How to deal with stress



    In the past I was afraid of dogs. I remember well the state, as thoughts concentrate only on the dog, I want to run away, it becomes difficult to breathe, and the whole body becomes tense. I did not like this state, and when it arose, I wanted to get rid of it. Of course it was stressful. In this article I will describe how to deal with stress, but for a start, we define what it is.

    What is stress


    Stress is not just some bad feelings. This is a special condition of the body, created by nature, to prepare a person for a fight or flight in any dangerous situation. The heart beats stronger to feed the brain and muscles, attention focuses on danger, and everything that is not needed at the moment, such as digestion, stops. In the primitive world, it helped in a dangerous situation, but in our time such a reaction only harms. For example, stress is unlikely to help at the job interview.

    Stress has another invisible but destructive property. If he repeats often, then he starts killing the person. Nervous person does not sleep well, swears at others without a reason. His blood pressure is constantly high, and his digestion is not working well.

    All this leads to many sad consequences. Such as depression, hypertension and gastric ulcer. Over time, a person gets used to such a life and perceives it all as something completely normal, but this, of course, is not normal.

    Why does he appear


    The cause of stress is not in external circumstances, even though it often does not seem so. Let's go back to the dog example. I was very afraid of them, but my friends passed by these dogs calmly, and I even felt embarrassed in front of them for such a stupid fear. It is clear that the problem was only in my head, especially since no dog ever attacked me.

    In general, stress arises in situations that cause two feelings:

    1 - a threat to something important for a person
    2 - lack of control over a situation

    This is not an objective assessment of the situation, but feelings that arise in the brain, and methods of dealing with them are based on working with them stress. In a situation with dogs, they were both. I believed that they would bite me and could not control their behavior.

    How to handle it


    1 - Prepare
    Preparations help to increase feelings of control over the situation. For example, in order to feel calmer when meeting dogs, I carried a pepper spray with me. It gave the feeling that I could protect myself, and that made it calmer. Planning and preparation is a good tool, but firstly, not everything can be prepared for, and secondly, it requires effort for every situation, so it will not always work.

    2 - Understand that there is no threat
    Sometimes there is no threat, and we only imagine it. In my case, I was afraid of dogs, but usually there was no danger. Often they did not pay attention to me at all. Sometimes you only need to sort out a little to understand that there is no danger, but sometimes the situation is much deeper. A person can understand all the absurdity of his fear, but still be afraid. Such fears come from the depths of the subconscious, and to solve them you need to painstakingly understand what therapists are doing. This can be very effective, but long and difficult, and, moreover, if the danger is quite real, then this method does not work. For example, if a bag with all the documents is stolen from a person in a foreign country, then this way of dealing with stress will obviously not work.

    3 - Stop Wishing
    We love when there is a lot of money and all sorts of amenities and are afraid of losing it all, but in fact, most of them can be easily dispensed with. You can not fly on vacation, you can quarrel with a friend, and things will still be nice to go. You can live in peace only with a roof over your head and a simple meal. It is not too comfortable, but quite bearable. Moreover, since the emergence of humanity until recently, almost everyone lived like this, and quite a few people now. If you do not want something, you will never be stressed out. It is desires that generate suffering, and in order to get rid of suffering, you need to get rid of desires. It is clear that this is easy to say, but difficult to do, especially when experiences are rolling. But this is a big and complex topic for a separate article.

    Once again, the rules:

    1 - prepare
    2 - understand that there is no threat
    3 - stop wanting

    Also popular now: