Natural stress relief, without drugs, and to be effective in the long run, requires the learning of a simple process. Once learned this process can be applied to almost any every day life situation.
The first step is BECOMING AWARE. In any moment you are feeling stress you need to ask yourself “What’s happening now?” and without self judgment, simply describe to yourself what is actually happening. For example your self conversation might go something like this – “I’m feeling tense, I feel a throb in my stomach, I don’t like what is happening, and I’m annoyed at having to do this extra job that someone forgot”.
The second part of the natural stress relief process is to ACCEPT whatever is happening. This is easier said than done. There is a whole chapter on it in my book.
Basically though it involves mostly not getting on your own case or getting even more anxious about what you are noticing. Part of natural stress relief, involves accepting that stress is indeed natural. We all experience from time to time. We might respond differently to it than others we observe but stress is still a natural thing and part of life for most. In order to change it, we first must accept it.
The final step in this process is MAKING CHANGES or ADJUSTMENTS. Once we are aware, we have choice. We can now choose what to do when we are in this kind of experience. One possibility from the example above in a natural approach to stress relief, might be to say “OK.. so I’ve got a throb in my gut and I feel annoyed. So what? Maybe I’ll just stay annoyed a few minutes longer while I do nothing, and then I’ll do what it takes to get this done and laugh about it while I’m doing it”. There is never one right answer. Your have many choices. You need to work out over time which ones work for you.
To help you get started try this Self Awareness Exercise
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