Mindfully Attacking Stress

Man, I'm so blown away by the positive remarks and feedback I received from last week's blog, Living in the Land of And. It was such an encouragement to keep this thing going despite the super-crazy season I'm currently experiencing. I did have a plan of action for this week's post but received a couple of requests to write about stress, so I wanted to honor the request.

Okay, so stress obviously sucks. A lot. Stress, anxiety, and fear are all members of a pretty horrible family. However, they each serve a purpose. "You said whaaat?". Yeah, I get the same reaction from a lot of my clients. Each of our emotions serves a function, a purpose. What leads to unhealthy territory is when the function of those emotions and our environment don't match. More on that in later posts.

For now, we'll stick to the function of stress. Insert cliche dictionary definition in 3....2... According to Webster's Dictionary, the definition of stress is "a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances". I know, quotations and all. It's important that we define stress because a lot of times we identify with emotions that not accurate to how we really feel. Case in point, we might use the word stress to express how we feel when we might actually be feeling anxious, afraid, or insecure. 

So by definition stress is a state of mental or emotional strain and it's usually due to very demanding/crappy circumstances. So if you're in a really busy season right now or are dealing with an unusual load of dookie in your life, you might just be feeling stressed. Your brain and your body are telling you, "you have a lot of shat going on and you need to do something before you get sick or explode". This is Step 1 to dealing with stress; accepting and being aware of the fact that you're stressed and there are reasons and they are probably good reasons. It's also important to note that stress is temporary. The adverse and demanding circumstances will eventually go away. This means we will have to just tackle it head-on instead of wishing it away. 

This is where Step 2 comes in. The best way I've found to deal with stress is practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of bringing your attention to the present moment by using your body and your senses. Being present in the current moment helps alleviate stress because it brings your attention to what you're actually working on and are surrounded by instead of all those adverse or demanding circumstances.

In practice, mindfulness looks like a lot of things, but one of my favorite methods is called 5,4,3,2,1. You take a moment and name 5 things in the room you're currently in 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear right now, 2 things you can currently smell, and 1 thing you can taste in the moment. If this exercise doesn't work for you, Google mindfulness exercises and get ready to become more stressed from of all the material out there. 

Bottom line; find a technique (coloring in mindfulness coloring books, paying attention to your feet as they walk on different surface areas, etc.) or an object (stress ball, Play-Doh, etc.) that helps keep you in the right here and right now. Notice how the stress level falls in the moment. Rinse. And Repeat.