Difference Makers Transform Stress
Are You in Charge of Your Stress? Or, Is Your Stress in Charge of You?
To be alive is to experience stress. Stress comes at us in a myriad of ways. Some of us become paralyzed by stress, unable to move, and we watch our lives spin out of control. Others, see stress for what it is, a challenge to become more authentically human. It is this way with difference makers. Difference makers enter stress-filled situations, and in their mind’s eye slow it down, discover the challenge, mobilize others to meet it, and press forward. Today, see the stress in your life as a challenge, an opportunity to help others transcend the challenges they face.
Here is a brief excerpt from an online article about transcending stress {you can read the rest here:
“An important step in learning how to adapt to stress is to recognize the situations that create it: poor communication, unfulfilled expectations, retirement, loss of a loved one, job pressures, bad relationships, and dwelling upon past events or imagined future ones. Healthy reactions to stress, then, involve generating positive attitudes and beliefs about your abilities to respond to stressful situations in a positive manner.
Since stress is truly a mind/body phenomenon, part of healthy stress management also involves physiological manipulation through mind/body techniques . . . Regularly practicing any of these methods helps together train the body and mind to adapt healthfully to stress through relaxation and breathing. Grounding, an alternative healing mode, will also shift ANS in a balanced direction.
You have the power, in each given moment, to choose to adapt to stressors in a healthy way. Recognizing that it’s not all in your mind, you can start to minimize stress by refusing to “sweat the small stuff.” Breathing through emotionally stressful situations can also facilitate adaptation, rather than mal-adaption. Attempting to manipulate your nervous system activity through mind/body medicine can also help keep SNS activity at bay. Be sure also to maintain a strong immune system through a Heart Healthy Lifestyle.”
Filed under: Appreciative Inquiry and tagged challenge, challenges, difference makers, healing, heart, mobilize, nervous system, stress
I see stress and fear as related concepts of the power of an individual’s values. When we are scared, we know that we are not only human, but have something of value that we might lose. That something may be as broad as life itself, or something more narrow, such as comfort. Stress manifests in the same way. When we get stressed (a lot of work, little time, a desire to live up to expectations), it shows us that we are human. It shows us that we care enough about people, organizations, and ourselves to lose sleep over it. If people were not scared, never felt stress, guilt, or any one of the plethora of emotions that define human nature, I would say that the individual values nothing enough to be affected by it.
A difference maker is not immune to stress or fear. Rather, the difference maker acknowledges its pressence, but is not consumed by it. Other people may be consumed to the point of being frozen in the face of a challenging situation. Stress and fear offer people an opportunity to overcome. A difference maker recognizes this and pushes forward.
Stress is okay, it happens when we care enough about something. It may be easier to act indifferent, but there is no progress. To paraphrase Frederick Dougals, without struggle, there is no progress. Difference makers are never satisfied with status quo, we need to push the limits of our comfort and our own understanding.
Well said, Erik.
Stress is healthy - it makes us stronger. It’s like lifting weights. Sometimes we need a “spotter.” Most times, we can handle it fine and say thank you for the lessons it teaches us.