Can You Really Manage Stress?

Stress. That horrible feeling we all know and get hit with periodically. Our doctors tell us to manage it with excercise etc. Our culture tells us it's just part of life. What is it really? Bottom line it means something is wrong. There is a misalignment with what is happening in our life and the way we perceive it, or want it to be.

Great, now what? What can we do about it? Good question, and there are a lot of different answers.

1. - We can do what our doctors say and "manage it". Excercise and relaxation techniques can help us manage the physical side of it, and minimize the damage to our bodies.

2. - We can move forward in a positive direction. If we are in a stressful situation (ie. working in a job you hate) take action that moves you toward something new (ie. a new job). Update your resume, take classes, volunteer in an area you think you'd like to work in. When we are taking positive action we feel better AND you can only find a new job if you are looking for one.

3. We can go to the root. Stress is elusive and nebulous. We can feel stressed and quickly point the finger at the thing that is obvious, or feels stressful in that moment. But when we take our time, examine our feelings, our life and our relationships, we often find a different root cause. When we work on the root cause, all of those other little things won't stress us out. When we solve the root cause we can bring a real peace into our life.

These steps may not be easy - but they are worth it. They can help bring you closer to the life you want to live. I encourage you to take your time, find the misalignment that is truly causing the stress and take steps to create a true alignment.