Stress inducers
As the world changes it seems that many of our stress issues are placed on ourselves, and by ourselves. Consider how different the modern life of telecommuting is from the world of the ancient hunger-gatherer. It would seem more reasonable to ask if there is any similarity at all. And yet, this physical body that we have was actually designed to get us through a day of searching through desert lands or a trekking through a forest, not sitting at a desk for most of the time. Your body was designed and wired to jump into high gear without asking your permission. This design has served us very well for thousands of years. However, society has changed so much and so fast that our bodies are not matching the current lifestyle that we place ourselves under. That fact is at the very heart of stress prevention.
Do you know what factors in your daily life contribute to your physical tendency to be stressed?  How can you change your life to minimize those factors and in doing so put a damper on your stress? Knowing the answer to these questions below may help move you closer to understanding the forces that increase your stress. Please consider the following issues:
1. Are you judging yourself too harshly because you think that other people are judging you?
2. Have you set goals that serve you personally, what you want out of life, and not what expectations and goals that other people have wishes for you to move into?
3. Do you have a habit of taking on more than you can handle and then have a tendency to feel like a failure when you can’t carry the burden?
4. Do you find yourself hypercritical of your family, thinking that the rest of the world is judging them on you, and finding you unacceptable?
5. Do you feel responsible for the happiness of other people around you but do not seem to receive their concern for your happiness?
Concern over how other people see and perceive us is a great inducer of stress. You may launch into negative self-talk and programming, which increases your anxiety levels, sucks your energy dry, and reduces performance on many levels in your life. When you find yourself stressing over how you “think†you appear to others, or how you sound, or how you come across, etc. then catch yourself and tell yourself to stop.
It is at this time when your family can be on of your most valuable stress-management assets. If you’ve cultivated the trust and communication that are the hallmarks of a strong family, you can sit down with them and talk about your fears and insecurities which will help diminish the size of your stress.