Sooner or later some situation that causes stress happens with any person. It affects not only the emotional state, but even physical health. I want to talk about ways how to overcome stress and how important is positive thinking for a human.
Strategies of Overcoming the Stress
Here are three main strategies of stress management:
• Escaping from the problem
• Changing the problem
• Changing the attitude to the problem
An illustrative example will help us to understand the differences between these strategies. So, imagine the situation: you come to the cinema in order to watch an interesting film. The film has already begun, but some grouchy neighbor appeared next to you. He always comments something, sometimes even to you. This situation is likely to cause irritation.
What to do in this situation? The easiest option is leaving the stress zone. If the cinema is half-empty and in there are some free seats, it would be logical just to seat away from the annoying commentator. But what to do if there are no vacant seats in the cinema or your neighbor saw you as a grateful listener and follows you everywhere? You still have at least two options: to change the problem or to change the attitude towards it.
What you can do is to try to change the behavior of a neighbor by asking him to behave more quietly. If this does not work, you can warn him that you will call the administrator if the neighbor will continue to talk, and so on. The purpose of these actions is to change problem, in this case the behavior of the neighbor.
If all these manipulations do not bring the desired result, you can change your attitude to the problem. After all, the volume of voice of the grumbling neighbor is not so high compared to the level of sound in the modern cinema. And if the film is really interesting, you can turn our attention to what is happening on the screen and ignore the annoying comments.
Stress management strategies are not accidentally listed in this order: escaping, changing the problem, changing the attitude. Escaping from the stressful circumstances is the quickest and the easiest option. But, unfortunately, we are not always able to use this method. There are some problems from which it is quite difficult to escape (for example, associated with the character, with attitude to anything and so on).
Positive Thinking
The most frequent mistakes in relation to a stressful situation are "black-and-white thinking" and excessive pessimism: in this case, a person thinks in terms of "all or nothing" and considers himself as a loser at the slightest mismatch of expectations with reality.
Let’s make the experiment. Over the next two or three minutes, do not think about the green monkey. Do not imagine how it jumps, scratches the head, do not listen to the loud sounds which it makes, do not feel a specific smell that comes from the animal So, you are thinking about the monkey, am I right?
The essence of this paradox lies in the fact that the word “no” we perceive only on the level of consciousness; the subconscious mind which thinks in images just doesn’t accept the word “no”.
The basis of positive thinking is a positive structure of speech. For this purpose it is important to consciously use positive expressions. Instead of saying “I will not forget something” say “I will remember about this”. If before the performance we will repeat to ourselves several times “I will not screw it up”, the possibility of failure will increase dramatically. It is much more correct to repeat the phrase “I will easily cope with it” or any other positive statement.
Globally positive thinking assumes the ability to concentrate on the positive final result and get pleasure from the process, regardless of the current events.
The Role of Optimism and Hope in a Person's Life
The relation of a human to life has fundamental importance in the formation of his personal destiny. Calm and stable optimistic attitude leads to the realization of the most harmonious variants of personal desires.
• As a rule, to be an optimist is much nicer, more convenient and advantageous.
• Optimism strengthens the immune system, improves the health and slows the body's natural aging.
• Optimism improves the mood and promotes the establishment of harmonious relationships with others.
• Optimism fills human life with joyous sense, allowing it to flourish, get diverse material and spiritual benefits, enjoy the life (physically and mentally).
• Optimism gives the opportunity to effectively get rid of anxieties, worries, fears, phobias, depressions, weaknesses and illusions.
• Optimism helps to cope with life difficulties and to gain the experience from each situation.
And hope is an integral component of optimism, so when we talk about an optimistic person, it means that at the first stage he believes and hopes.
Strengths: what is it and how to use them?
At the heart of your strengths lie talents. Moreover, the talent must be understood very broadly: it is not only the ability to sing or create works of art; it's also the ability to communicate with people, to plan, to organize, etc. So, the talent is the ability to do one particular thing better than something else. For example, you write the texts better than paint or dance. If you develop your talents, you can turn them into your strengths. Talent is like a rough diamond, but the strength is the faceted and polished diamond.
If you found your strengths and developed them purposefully, then you will be able to achieve really significant purposes and a real skill. And when you are a master in your field, then you feel the satisfaction of self-realization, you see your financial achievements and you feel the recognition from family, friends and other people.
Masterly ability to use your strengths is to act according to the situation. So you must understand that to the future boss you need to show only your advantages - the ability to learn fast, high qualification and responsibility. But to the person who you love you need to show completely different sides: the ability to cook (if you are a woman), willingness to compromise, etc.
The problem of many people is that they do not understand to whom and when to show their strengths, that’s why they often feel perplexity from others.
Decide which strengths you have
If you have not many of them or all of the advantages describe you, for example, as a good hostess, that means, only from one particular side, then do some work to expand and diversify the list
Demonstrate your strengths unobtrusively. If you are proud of your punctuality, every day be in time. Accuracy can be underlined by the perfect order on the table. If you believe that you have impeccable taste and manners - do not come to work with dirty hair and do not slurp during dinner, etc. Sooner or later, your strengths will be noted by others and they will begin to discuss them.
How Relaxation Techniques Can Improve the Human State?
If you are often under stress, your body's defense system is exhausted, and after a while the body becomes unable to withstand stress and a state of despair, hopelessness or depression appears.
In fact, there are two ways to withstand stress:
• Through your own active work, making positive changes in life
• Through the use of relaxation techniques which can increase the protective functions of the organism
When a person is under stress, in his brain occurs anxiety which passes through three subsequent phases:
• Impulse
• Stress
• Adaptation
Sometime after the onset of stress the tension is reduced and is gradually moved to calmness. If a failure occurs, you may experience a variety of disorders. Therefore it is very important to apply relaxation in stressful situations. It promotes natural relaxation, delays the impulse of stress and relieves it. Relaxation allows regulating the mood of the people and reducing the degree of excitement, and in the body – easing the tension caused by stress.
Any person can master the method of relaxation if there is at least a small desire to independently cope with stress, as well as a bit of patience and perseverance when performing exercises. Also, relaxation exercises should be mastered in advance, before the onset of a stressful situation in order to remove the critical tension.
For people who are involved in sports, a good mean of relaxation is a systematic physical activity. Any physical activity, regardless of whether you're running or just walking, relieves the tension in the body and improves the mood.
In conclusion I want to say that the most important is not to get used to the stress. It is necessary to overcome the stress by all possible methods in order to be healthy and happy person.
