Stress Survival Tactics
I came across a transcript by a journalist who interviewed me for a national newspaper a while back. I thought you might benefit from some of these ideas and tips as well.
Tips on Avoiding and Preventing Stress
1. In your opinion, is stress an unavoidable consequence of life?
DARREN HARDY: Stress is a part of life. Life requires stress. As a muscle needs resistance to grow stronger, so do we. Many times, stress awakens our greater potential and makes us rise to the performance we were capable of all along, but we needed the challenge.
2. Why do some people seem to stress out more than others? Do some people just naturally tolerate stressors more easily than others?
DH: Ultimately, stress is a mental illusion, an interpretation and a perception. What is stressful to one person is blissful to another. Heights might be stressful for one person, while free-falling out of an airplane is sheer bliss for another. Public speaking might completely debilitate one person but be the most empowering activity for another. Losing $100,000 in the stock market might be less stressful for one person than having a bad hair day is for another. Stress is a mental perception, chosen by the perceiver.
3. Please give some of your favorite tips for managing existing stress (assuming the stressors can’t be prevented).
• DH: Don’t major in minors. Ask yourself, In 20 years, will this matter? Will I even remember this? If not, it is minor and you shouldn’t fret. Do you remember what you were stressed out about on Oct. 21, 1988? My point exactly.
• This too shall pass. There are ebbs and flows to life; some call them seasons. Spring follows winter. How regularly? Every time. Keep your mind on the spring that is coming as you move through the winter.
• What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. This is the way of growth. The great trials of our lives awaken the greater potential inside of us. Welcome stress and difficulty, as they may be the alarm clock that awakens the greatness that lies sleeping inside.
• “At least I don’t live in Bosnia.” I remember feeling stressed and sorry for myself one time in the past. I turned on the TV and saw images of the way people lived and suffered in Bosnia. I felt pretty guilty about my pitiful “stresses.” Now every time I think I have it bad or am feeling stressed I say, “Well, at least I don’t live in Bosnia—so, this isn’t so bad after all.”
If that doesn’t do it, read Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. He depicts the level of stress the human condition can handle; yours is probably minor in comparison. Now I say, “Thank God I am not Gary Boyd.” Click here to read why.
• Get over yourself! You are not the only one to experience stress, difficulty, frustration and pain. What happens to you happens to all of us. There is no conspiracy against you. We all experience hurt, disappointment, heartache, loss, failure, sadness, misfortune, setback, defeat, distress, despondency, despair… or whatever else is causing you stress.
Something I learned from Jim Rohn goes like this: It is not what happens to you that makes the difference in how your life works out. What happens to you happens to all of us. It’s how you respond to what happens to you that determines the major outcome of your life.
4. What are your ideas for building resilience against stress or preventing it?
5 Tips to Radically Reduce Stress
1. Compartmentalize. The problem for most people is they are worried about everything all at once, all the time. I break what I’m concerned about into time chunks. If I have an important presentation on Tuesday, I schedule time to begin thinking about it on Monday at noon. This way I don’t “stress” about it all weekend long.
2. Say no. Nancy (Reagan, that is) was right: Just say, “NO!” Today we have more time-saving technologies to make our lives more convenient, yet we are the busiest (and most stressed-out) society in history! Studies show that life for families a hundred years ago was a lot less stressful, when we didn’t have 90 percent of the so-called conveniences we have today. Yes, today we get more stuff done and we collect more things in our garages, closets and attics, but we are not any happier. We are over-obligated and over-scheduled. Take back control of your life by learning to say “NO!”… or at least, “No thank you.”
3. Feel it… really feel it. Most everyone spends the majority of their time trying to avoid painful emotions. Here is the irony of that: What you try to avoid expands in its power. Or put another way, what you resist, persists. “Whatever you avoid will come back. The more you avoid, the stronger it will return.” –Deepak Chopra
4. End the love affair. You love the pain of your emotions. How do we know? You keep creating them. You are a creative being. There is nothing in your life you have not created. You are the cause of every effect you are experiencing right now. Frightening, but true. You have either attracted the circumstances that have caused you pain or you have just decided to CALL them painful. Nothing is painful in and of itself. Pain is a result of your thoughts about it. What one calls painful another calls enjoyable. Pain results from a judgment you have made about something. Remove the judgment and the pain disappears. You could decide to have what you call painful to be joyful if you wanted, simply by deciding it to be. You could also stop attracting circumstances in your life that cause you pain, but you don’t. Why? Because you love the feeling!
5. MOVE! Perform an exercism. That’s right. Exercise the stress out of you. You know the mind-body connection to your health! Just as a cut on your finger will aggravate your mental concentration, so will collecting mental battle wounds and pressures all day drag your body down. You store your mental stress in your body. The only way to get the stress out of your mind is to get it out of your body. Not only does exercise keep you looking good in that skimpy swimsuit – and from dropping dead of coronary artery disease – but it also is the key to maintaining your energy, and to staying in psychological and mental balance.
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