Stress and Your Attitude

If you are faced with stress and your attitude is negative you probably aren’t helping yourself. When faced with a stressful event, people inevitably tend to think negative thoughts.

“I’ll never get this done.” “I can’t handle it.” “What if it goes wrong?”

Instead of focusing their energy and thoughts in one direction, stress puts us into fight or flight mode – a bit of a panic. That feeling makes us uneasy, unhappy, and we worry about the what ifs, I cannots, and other aspects that have negative connotations. Stress affects your attitude because you are put into that fight or flight mode; you are ready to escape and people get uncomfortable and irritable when they cannot.

A good way to counteract stress is to learn to change your attitude when a stressful event rears its ugly head. Doing so is difficult because it is much easier to let the way you feel control the way you think instead of forcing yourself to think positive thoughts when your body is tense, nervous, or you feel sick or have a headache. However, positive thoughts can help you turn those feelings around and help reduce the amount of stress you feel.

It will take time to train your mind into focusing on the good rather than the bad stress and your attitude will change over time. You should set your priorities, look at the stressor compared to the big picture of life (that can quickly make it seem smaller), and think in realistic terms. Sometimes a stressor can get blown out of proportion; don’t make mountains out of molehills, as is said. Other methods of stress relief like yoga and a stress-reducing hobby such as crafting or gardening can help improve your attitude and increase your ability to look at the stressor in a more positive manner.

Above all, remember that this is your life. You make the decisions and you can control how you feel. As such, you should control your stress instead of letting it control you.