Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Stress requires belief. If traffic is stressful, for example, it’s because you hold a belief that perhaps the traffic is keeping you from where you “should” be. You have to believe it’s a problem for it to be stressful. But what would you have to believe to not be stressed by traffic? You’d have to believe that it’s not a big deal, and that the traffic jam is an opportunity for you to do something positive, like relax, or to listen to an informative podcast.
If you think the situation you’re in is stressful, it might be because you believe it’s bigger, more important, and more dramatic than it actually is. You’ve magnified the situation by over-blowing the proportion. But the equation has a flip side. For example, if the Stock market is low, one person might believe that this particular situation is bad enough to have a stressful response to it. But in the same conditions, another person will believe it’s an opportunity to get rich, to buy stock “on sale,” and so they believe the conditions are ripe for celebration. If one sees a breakup as stressful, another will see it as an opportunity to live freely, alone in peace, or as a means to meet some new people. How exciting is that prospect for the right believer?
If you can change your beliefs, you can reduce your stress. Be careful about the beliefs you hold about your situations. Your beliefs about something may be causing your stress, when just changing them might make the situation less stressful. Question your beliefs, especially the ones that make you feel stressed. When you shed light on the truth, you’ll see that your situations are not your enemy, your beliefs about them are.