Forged Into Men

Stress is something dealt with daily and without a coping mechanism people become consumed by it.

When you break down stress into what it really is, you can look at it through a different lens. Stress isn’t the situation itself it’s the response you have to a situation. The same situation or thing can cause a small or large stress response based on two major factors:

1. Your prior experience with similar situations,
2. Your current capacity to handle what’s in front of you.

When you have prior experience with the situation that has been dropped on you, you instantly look back in time and reflect on how the situation went, remembering all of the negative aspects, the parts that hurt, overwhelmed you, or felt out of your control. This memory triggers your response to the situation, because you think you know how it will unfold.

Your current capacity to deal with the situation is related to the amount of time or energy you have to deal with it. You may have twenty stressful situations ahead of you and when a new situation arises you may instantly think about the list of things you already have to deal with.

Imagine if you could pause in time and look at the situation from another perspective, I have done this before and I choose to learn from my prior experience, and the fact that I have twenty things ahead of me doesn’t change the fact that this situation has to be done.

I have the power to use my experience from the past and deal with the situation with the wealth of knowledge I have, and to block out the other situations ahead.

Everyone tells you how important it is to live in the now, it’s easier said than done with the distractions of life. Everyone has experience with stressors, and can choose to use their past to help them with their current ones. When you use the power of now you will work that list ahead of you down giving you a greater capacity to deal with the stressors that arise in life.

When you use the power of now you will move through each task with more ease because of the knowledge you’ve gained, one moment at a time, instead of being overwhelmed by the whole picture. In doing so, you create the space and strength to meet life as it comes

“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” — Buddha

“It’s not stress that kills us, it’s our reaction to it.” — Hans Selye

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” — William James

“Just Do It.” — Nike

“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” — Henry Ford

“You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.” — Bob Marley

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” — Charles R. Swindoll

“It is not things themselves that disturb us, but our opinions about them.” — Epictetus

If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” — Lao Tzu

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” — Seneca