Reclaim your peace. Banish your stress today.
You are subjected to stress every day of your life. And right now, with our country having more division than almost any other time, with more mental illness than anyone can ever remember, and with the news from the various news outlets broadcasting primarily negative news, you had better know how to handle those stresses… because they will touch you one way or other.
I’ve found several strategies that will help you reclaim your peace and banish the stress from taking over your life. Try some of them.
Some of these strategies may seem a bit soft or too touchy-feely for you. They may be outside your comfort zone. But that’s irrelevant. If they work for you like they’ve worked for so many others, they’re worth a try.
► 1. Change your thoughts. Think peace
To a large extent, your stress is controlled by your thoughts. The more you think, “I can’t take much more of this… I’ve had it… or… That’s not fair,” the more stress you’ll have. You’ve got to stop thinking those thoughts.
If you’re feeling too much stress, sit back, close your eyes, and picture the serenity that comes after a storm. Imagine that the turmoil within you has passed. All that remains is stillness. Try this exercise whenever you feel tense, nervous, and upset. You’ll be amazed at the calmness you can create.
► 2. Take time for quietness.
Of course, you may think you’ve got too much to do to stop and be quiet for a few minutes. But you will pay a price if you don’t take time for quietness.
Now I’ll admit this strategy used to scare me. Years ago, I remember going to a spiritual, three-day, silent retreat after going through the most significant losses in my life. I thought I needed to talk to someone about all my troubles, not stay totally quiet. I thought I would go crazy, but what I found was peace and tranquility. I realized that I never took time to just be quiet and let my mind come to rest. It was liberating, to say the least.
Physicist Blaise Pascal learned the same lesson. He said:
“One of the ways in which man brings the most trouble upon himself is by his inability to be still.”
Indeed, that may be one of the causes of our mental illness pandemic, where so many people have to be listening to or watching something all the time on their electronic devices. All quietness has left their lives and they’re getting stressed and sick as a result.
Taking time for quietness during the day enables you to restore your vitality and energy. You’ll begin to understand what is happening when stress enters your life. You’ll think more rationally and your tension will diminish.
If you’re not doing this at present, I’d suggest you start with five or ten minutes a day. Find a private place and just sit there quietly. Don’t try to solve any of your problems. Don’t try to focus on anything. Don’t even focus on thoughts of peace as I suggested above. This is a different exercise with a different purpose. Just experience the calmness of silence and the quietness will work as a pressure releaser.
Another great resource is my recorded webinar on 21 Secrets of Vibrant Work-Life Balance. Check it out by going to https://www.drzimmerman.com/product/21-secrets-for-vibrant-work-life-balance.
► 3. Behave with deliberate patience.
Of course, patience isn’t always easy. It takes practice to master, just like any other skill.
I remember a golfer who had not mastered the skill. He had trouble sinking his ball. The ball just wouldn’t go where he wanted it to go. Finally, after many strokes, he got the ball in the cup. Then with a look of hatred, he took the ball out, placed it on the ground and pounded it into the earth with his club. I don’t know how his game went after that, but I can’t believe that his lack of patience served him very well. If nothing else, he lost the respect of the onlookers, not to mention his own self-respect.
However, you can become patient by deliberately acting that way. The mind-body connection is tremendously powerful. When you start acting more patiently, even if your guts are churning inside and your mind is racing in a thousand directions, you will begin to feel more patient, which will be reflected in more patient behavior.
► 4. Refuse to worry.
There’s a lot of research that says worrying actually increases the chances of bad things happening. If you worry a lot about getting sick, you’ll probably get sick more often. If you worry about getting into a car accident, your uptightness will make you a poorer driver who has more accidents.
The way to refuse worry is to replace it with a counteracting force. Whenever a worry pops into your mind and starts to give you stress, replace the worry with a powerful positive sentence. Your mind can’t have two thoughts at once, and positive thoughts, held long enough, always overcome negative thoughts.
John Evan Jones, a newspaperman, told a story about his experiences in London during the bombings of World War II. He had an aunt who was a strong, resolute, religious woman who lived alone.
After each bombing raid, John would visit his aunt to see if she was all right. He noticed that on the wall she kept a motto which read, “Don’t worry, it may never happen.”
One night it did happen. A bomb fell close to the house knocking out every window and smashing all her fine china. Rushing to look in on her, John found her calmly sweeping up. Still hung on the wall was her motto.
“What will you do with your motto now?” he asked. “Oh my,” she responded. “I forgot to turn it over.” She did, and on the reverse side it said, “We can take it.”
► 5. Picture success.
When you let your stress get the better of you, you tend to picture dark, negative, even catastrophic outcomes. That will only make things worse.
Instead, vividly picture a desired goal or an answer to the problem that is stressing you out. Your picture will give you hope and renewed energy – which in turn reduces your stress.
This was the method used by Henry Royce, the creator of the Rolls Royce automobile. Henry was all stressed out by the fact that he and everyone else were driving cars that were in constant threat of breaking down. So he decided to picture success. He dreamed of the day when people could drive a car without the constant threat of breaking down.
It was an incredible challenge for Royce, but in his mind he had the image of a completely reliable car. To that end, he manufactured a “bumping machine” that was like driving a car over railroad tracks at 60 miles per hour. Parts broke, pieces fell off, frames bent, and rear axles gave way. As each weakness was revealed, Royce used his ingenuity to make corrections.
Finally, the day came when Royce’s car could run the equivalent of 250,000 miles without the failure of a single part. Royce had achieved his goal. The image he had formed of a reliable car became a reality.
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