Get Rid of Stress by Changing Your Perspective

We live in a very fast paced world compared to a few years back and it seems to be ever increasing. These fast paced changes that are happening in the 21st century contribute immensely to the stress in our lives, our hectic schedules, financial pressures, commuting in traffic.

Do you sometimes feel that you have lost control in some parts of your life and you are being controlled by the activities around you? Stress is an unavoidable part of life. It can come from many things, both physical and psychological and research has shown that up to 50 per cent of all illnesses are caused by stress. Almost all body functions and organs react to stress. If you are feeling stressed, identify the sources of stress in your life. This can be the first most important step in managing stress.

Perhaps you have also noticed how some people live really busy and intense lives but they manage their stress really well, while others seem to be stressed out by the simple act of choosing what to wear to work or what to eat for dinner? Have you ever considered that you could be adding to your own stress by the way you manage it? You may be looking at the situation from the wrong angle.

When you realize that the particular way you cope with stress is not giving you results, consider changing your perspective. Here´s why…. how you think and your perspective about something directly affects your results and how you will deal with it.

Your emotions are simply a physical reaction to your thoughts. Your thoughts come from your beliefs, the way you perceive the world, your perspective. Your thoughts lead you to directly feel something (your emotions), a good thought leads to a good feeling and bad and stressed thoughts lead to stressed feelings. You take action based on your feelings and your actions are the results you experience in life!
Learn to identify the sources of stress in your life and then, how many of the stressful situations can seem less stressful by thinking about it in a different way?

Take these easy steps to change the way you are looking at something:

Steps to changing your perspective:
1. The idea is to look at the situation from a meta-view, ask yourself - what is another way of looking at this? Etc. Come up with a few different perspectives, ask colleagues or friends if you really think their aren´t. Identify and expand on the different ways of looking at this situation.
2. Choice - choose a different perspective
3. Make a list of possible actions you can take now with your new perspective in mind.
4. How committed are you to proactively change the way you look at stressful events? When you prepare to commit to a new way of thinking and acting, you often have to choose between saying yes to your new plans and no to something else.

If the things that are causing you stress in your life are things that you can't change, you need to learn to let go. You cannot combat everything in your life, if you don´t like something, change it, if you can´t change it, change your perspective about it or let it go!