subject: A New Powerful Method To Help With Stress [print this page] Dealing with stress effectively involves managing a variety of symptoms, too many to address in a short article. But there is a common symptom most sufferers experience and it is the repeated brooding about situations that have occured in the past. I've recently found a way to address this with a new technique certain to be a big help with stress, anxiety and depression and we'll look at this right now.
Continually brooding over the past is a very harmful behaviour to perform. It involves the sufferer selecting and replaying just the bad times in their lives, times when mistakes were made, unhappy memories, and times went life went awry. It is imperative that you recognize how this damaging habit just creates a lose-lose outcome for sufferers.
When you're feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed, the desire to replay past experiences and adopting an "if only" perspective can be compelling. The first sign of this behavior involves you castigating yourself over something that you did, which you'll now believe firmly you should not have done, e.g.:
"If only I hadn't left my old job for this one. I really should've have stayed there, things would be much better, what a fool I am."
But you'll also blame yourself for things you didn't do that you believe you should have done, like this:
"I made a big mistake when I turned down the chance to buy that house instead of this one. I bet we'd have been happier there than we are here, I was a fool for not wanting it."
Such a hurtful behavior will only fuel stress, anxiety and depression and I hope you now understand how this works.
By selecting only negative experiences to brood over, you lose if you do and you lose if don't.
Amazingly, a lot of sufferers are able to rake over past misfortunes from way back in their lives, even going back fifteen, twenty or thirty odd years to castigate themselves for actions they did or did not perform.
Recently, I noticed that I was brooding over a sequence of unpleasant events from ten years ago and I found a way to deal with it that will be a big help with stress, anxiety and depression.
After catching myself negatively brooding about these events to a point where I became very upset, I looked at myself in the mirror and said:
"This has got to stop right now. What has happened has been and gone, it is water under the bridge and these events are not going to hurt me anymore."
Now that is a very empowering affirmation and it contains more than a grain of truth, however, I elaborated on this to really amplify the power:
"What a total bore-fest this is. I've had enough of this drivel, it's lasted way too long and from this day on, I'll not tolerate its mind-numbingly boring presence for a second more. I'm moving on to something new and exciting."
Should I ever feel compelled to go over situations from the past, situations that are only happening within my own mind, I now dismiss it with the contempt it deserves:
"Oh no, not that miserable bore-fest. I have no time for it, it holds nothing of interest whatsoever and I'm now doing far more enjoyable things."
It's proven to be very effective at stopping me from brooding on the past, do please give it a go and I have no doubt that it will be a big help with stress and stressful illnesses.
