To Reduce Stress, Just Change the Way You Think

September 2, 2006 by Vishal | 1 Comment

Life can be defined as a series of events that take place in and around you. You feel that some of these events are positive and some negative. You probably feel that the negative events cause you stress and tension and are the cause of the stress related health problems that you are having.

In fact that is not the case. Any event in itself is not negative or positive but thinking makes it so. If you separate your thoughts from these events then the event per se is not negative or positive. It is just neutral. It is the judgments that we make about the event that create a feeling of negativism or positivity in us. We know that different people viewing the same event react to a particular event uniquely in totally different manner.

Realize that time moves only in one direction and is a perishable resource that you have. Time gone past cannot be gained back. Since you cannot do anything about an event or a consequence that has already taken place there is no point thinking about it and assigning negative thoughts to it. Being judgmental shall not change the event that has taken place. However, you do have the power change things in the future and you can ensure that by thinking positively, you take positive action going forward.

Most of the stress that we undergo is self-inflicted and if only we knew how to control our minds, we would be able to reduce stress to a large extent. If you continue the habit of thinking negatively about certain events, you will continue to create scenarios which cause more stress. Reacting to events whether it is mentally or emotionally is something that you need to avoid at all costs. With life full of instances which can cause tension and stress it is likely that the more you work, the more you have tasks to complete and people to meet and therefore the potential stress causing events will also be high.

Try not to pass value judgments about anything whether it is people, event, places or scenarios. You do not have to have an opinion about everything. Life can be accepted as it comes without bothering about value judgments. We should not think whether a particular thing is bad or good, right or wrong, fair or unfair and give it any adjective for that matter. When you think of things negatively, you automatically start producing stress related feelings which lead to lower efficiencies and increases the probability of negativism.

Posted in Stress Management