Thursday, November 27, 2008

Do something to reduce or use stress

"Although the world is full of suffering...it is also full of overcoming it."-- Helen Keller

Stress is common to every one; however we differ in how we respond to our stressors. When we are under or over aroused we can not performing our task at our best. Peak performance is achieved when we are in a state of optimum arousal. In our every day situation, if we are in control of our thinking, feeling and action we can reduce the stress and increase our performance. We tend to think, feel and act in a consistent ways in accordance with our own beliefs and coping strategies. Most of us habitually react to our life events without much awareness. If we learn to think, feel and act in a helpful, flexible and realistic way we are not only reduce but also can gain something out of our stressful life events.

fig 1. Events, our appraisal and its outcome

fig 2. The link between thinking, feeling, action and its outcome

When a stress event occurs, first we have aware of our thoughts, feeling and actions. Next check it is it helpful to deal with the situation, and then we make a change if necessary. We are all differing in how we perceive, express and manage emotions. We need to understand and regulate our emotions so that they are most appropriate to the task or situation at hand. Different emotions create different information processing vice versa. Coping with our own thoughts and emotions help us to cope better.
chech your thinking, is it
Flexible or Rigid
Realistic or Unrealistic
Helpful or Unhelpful