerful and just keep coming and coming.

Here we go:

Come back with to several years ago when I was “playing surfing” at the beach. I say “playing surfing” because to call me a surfer would be stretching it a bit.

Anyway, I was playing in the waves when it hit m:

The waves at the beach are very much like stress. They are powerful and just keep coming and coming.

It also occurred to me that how we handle the waves are a great metaphor for the options we have for managing and mastering stress. When we are in the waves, we can let them knock us down, we can survive them, or we can ride them and make them work for us.

Key Response Option 1: Let stress knock you down

I call letting stress knock you down taking the “dead roach approach.” You know, flat on your back, legs wiggling in the air. It’s a good metaphor for doing nothing.

When we take the dead roach approach we think and say things like

“Why does this always happen to me?”

and

“This is so unfair!”

and

“I’ll never be able to handle this”

and other equally empowering things.

“Alright, I get to go survive today!”

Key Response Option 2: Surviving stress

I call this one get by, get through, get it over with.

At this point we wonder things like:

“How can I get through this with the least amount of effort and damage.”

While survival is clearly a better option than getting knocked down, it does leave something to be desired, don’t you think?

How much would you enjoy waking up tomorrow morning and thinking,

“Alright, I get to go survive today!”

Key Response Option 3: Making stress work for you

One of the coolest things we can do with a wave is to ride it and make it work for us.

A great question to ask at this point is:

“In how many ways can I make this work for me?”

Try this one on. You’ll be surprised by how many options and possibilities open up to you.