{"id":214,"date":"2019-07-17T15:59:08","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T19:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=214"},"modified":"2019-07-17T15:59:08","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T19:59:08","slug":"use-stress-improve-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2019\/07\/use-stress-improve-life.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Stress to Improve Your Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When we listen to the news there\u2019s always a story about shortages.\u00a0 You\u2019ve heard the reports, jobs are in short supply, affordable housing is in short supply, safety, clean water, and even good men are hard to come by.\u00a0 But there is one thing that you\u2019ve never heard of being in short supply, and that is stress.\u00a0 There is an abundance of stress.\u00a0 It\u2019s everywhere.\u00a0 When your alarm clock goes off in the morning, you wake up to the traffic report, \u201cIt\u2019s a parking lot on 95.\u201d\u00a0 You get in the car, turn on your radio and hear that the Dow Jones is plummeting and the economy is in danger.\u00a0 The kids\u2019 school calls you at 10 am and you need to leave work. You arrived to work late due the traffic on 95, but now you\u2019re leaving early because of a child emergency.\u00a0 You\u2019re conflicted because job security is in short supply.\u00a0 Stress and the guarantee of more stress ranks up there with death and taxes; in other words, it\u2019s inevitable.<\/p>\n

I know that sounds like bad news, but I have always believed in using whatever shows up in my life to get what I want out of life.\u00a0 And because stress seems to be the one supply item that I never run short of, I decided that I would learn to use stress as a main ingredient in creating the life of my dreams.\u00a0 Resisting stress takes up too much of our valuable time (not to mention the fact that the act of resisting creates more stress).\u00a0 We are designed to be whole and complete.\u00a0 We get disturbed and anxious when we believe that a situation will rob us of our wholeness and leave us incomplete.\u00a0 Another way to say this is to say that we are designed to live at peace, the definition of peace being – wholeness, completeness, nothing missing, nothing broken, totality.\u00a0 Anything or anyone that we perceive as robbing us of our peace causes us stress.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t change the traffic, I can\u2019t change the Dow Jones, I can\u2019t predict the weather or the next inconvenient emergency that shows up in my day, but I can change my perception of everything.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t mean that I plaster a plastic smile on my face and deny the presence of these unwanted circumstances in my life.\u00a0 Good for you if you can do that and still be healthy, but I\u2019ve tried that, and it just led to suppressed emotions, which \u2013 you guessed it- led to more stress.\u00a0 About 15 years ago I changed my approach to stress, and it has made a world of difference.\u00a0 Two simple steps: first I acknowledge the presence of stress.\u00a0 I know that sounds silly, but too often we rush through the events in our life.\u00a0 We don\u2019t give ourselves time or permission to feel what we are feeling.\u00a0 It\u2019s so important to value self.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t mean that we give ourselves permission to waddle in our down emotions.\u00a0 No, instead we just acknowledge what we are feeling.\u00a0 Second, I utilize the power of words. When I catch myself becoming overwhelmed with an overcrammed schedule or the unrealistic demands on my time, I begin a process of self-talk that goes like this: \u201cDravon, you\u2019re having a whirlwind of a day, and you are becoming stressed. Stop and breathe.\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes I recite the items or events that are causing me to feel stress.\u00a0 Then I remind myself that I am important and that I will never finish all the work or meet everyone\u2019s expectation, and that\u2019s quite okay.\u00a0 Often throughout the day I remind myself that I am safe and that I am whole and complete.<\/p>\n

The more stress shows up in my life, the more opportunities I have for genuine self-love.\u00a0 When I take the time to love me, the residual effect is that I am more loving and compassionate with others.\u00a0 Voila! Stress has just had a paradoxical effect on my life, my family, my community, and possibly the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Article by Dr. Dravon James, founder of Everyday Peace, inspirational speaker, and author of Freedom is Your Birthright. Learn more at www.DrDravonJames.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we listen to the news there\u2019s always a story about shortages.\u00a0 You\u2019ve heard the reports, jobs are in short supply, affordable housing is in short supply, safety, clean water, and even good men are hard to come by.\u00a0 But there is one thing that you\u2019ve never heard of being in short supply, and that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[152,50],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stress","tag-self-love","tag-stress"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Use Stress to Improve Your Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Use Stress to Improve Your 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