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Part 2 of Stress Management: Beyond Self-Awareness



When you are aware of how stress affects your thoughts, emotions and behaviors then you are better positioned to manage it. Stress management is also a journey where you learn to manage your life through self-training. In the process be patient with yourself. Below are a few points to consider as you learn to manage your stress:

1. Thought management: We are all wired to think, therefore thinking is a very normal and an important process in our brains. However a challenge happens when we overthink, over-interpret, generalize and personalize situations. This tendency can negatively affect our emotions and behaviors and it can increase our stress levels. Therefore learning to discern and manage our thoughts is important in stress management. 

Overthinking can be resolved by distracting yourself through engaging in healthy behaviors i.e. writing down your thoughts for a few minutes and closing the diary and engaging in something else, with plans to go back to the diary and writing at a later stage. This way trains your brain to compartmentalize and it lessens preoccupation with thoughts. 

A useful practice in managing personalizing and generalizing is to always ask yourself if there is another way of thinking about the situation. You can even challenge yourself to find an alternative and a positive thought or interpretation of the situation. This is a starting point in learning positive thinking. Remember positive thinking is also a journey that involves training and  practice. 

2. Emotional Management: Our emotions can be accessed and managed through our thoughts and behaviors. Our mind is a very powerful resource in this process. Now as you read this, pause, take a few minutes and think about a situation that happened in your life that really made/makes you feel happy and excited. Try and be detailed in your thoughts i.e. when, where and what was happening?How were you feeling and thinking at that time. 

After this exercise notice how you are feeling NOW or even as you were doing the exercise. This exercise indicates that we can access emotions that we want through our thoughts. You can do the same exercise and think about what makes you feel relaxed and spend time thinking about that and notice the impact on your emotions NOW. 

3. Behavioral Management: Engage in healthy behaviors that elicit positive and encouraging emotions. There is a wide range and different strokes for different people. For example I feel good after exercise, I feel good when I sit in the sun for 5 minutes and I feel good after washing my hair. Other people find prayer and music helpful for them. Try and be consistent in engaging in those healthy behaviors. 

4. Problem-solve: Some of the stressful situations that we encounter require us to think and find alternative ways of dealing with the challenges that we face. It may also be useful to seek help and advice from trusted people and friends. This may help you in deciding and implementing an appropriate solution to the challenges that you are facing and in the process alleviate your stress levels.


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