stress-serenity prayer

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change; courage to the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.”- Serenity prayer

Understanding our own stress is very difficult but it is also very important. To know more about what is controllable and what is uncontrollable see the following table,
Think! What is your mild, moderate, and major stressor?



we have mild, moderate and major stressors in our life. some can be changeable some can not change. identify what is changeable and do it what is appropriate and necessary. identify what is unchangeable and learn to accept it. we can change our attitude and response to the event but we can not change our gender, parents etc..
think about it today
what is changeable?
what you are going to do
what is unchangeable?
learn to accept it

first step to manage stress

handle yourself, use your head, To handle others, use your heart."-anonymous

 

     Identifying your source of stress is the first step to prevent, control and manage stress. but it is very difiicult because stress in one area may reflect in the other area. for example your interpersonal conflict may affect your work performance, lack of sleep or illness cause poor concentation. the following worksheet may help you to identify your source of stress.

Do something to reduce or use stress

"Although the world is full of suffering...it is also full of overcoming it."-- Helen Keller

Stress is common to every one; however we differ in how we respond to our stressors. When we are under or over aroused we can not performing our task at our best. Peak performance is achieved when we are in a state of optimum arousal. In our every day situation, if we are in control of our thinking, feeling and action we can reduce the stress and increase our performance. We tend to think, feel and act in a consistent ways in accordance with our own beliefs and coping strategies. Most of us habitually react to our life events without much awareness. If we learn to think, feel and act in a helpful, flexible and realistic way we are not only reduce but also can gain something out of our stressful life events.

fig 1. Events, our appraisal and its outcome

fig 2. The link between thinking, feeling, action and its outcome

When a stress event occurs, first we have aware of our thoughts, feeling and actions. Next check it is it helpful to deal with the situation, and then we make a change if necessary. We are all differing in how we perceive, express and manage emotions. We need to understand and regulate our emotions so that they are most appropriate to the task or situation at hand. Different emotions create different information processing vice versa. Coping with our own thoughts and emotions help us to cope better.
chech your thinking, is it
Flexible or Rigid
Realistic or Unrealistic
Helpful or Unhelpful