Reframe Stress

Is not a state of mind, is a survival response

It will not go away

Stress will always be part of your life. It will not magically go away. But the truth is, you do not want it to go away. You need it to survive.

Now, before you dismiss this idea – IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS particularly when it comes to STRESS – I invite you to keep reading and understand why. Afterwards feel free to go to your bubble if you need to, but I’m pretty sure the shift I will propose will suit you better. If you aim for true results that is.

Stress is not a state of mind, is a survival response

Stress is a biological response of hormones caused by a situation or circumstance that your body perceives as a threat to your life. Its intended to give you ‘superpowers’ to survive any potential threat.It is supposed to goes as follow:

The Hypothalamus senses danger -> it signals the Adrenal Glands to release hormones to protect you TURN ON SUPERPOWERS ->   The body stops everything that is not important to survive (digestion for once) so you are able to run faster, punch harder, and have laser focus vision to survive the threat -> You Survive -> Hormones go back to the Regular Program also called Homeostasis.

Stress is not just a 2020 by product. Is not a mood like being happy, angry or sad. It is not new. It’s always been part of humans for centuries, a good part in fact.

Then, why it’s the root of all evil?

The problem is not that we experience it. The problem is we’ve re defined it in a way we cannot just run away from the threat. We must manually and mindfully turn it off. But to turn it off means to redefine priorities and we have forgotten that we can do so.

To survived in the past meant to run faster than a predator or attack something. But in today’s world we have redefine stress to be an equal response to an unfair boss, a mean comment, intense drama tv series (hard to distinguish it from the daily news lately, right?), injustice, heartbreak, failure, among others. We feel life threats by everything. What we eat, what we don’t eat, what we do, what we don’t do. This makes our body sense danger by just living. It’s constantly on.

Quick Stress Assessment Exercise

Think about it for a minute… let’s use work as reference.

Most people take pride in saying “I’m so stressed with my job – I put in so many hours and its never done”. Now instead of just accepting your job as legit life threat I invite you STOP the autopilot and the socially acceptable conduct to ponder:

• Why is my body sensing danger from it?

• Do I get scared my boss will not like my performance?

• Is it my workload?

• Is it an unsafe environment?

• Is it because I’m constantly angry or sad while working?

• What tasks make me anxious?

• What do I actually enjoy of my job?

Now, after all those questions and others that may pop up in your self-evaluation are answered, ask yourself, is this really a threat to my life or is it just unpleasant circumstances?

If the answer is that its unpleasant, then it’s time to manually turn it off. Your body cannot tell the difference between a lion or an unkind boss. You must deconstruct it, hack it and re-code it. Just know you can redefine your stress response to unpleasant moment different from real life threats. This will help greatly in taking off a big load of stress from living.

How to turn the survival response off

Is not news that if you live in constant stress your body goes into unhealthy, unstable, and dangerous territories. Weight gain, high blood pressure, lack of energy, and weakened immune system to name a few. So, it’s important to know how to turn it off, but remember you still need it there and working to help you survive life.

Its all about a balanced coexistence.

That journey starts by defining stress for you. Get to know the triggers for your Hypothalamus “Danger Sensors”– respect them, explore them and face them. It’s not always easy or mess free but it is the most efficient way to manage stress.

Stress Refraiming Shifts to Try

When your stress response is triggered do not override it and continue: EXPLORE IT

Allow the emotion to exist and write how you feel and why. Raw as they are. No filter. When you are calmed come back to them and read them with compassion.

Reframe stress from a cultural merited state to a body response to survival

Don’t just accept stress in your life, learn what is protecting you from.

Include more self-love activities in your agenda, normalize avoiding exposing yourself to unnecessary stress

Set boundaries with stressors and include some happy and joyful activities in your day.

Join the Conversation on Stress Management

Click here to listen to an honest and real conversation on Stress Management with Silvana from @SilvanaTalks.

---

From my journey to yours

It’s an opportunity for improvement

Stress in all its forms & types is a message from the body that we should not ignore. We should not fear it, but we should be able to understand it and manage. Be grateful the body is responding and working as it should.

I know is not the cup of tea or the most pleasant experience, but it is an opportunity to improve your physical and emotional state. We don’t want to get rid of it we just need to reframe it to use it in our favor.

Until Next One!

Stay happy, stay healthy, Stay BALANCED,