When things seem completely overwhelming like what we are experiencing with the global COVID-19 pandemic, we can feel powerless, fearful, and stuck. Yet research shows that 20 percent of stress is what happens to us; 80 percent is how we deal with it. How can we work with stress and improve our outlook on life in these trying times?
Through mindfulness practices we can step back and examine the bigger picture.
6 Ways to Address your Stress
1. Express what’s going on
Expressing what you’re feeling releases tension. Find creative outlets, such as writing or drawing, to move that stressful energy. Also by sharing your views and concerns with those you can count on is also important. If you are self-isolating it is important to reach out if you are feeling lonely or scared. Social media can also play an important role in providing support. However, we need to be mindful that social media can also fuel anxiety. So limit your time to positive statements and communications. Leave if you see the conversation getting too negative.
2. Stay in the moment
Worrying about the future causes stress. Notice what’s going on right now, at this very moment, not what your mind is telling you.
To live in the moment, or now , means being conscious, aware and in the present with all of your senses.
When we concentrate our attention on the present we focus on the task at hand. We give our full attention to what we are doing and we let go of outcomes. Living in the moment means letting go of the past and trusting in the future. When we are positive and optimistic in the present, we open the possibility of a positive and promising future. We owe it to ourselves to make every moment count – now!
3. Observe and breathe your stress away
Pause, breathe, and notice your thoughts and sensations. Allow your feelings to be present.
How Can You Improve The Way You Breathe?
You can improve your breathing by practising breathing for five counts in and five counts out. This has huge benefits for the mind and body, as it better oxygenates them. You can also pay closer attention to how you are breathing naturally whenever you feel a certain emotion, be it joy, sadness, anxiety, bliss, etc. Notice that when you are holding your breath for too long a period or taking short, shallow breaths, you are not feeling your best. Notice your natural pattern of breathing when you are experiencing bliss. When you notice that you are feeling anxious or sad, you can change your state by making yourself breathe in the same way as you do when you are in a state of bliss.
You can learn to see breathing as a behavior that either serves you or doesn’t serve you, and you can begin to choose to breathe in a way that serves. With practice this will become a habit or a natural reflex. So whenever you start to feel anxious, your practice breathing pattern will kick in and you will change state.
4. Make a list of your stress
Examine your specific stressors and write them down. Look at them through new perspectives once you’re done listing them. Re-visit them each day and review where you are at with them. Just the act of writing stressors down, often gives rise to a positive counter stress action. It helps you feel like you are more in control.
5. Let go of self-judgment
According to Dr Rondald Alexander; “One of the greatest obstacles to creative transformation and moving deeper into self-acceptance is unwholesome self-judgment, and we all have it. “The mind’s ability to generate such judgments is very powerful, because it’s working off old neural programming that must be rewritten again and again before new, more wholesome thought processes can become habitual. With more wholesome thought patterns in place, crisis becomes less overwhelming, and it’s far easier to let go of resistance, tune in to your passions and inner resources, and move forward with self-confidence.
Becoming more insightful and reflective through mindfulness practice leads to greater awareness of the unwholesome self-judgments produced by your mind. You may be tempted to judge yourself as a bad meditator, or a failure at fixing your low self-esteem, but what you really are is a person making a long and sometimes arduous journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance. Don’t hold yourself to unrealistic standards and expect to quickly transform what are often lifelong thinking habits.
The objective is to stop assigning meaning to these self-judgments, because once you start to give them weight, they begin to weigh you down. Elaborating on these judgments will cause you to feel constricted by your unwholesome thought processes. Your ability to make breakthroughs, weather crises, and begin living more richly and more authentically will increase once you make a conscious decision to let go of unwholesome self-judgments every time you recognize them and move into a space of self-acceptance.”
6. Do something
They say the best antidote to anxiety is action. If you can do something to help someone else then this is going to relieve your own anxiety. Whether it is by reaching out to friends or family in need. Or simply by donating time or money to a charitable concern that really needs it right now. No matter how small or great, any initiative to help others will make you feel better and help build a better world all round.
The bottom line
Stress is all pervasive and can really damage your state of mind and quality of life if you don’t get a handle on it. When we work pro-actively with stress we can improve our outlook on life in these trying times.
Did you know that some essential oils can relieve anxiety? Read more on this interesting subject.
