We live in the age of constant motion. Constantly, either our bodies are moving, or our minds.
We are:
- Constantly worrying about something,
- Constantly trying to come up with a new hustle,
- Constantly enraging looking at that politically incorrect blog,
- Constantly critiquing things we don’t agree with.........
You see where I am going with this. In this constant age of information, we have many things to engage with. And most of the time, our engagement isn’t healthy.
As a result, the only thing constant in our lives is stress. And we don’t even realize it. We have become so enamoured with what goes on around us that we aren’t looking inside. We don’t give to licks of squat about our own feelings. The longer we ignore them, the longer they burn us from the inside.
And you know what happens when you feel like you are burnt from inside – you lose your will to move forward. That’s why; most of my blogs have been so focused with dealing with depression and other things.
But still, what if we attack the root of the issue? What if we attack stress? After watching so many MindValley videos myself because of the stress I’ve imposed on my life, I decided to write something that’ll help us both.
Secrets of a stress-free life
The secrets of leading a stress-free is this: there is no secret. Yeah, you are right. I just pulled off a Kung Fu Panda lesson for this blog. It’s all about you.
Your stress happens to your brain. Your brain acts upon your commands. Your commands are often a reaction to what you see, feel, hear, perceive. Control your actions and you’ll control your stress.
Keep this mind as I talk to you about the seven “secrets” of leading a stress-free life.
- Look for positive in every situation: Many of you might feel that this statement is too sanctimonious, monotone and even cliché. The truth is – IT IS! However, just like any cliché, it works.
It’s difficult to feel positive when you’ve failed in an exam, got rejected in an interview, or rejected from a relationship. But you don’t have to feel it; you only have to look for it. Alter your perception. Promise yourself that you’ll be better next time. Be optimistic that there are better things coming up. Motivating yourself through the thick and thin of every situation and your mind will start to unload.
- Embrace your creative side: We are all creative in some shape or form. Some of us know how to dance. Some of us know how to sing and some of us know how to showcase our writing an audience (shameless plug alert). However, all of us have to put in a fair bit of thinking in doing what we do.
What do you do when you stress? You think, mostly with a train of thought that goes in a circular platform. There is exit. Creativity gives an exit to that train, that’s why we say Creative outlet: creatively letting the stress out.
- Support, don’t criticize: The very first chapter of Daniel Carnegie’s “How to win friends and influence people” is an eye opener (and the only chapter I’ve read so far). It focuses on how you can win people’s hearts when you act as a friend, rather than a critique. But what’s the relationship with stress? It’s really simple.
Your actions are reactions to what you perceive. If you give a positive response, you’re going to receive a positive one. It’s the primary way to reduce stress in this cynical age, where much of your behaviour depends on how people act towards you.
In a way, you can think of this one as a cynical secret of relieving stress. Oh Daniel! You really knew how messed we’ll all be in your future.
- Go crazy when no one is looking: Its fun being able to talk to your own self. Asking yourself questions. Closing your eyes and taking yourself on an imaginary journey into an imaginary world cooked up by your own imagination. In this world, you have complete control over your behaviour. You can be away from the judgemental and prying eyes and be yourself. And then, you can literally “visualize” the stress away from your mind.
The more you take this imaginary journey, the more you introspect. Introspection then leads to finding out the root of your stress. And when you realize where your stress is coming from, you can “uproot” the reason.
- Detach yourself from your emotions: When you are stressful, your emotions are like tsunami – sweeping you away, thrashing you around, killing your focus. But, it only happens if you are swimming in that emotional-ocean. That’s why, it’s important to detach yourself from your emotions.
When you can detach from your emotions, you can detach from your stress. Then you realize that it’s you who jumped into the tsunami on your own accord. Regaining control of your actions means being a spectator of your emotional self. Take a hard look at this self. Why is he/she feeling like that? What’s the cause? How he/she is reacting to the source of stress?
The more you are able to answer these questions, the deeper you’ll be able look into your emotions and the better you’ll get at handling stress. How to look at your emotional self? Well, the 6th point is based on that.
- Remove trash from your mind: Meditation is an ancient art bestowed upon us by our ancestors. But, we have forgotten all about it. Why? Because unlike them, we don’t have time to sit around and think about whatever the hell we are inside – the greatest argument from a procrastinator.
What I’ve realized from my day as a fulltime professional is this: we always have time, but not for things that are good for us. We have time to get into political arguments. We have time to critique a movie. Hell, we even have time to make a joke about Sharma Ji ka beta but when it comes to stilling our minds, we don’t.
Just know this, all your arguments and your input about vain topics are worth nothing, to anyone. And they shouldn’t be worth anything to you either. Remove these vain things (trash) from your mind. Allow it to focus on actual purpose. It will help you look at your emotional self.
- Do one thing at a time: Everyone aspires to be a multitasking ninja. And yes, it’s amazing. What you don’t realize however, is that being stress-free is the requirement to be one. Therefore, it’s better to slow down and breath when you are feeling overloaded.
Focus on one thing at a time will give you purpose, and you’ll forget what you were stressing about.
What’s the common denominator in all the points above? They all depend upon your actions. Take the right ones and see your stress float away. Take the wrong one, and the stress will become physical.
0 comments:
Post a Comment