Stress is a word that we use to describe our emotional state as it relates to work life, home life, traveling, making difficult decisions, financial instability or changes to almost any facet of our daily lives.
The medical dictionary defines stress as an organism's total response to environmental demands or pressures.
It goes on to describe stress results from interactions between people and their environment that are perceived as straining or exceeding their adaptive capacities and threatening their well-being.
Stress often results because of the way we view an outcome of a situation, whether we have succeeded or failed at our intended goal.
When we approach a situation and it turns out the way we wanted, we view it as a success. When we approach a situation and it turned out differently or the opposite of how we envisioned it, we consider it a failure.
For example if we have a project at work and we tell our boss it will take two hours to complete the project and it takes you one and a half days we might feel stressed about the fact we have not completed our task and our boss may evaluate us negatively for not completing our assignment. We deal with these types of failures small scale on a daily basis.
Because we as humans all have a tendency to rate ourselves on a success or failure scale it is always useful to find tools to help us change our perspectives about failure and stress.
Interestingly there is new research that has been released from the University of Kent that shows three effective coping strategies for dealing with failure thinking. They are positive reframing, acceptance of the situation and the use of humor.
The use of these strategies help people to deal with small setbacks and still feel a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day, thus reducing stress levels on a daily basis.
Positive reframing looks at revisiting or changing the viewpoint of our experience to find a positive outcome or more positive meaning for the situation in our lives. In other words, it lets us find something good that will help us in our situation.
Acceptance allows us to understand that the outcome of the situation has turned out exactly as the best outcome and we can move on to the next situation with no regret.
Humor allows us to find something laughable about the outcome and again release the outcome without attaching negative feelings.
Each of these strategies allow us to look at the outcomes in a way that allows us to still feel a sense of satisfaction about the outcome and move on to the next situation or day in a more positive, less stressed way.
The next time you feel stressed consider one of these strategies. It is good for your health.
Live Vibrantly,
Dr. Dae
Dr. Dae's website: www.healthydaes.com
Dr. Dae's book: Daelicious! Recipes for Vibrant Living can be purchased @ www.healthydaes.com
Dr. Dae's Bio:
“Dr. Dae" (pronounced Dr. Day) Daemon Jones is a Naturopathic Physician who treats the whole person using safe and effective combinations of traditional and natural methods to produce optimal health and well-being in the lives of her patients.
Sources:
"reframing - definition of reframing in the Medical dictionary - by the Free Online Medical Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.." Medical Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2012.
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/reframing
Whitbourne, Ph.D, Susan Krauss,. "How to deal best with failure and stress | Psychology Today." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2012.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201107/how-deal-best-failure-and-stress
"stress - definition of stress in the Medical dictionary - by the Free Online Medical Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.." Medical Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2012.
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/stress
Reviewed July 3, 2012
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith