When it comes to stress management, you have more control over your stress levels than you may think. That’s because your emotions play a big role in stress management.
Fact: Emotions and Stress Management are Related!
Emotions have many variations: joy, contentment, serenity, frustration, sadness, sorrow, guilt, etc. If you break them down into their simplest elements, there are only two important categories; one sends positive messages and the other sends negative messages. To practice stress management, you need to be aware when your emotions are sending negative messages and transform them into positive messages.
The question is, how do you do that?
If you are mindful (conscious) of your emotions, you will realize that they are affected by your thoughts, your self-talk, and by reactions prompted by your senses. (For example, HEARING a compliment prompts a good feeling; HEARING criticism prompts a negative one. SEEING someone smile at you prompts a nice feeling; SEEING a sad scene in a film prompts tears.)
It is normal for negative emotions to emerge in difficult situations. For example, a negative emotional reaction to another person’s comments indicates that the other person is prompting (directing) your emotions. In such cases, redirect your thinking so positive emotions will be forthcoming.
The more negative emotions you allow to control you, the more stress you’ll feel. In contrast, the more positive emotions you can focus on, the less stress you will feel. So in a sense, stress management comes down to emotion management. And even though you can’t always control situations, you CAN control your own emotions.
Tip: In any situation where you feel bad, change your thinking because the emotion always follows cognition. This is the easiest way to engage in stress management.
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