A large number of people come to coaching
hoping to lose the gnaw of anxiety that they feel most of the time. I am coming to the opinion that it is unrealistic to expect to lose all sense of anxiety. This is an attendant part of being
human; we succeeded in the evolutionary stakes because we scan our environment
for possible threats. We are
constantly on guard. It’s how we
are made.
Now armed with a more realistic (and less
stressful) expectation, the question becomes how can we live more comfortably
with our anxiety, how can we feel less distress?
1. Underneath your anxiety there is a
little nagging voice Listen
carefully and you will hear it.
You can recognize it by the ‘should’ implied in every nag. You should
be spending more time with the kids, you should
be higher up the corporate ladder, this goes on endlessly for many of us. Recognise the voice and challenge it,
reassure it and ultimately turn a blind ear (sic).
2. Having made some more space in your
mind, fill it with more useful, less stressful thoughts. It may sound odd, but put yourself back
in the centre of your life. Ask
yourself, what is it that you want, you believe, you think, you value? Spend time rediscovering what is
important to you. Armed with greater
self-knowledge, and a stronger sense of who you are, it gradually becomes
easier to resist the auto-stress reaction when others try to crowd you with
their shoulds.
3. I know, I know, everyone is talking
about the value of meditation. It
seems that modern science is backing up ancient wisdom. Clearing the mind, calming the system
for a few minutes a day has profound beneficial effects on reducing automatic
stress reactions, and bringing them under your control. Sounds like it’s worth the time doesn’t
it?
Let me know your stress-busting
techniques. And get in touch if
you think coaching might be worth investigating.
Have a peaceful weekend.
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought
over another.“
William James
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