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

Stress Hardiness

“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.”

- Tao Tzu


Hardiness, or resistance to stress
three qualities that make you hardi. check it whether you have it.cultivate the following ingredients,


Commitment: People who are high in commitment are fully involved in what they are doing and they give it their best effort--best shot. They have a curiosity about whatever is happening to them versus feelings of alienation from people or the environment.

Control: People who feel that they can influence events and surroundings, who feel that they can make things happen. They a strong sense of self-efficacy and an internal locus of control versus feelings of powerlessness or feeling like a victim of circumstances.

Challenge: People who take on life as a challenge welcome new situations for the opportunities to learn, to grow, to develop on a personal level, rather than looking at everything new as a possible threat.

path to hardiness

ability to

understand
monitor
change
sustain
your thinking, feeling and acting to reach your desired, realistic goal.

Buddhist and modern perspective of stress

Buddhist perspective - stressful life

Four noble truth

I. Life is suffering
II. Suffering has a cause, the cause can be known
III. Suffering can be brought to an end
IV. The path to end suffering has eight parts
    1. right understanding
    2. right mindfulness which together are wisdom
    3. right speech
    4. right action
    5. right living which together are morality
    6. right effort
    7. right attentiveness
    8. right concentration which together are concentration
Stress coping - modern perspective
I. Stress is inevitable
II. Stress has a cause, the cause can be known
III. We can prevent, control and cope up with stress
IV. The way to cope up with stress
   1. knowledge –Wisdom, Self – awareness- know about one’s strength and weakness,                Knowledge about one’s own stress and coping  
   2. skills
           i. Critical thinking – clear thinking (minimum error and bias)
           ii. Problem solving & decision making
           iii. Communication – right speech
          iv. Interpersonal  
           v. Self – regulation
  3. objectives – values, plan, goal, purpose and meaning of your life
  4. practice – right living, practicing meditation, relaxation, exercise and diet etc
  5. social support – interdependence, giving receiving help
   we are going to learn these five areas one by one in the following posts.